Kinder Scout was known as the "forbidden mountain"

It is also credited by many as leading to the creation of Britain's national parks.

Until 1932 the land around Kinder Scout, at the start of the Pennine Way, was controlled by its wealthy landowners.

A group of 400 walkers - growing increasingly angry at the class divide which effectively meant large parts of England's most beautiful countryside were out of bounds - decided to defy them.

They confronted a line of 30 gamekeepers on the 2,000-feet (600-metres) hill.

Apology

The duke, who owns Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, said he was "only too happy" to apologise as the ramblers "were entirely in the right".

He was met with loud applause as he expressed hope that his support for the Country and Rights of Way Act, passed in December 2000, had done something to "redeem that evil".

The act gives right of access to mountains, moorland, heathland and common land.

And environment minister Michael Meacher, who steered it through Parliament, told the rally it had opened up four million acres of "the poignant solitude of our most beautiful countryside" after a century of bitter conflict and restored the birthright of all walkers and ramblers across the country.

'Fight goes on'

But one of the rally organisers, Roly Smith, said more needed to be done.

Mr Smith, president of the North East Derbyshire and South Yorkshire Ramblers Association, said: "There is still a long way to go. The battle is not over yet.

"Even when the act goes through it will only encompass about 12% of the total land area of England and Wales.

"Since the outbreak of foot-and-mouth, the whole country realised how important walking and tourism was to the rural economy - probably it is equally as important as farming.

"The fight will go on."

We have to continue to push back the boundaries

Open Spaces Society director Kate Ashbrook

Open Spaces Society director Kate Ashbrook agreed.

"We have to continue to push back the boundaries.

"The act will show access works and does not endanger landowners' interests.

"They ignore us at their peril.

"We are good for the economy and their well-being."

Following the rally, chaired by former Ramblers' Association president, singer and comedian Mike Harding, walkers re-enacted the trespass on to the slopes of Kinder Scout, much of which is now owned by the National Trust.