A right of way is a legal right for someone to pass over another person's land to reach a particular destination, such as a road, house, or field. It can be created expressly by deed, arise by long use (prescription), or be granted informally, and, once established, it usually binds future owners of the land it crosses.
A right of way is a type of easement: a legal right allowing a person, typically the owner of a neighbouring or nearby property, to cross land belonging to someone else in order to access a specific place, such as a public road, a dwelling, or a field. The land benefiting from the right is known as the dominant tenement, and the land burdened by it is the servient tenement.
Rights of way can be created in several ways in Ireland: expressly, by being set out in a deed of grant or a conveyance; by prescription, where a route has been used openly and continuously for a long period without permission; or, less commonly, by necessity, where a landlocked property would otherwise have no access at all. Each route to establishing a right of way has different evidential requirements.
Once validly created, a right of way generally 'runs with the land', meaning it continues to benefit and burden the land even when ownership changes, unless it is formally extinguished or abandoned. This is why it matters for buyers, developers, and anyone assessing a site: an existing right of way can affect how land can be used, fenced, or developed, and needs to be identified early.