A public inquiry into the disputed footpaths on the Langness peninsula starts today.

The paths became the focus of a bitter dispute between ramblers and Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson, after he diverted a section of the path around his house, to protect his privacy.

The inquiry was approved by Tynwald last December, after a delegation of MHKs sent to talk to both parties, failed to broker a compromise.

The inquiry, at Mount Murray in Santon, will be conducted by Roy Hickey, from the United Kingdom's Institution of Public Rights of Way.

It will rule on three important issues, as Transport Minister David Anderson explained:

"One is to hear evidence for and against the claims that public rights of way have been established on the Langness peninsular.

"Secondly, to determine where those ways, if any exist, run and how they may be used, and thirdly to make recommendations as to whether, in particular, the alleged rights of way may be presumed to have been dedicated as highways, under Section 88 of the Act.

"Basically it's to establish what rights have been accepted, over a period of time."