In the UK, for a beach landing between high and low tide marks, the landowner would be the Crown Estates Commissioners. Has anyone ever asked, or been contacted for not asking?
Nope. But as with all access rights, the trick is to exercise them “responsibly” – i.e. try not to tear the arse out of it by flying noisy circuits or chopping up Sunday afternoon dog-walkers and their pooches.
It’s state matter → Landeshauptmann (Landesregierung)
Sounds like Germany, France and Austria have quite similar regulations in place. It’s just that due to population density and general attitude of the officials it is in practice a bit easier to get the required approvals in some countries as in others.
In Germany it is actually doable to get permission for a private helipad (which from a process POV is not substantially different from a landing strip). It’s just much harder to find a suitable piece of private land for a landing strip…
Indeed, I know several examples of private landing strips in Germany, but the bureaucracy seems to be still very high. And you need someone to be on-site when you want to land or take-off on your own strip. Depending on the kind of airfield approval, you need a Flugleiter or at least someone how can call emergency services, in case something happends.
Frans wrote:
And you need someone to be on-site when you want to land or take-off on your own strip.
The pilot is always on-site, and can contact authorities if/when there is a need (isn’t that how it works with cars?) 
Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
As Peter said in the initial post the UK has a “28 day rule” which relates to temporary change of use. So a farm field can be used as a runway; or a camp site or whatever for 28 days.
However if you use your “Curtilage” then this does not apply and you can operate 365 days. For most homes with significant land, only a small plot around the house itself is curtilage with the remainder being green field.
I’ve never heard of a curtilage so large you can squeeze in a runway, but you certainly can squeeze in a helipad!
That’s really interesting; I never knew that.
Development rights are generally much enhanced within the curtilage, hence planning officers really hate people trying to expand their curtilage (or curtilege) 
carlmeek wrote:
curtilage
Great! Now I know the English translation of the corresponding Swedish term (“tomt”). I’ve always wondered…
Curtilage… Never seen or heard heard the word before
I should perhaps add that there are several different “juridical” airfields in Norway. A private (personal) strip would typically, but not necessarily, be a “natural field”. This is a field where “insignificant” action is taken to make it usable for aircraft to land and depart. Typically this is a strip of grass/gravel, but it could also be a piece of a road, or some other suitable surface, be it tarmac, concrete, water, snow or whatever. In principle a decommissioned or old and disused airfield is a “natural field” for instance.
There are “private” and “public” fields. A private field is PPR, a public field is open for all traffic during opening hours.There are fields that require technical/operational approval (IFR and commercial operations). There are certified airports, typically airports who’s main use is CAT. There are “small” airfields, airfields approved for MTOW 5700 kg.
A private strip in the context of this thread is any stretch of land/water/ice/snow/ship (a “natural” field). If you can keep it below 12 movements per week, there is no approvals or bureaucracy of any kind. Going above 12 movements per week, and you need approval. It is still regarded as a natural field, but an application to the CAA has to be sent. They will prepare the application, and it will be sent on hearing to the local county administration. Most smaller (or larger for that matter) airfields used by clubs and GA are in fact of this category. The next step up would be a “small airfield”, MTOW 5700 kg and with a technical/operational approval. ENOP is such an airfield.
