Former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan has been given a police citation for straying off the path in Yellowstone National Park, records show.

A legal notice seen by The Independent, and first reported by CNN, chides the Mamma Mia! star for “foot travel in a thermal area” on 1 November 2023 in Wyoming.

It also alleges the petty offence of “violating closures and use limits”, ordering the Irish actor to appear in court at the Yellowstone Justice Center at 11am on 23 January next year.

The “thermal areas” refer to Yellowstone’s famous geysers, hot springs, gas vents, and other dangerous but fascinating phenomena borne of its location on top of a gigantic underground reserve of searing molten rock.

The park, which was the first ever established in the US, sits within a crater made by the massive Yellowstone Supervolcano around 600,000 years ago and includes roughly half of all known hydrothermal features in the world.

The National Park Service warns tourists to stay on boardwalks and trails lest they become one of the 20 people who have died from burns after taking a dip in or falling into one of Yellowstone’s hot springs.

“Boardwalks and trails protect you and delicate thermal formations. Water in hot springs can cause severe or fatal burns, and scalding water underlies most of the thin, breakable crust around hot springs,” the service says on its website.

Mr Brosnan, 70, was born in Drogheda in Ireland in 1953 and had his breakthrough as an actor with the British spy show Remington Steele in the 1980s, before being cast as James Bond beginning with 1995’s Goldeneye.

The Independent has contacted Brosnan’s representatives for comment.