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Camping Laws on the Isle of Man

Q. Are there any laws to prevent you camping on beaches on the Isle of Man?

Also if pubs are phoned are they likely to let you camp in their gardens if they have one?

There are no campsites in the South or very North of the Island which is making doing the coastal path difficult.

Louise Hallsworth, Sheffield

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A. Free camping is available in Sulby on Yn Cladagh (The River Meadow) with 2 great pubs nearby - The Sulby Glen and The Ginger.

Also camping is available at Kirk Michael.

Peter Bradley, Liverpool

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A. The Isle of Man is not part of the United Kingdom. It is not England, Scotland, Ireland, or Wales. Therefore, to quote the law, or regulations, which apply to the UK does not really answer the question. I would imagine if you are in a reasonably remote area of the Island (though it is very small), and avoid obvious cultivated farm land, pitch late, and leave very early (leaving it clean) then you would probably be OK. There is no harm in asking at a farm - they can only say no. Well, I am gong to try it this summer.

Ray Newton, London

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NB. Wild Camping and The Law in England, Scotland and Wales.

Tents cannot be pitched just anywhere because every piece of Britain is owned by some individual or some organisation and according to the strict letter of the law permission must be obtained prior to pitching tent and camping.

In practice however, this is often impractical and wild camping is usually tolerated in the more remote areas - typically, more than half a day's walk from an official campsite or other accommodation providing you:

Keep groups small
Camp as unobtrusively as possible
Leave camp as you found it
Remove all litter (even other people's)
Carry out everything you carried in
Carry out tampons and sanitary towels (burying them doesn't work as animals dig them up again)
Choose a dry pitch rather than digging drainage ditches around a tent or moving boulders
Toilet duties should be performed 30m (100ft) from water and the results buried using a trowel
At all time, help preserve the environment
And if you are in any doubt about what you're doing, find out more

In Scotland, the current access legislation (which came into effect in early 2005) is explicit about your right to wild camp on hill land.

There appears to be an exception to this with respect to camping in Dartmoor National Park where the right to wild camping is actually enshrined in the National Parks & Access to the Countryside Act, 1949 amendment Dartmoor Commons Act, 1985 - see Wild Camping in the UK for more details.

For the definitive answer with respect to wild camping in Scotland see the answer supplied by the Scottish Natural Heritage

NB. go4awalk.com cannot offer any advice on suitable locations for wild camping - but click here for walks from exisiting campsites.

Hope this helps

Mike (Editor)

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Camping Laws on the Isle of Man