 |
Camping in Wales?
Q. I'm planning on going hiking in wales for a long weekend and camp out in the open. Are there any laws on where I can and can't camp?
Willem Verhaak, Leatherhead
Click here to add an answer this question.
A. I believe that the strict answer to this is that you cannot camp anywhere without the permission of the relevant landowner. However, single night, high level camping, seems to be generally accepted. I have done this regularly for many years throughout Wales and have never once encountered any problem.
Of course, the very fact that you pitch camp late in the day and leave first thing in the morning in a relatively remote spot means that you encounter few other people anyway! It goes without saying that it should be a matter of pride for anyone wild camping that they should leave no trace whatsoever of their camp - a slight flattening of the grass is all that is acceptable!
David Hanson, Beaconsfield
Click here to add an answer this question.
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.
Hope this helps
Mike (Editor)
Click here to add an answer this question.
To contribute to go4awalk.com or to contact us about anything at all
- see Talk To Us. For help see Help.
NB. To see our navigational hills you must have the Macromedia Shockwave/Flash Player plug-in installed in your browser. This is free and comes as standard with later versions. If you have an early version browser - click here and follow Macromedia's installation instructions.
go4awalk.com and go4awalk.co.uk are registered trademarks of TMDH Limited.
Copyright © 2000-2009 TMDH Limited. All rights reserved.
Copyright | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Statement
Walks | Home | Log On / Accounts | Photo Gallery | Walk Ideas | Fell Facts | Places to Stay | Hill Skills | Walking Questions and Answers | Your Stories | News | Competitions | Gear Tests | Gear Guides | Gear Tips | Peaks and Mountains | Peak Bagging | Find New Walking Friends | Ordnance Survey Walking Maps | Camping | GPS Waypoints for Walking | Walk Search | go4awalk.com Help
