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Wild Camping in the UK

Q. Is there anywhere that my son and I can roam and pitch a tent freely in the open air, or does the law prohibit this?

Yours

Andrew Pettey, Wolverhampton

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A. See Wild Camping (left)

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A. The legal situation is different in Scotland than it is in England and Wales.

In England and Wales, there is no legal right to camp wild and, strictly speaking, permission should be sought. This is, however, impractical.

However, in high mountain areas, and in most other hill land, wild camping is generally accepted above the intake walls, providing it is for a limited time and its fairly discreet - out of sight of houses/farms.

There's always a slim chance that you'd be asked to move on, though its never happened to me.

In the Peak District, wild camping is discouraged in some areas and banned completely if the moors are very dry.

The best areas in England and Wales are probably the Lake District and Snowdonia - and you're likely to meet several other wild campers - and very little chance of any hassle.

In Scotland, the current access legislation - just come into effect (early 2005) - is explicit about people's right to camp wild on hill land - usually more than 100 metres away from a public road - although you'd want to be much further away than that!

Check out the Mar Estate near Braemar - they actually seem to encourage wild camping.

Mike Knipe, Crook

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A. The exception to the rule in England is Dartmoor.

The right to wild camping is actually enshrined in the National Parks & Access to the Countryside Act, 1949 amendment Dartmoor Commons Act, 1985.

Article 6 states:

6 Camping

(1) No person shall knowingly use any vehicle, including a caravan or any structure other than a tent for the purpose of camping on the access land or land set out for the use or parking of vehicles except on any area which may be set apart and indicated by notice as a place where such camping is permitted.

(2) No person shall knowingly erect a tent on the access land for the purpose of camping:

(a) in any area listed in Schedule 2 to these byelaws;

(b) within 100 metres of any public road or in any enclosure.

(3) No person shall camp in a tent on the same site on the access land for more than two consecutive nights, except on any area which may be set apart and indicated by notice as a place where such camping is permitted.

Basically put, you can camp anywhere as long as you are compliant with the above.

James

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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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Wild Camping in the UK