Wild Camping in the Lake District

Q. I am seeking your professional guidance please.

My 16 years old son and I are keen on wild camping in scenic countryside. We are both reasonably experienced ramblers, I'm ex-military and my son is an Air Cadets of 3 years.

We've done various hill and ridge walks in N & S Wales together, and now we fancy a change of scenery. The Lake District appeals to me because neither of us has visited that region before.

Ideally we would like to do a circular walk so we can wild camp half way round. I was lost for choice after surveying the suggested routes in your 'Best walks in the Lake District'.

Could you suggest one, or a combination of routes from your database? The intended visit would be at the end of August, early September.

Also, I was intending to drive there, so suggestions on where I could leave the car would also be helpful. During our Wales excursions we were typically on the hills for about 10 hours before we camped down.

Look forward to hearing from you,

Colin Pearson, Chelmsford

A. To be honest we generally deal with single day circular walks more than back packing trips.

There is already a fair bit of info here about wild camping (below) that you might want to look at - particularly the legal aspect.

Having said that - if you are looking for quiet solitude I would avoid trying to wild camp in the Lake District in August because it gets so busy - particularly when the weather is good.

Actually it is really busy most of the time - but particularly so in August.

An alternative option would be the North Pennines or Northumbria (but not as pretty) - or better still The Ben Nevis or Cairngorm regions of Scotland.

Most Scottish land owners actually encourage wild camping which makes things so much easier.

Hope this helps.

Mike (Editor)

A. 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. However, there are exceptions. Since March 2011 you are not permitted to wild camp between Dryman and Rowardennan on the shore of Loch Lomond. See Loch Lomond Wild Camping Ban for more information.

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

For a few (tongue in cheek) tips on wild camping see Some Wild Camping Tips.

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)

Add your answer to THIS question | Ask a NEW walking and hiking question

Return to the main list of Walking and Hiking Questions

Search for an existing Walking and Hiking Question or Answer