Wild Camping on private land

Q. You are wild camping with a group and have been approached by a landowner and asked to leave, what do you do?

Nigel Bond,

A. I own a piece of woodland which is my private land. I am also a wild camper and have been for over 40 years. So I can see things from both sides. On two occasions I have caught people camping on my land. The first time was a guy in his 30's I guess. He had a neat camp set-up and had a small pile of dead wood, clearly planning a small camp fire. I told him he was on private land and that camping wasn't allowed. He couldn't apologise enough, explaining he loved to watch wildlife and had only planned to overnight there. He seemed like a decent bloke so I let him do his overnighter. He left the place spotless. The second occasion was a group of five teenagers. They had lit a large fire at 4pm. One of them had an air rifle. On approaching them I got a load of verbals from one of them. Needless to say I kicked them out. They left making no attempt to put out the fire. There's a message here, apologise and be polite!

Jeremy Manning, Blackwood

A. Apologise profusely and next time seek out permission

Denise King, Buderim, Sunshine Coast

A. Well, rather obviously, you apologise for tresspassing on private land, quickly pack up all your gear and leave immediately, making sure you take out everything you brought in.

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)

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