Campsite near Pen y Fan in the Brecon Beacons

Q. Does anyone know a camp site/farm with basic facilities near to Pen y Fan in the Brecon Beacons.

I am taking my two daughters away for the weekend, their partners and my step son, my step son is 15 but my children are adults.

I would love a pitch near a river with the option of a fire.

Going in three weeks so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Nigel Moore, Southampton

A. I don't know when this question was posted but my 12yo Son & I walked the "fan" beginning of Aug 2010. We camped at Priory Mill Farm, Brecon. A very nice site though limited in pitches. Very friendly & picturesque. A small river runs past the site. It's a 5 -10 min walk from town & they allow open fires but only in their fire baskets.

Dave Ward, Peterborough

A. For a wide choice of walking routes up Pen y Fan, the highest mountain in The Brecon Beacons see Walk Pen y Fan

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)

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