Re-proofing an Ultimate Tent

Q. I have a wonderful single-person green (light buff-yellow inner) Ultimate tent (has inverted 'V' poles at front and single vertical pole at back, flysheet and inner (with built in but very thin groundsheet). Having not used it for years it's been brought out of hiding and indeed put through some paces in wild iceland! It has revealed the need for a little reproofing but was generally beautifully behaved. I had reproofed it decades ago with.. I think.. fabsil proofer but it may have been with technics proofer for 'pu-nylon'. It was also subject to intense sunlight in Greece those long days ago and is somewhat faded.

*It's quite hard to pitch it so that the inner does not touch the outer at the top 1/3rd of its length.. I'd be interested in any tips on this.

It became a bit 'crinkly - sounding' after that proofing and I think was not used since: and retains creases a bit more but otherwise as mentioned, it's shown itself to be in pretty good nick on its recent adventure.

*The question is: does anyone know what it's made of and whether the Grangers Fabsil (says for cotton, nylon, terylene and leather) which I have a large part-used can of) would be likely to be ok on the tent for reproofing? Sadly I never kept a note of what I used the first time...

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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