Ribbon walks in the Lake District

We as a family are visiting the Lake District to camp. Are there any walks that my 3 sons, age 22,20,18 can do that would include two nights camping along the way. They want to carry all there gear, tents, food etc, with them and be collected at the end. Preferably in the Helvelyn, Skiddaw or Scafell Pike areas?

Barry Sewell, Hebburn

A. The best thing to do is combine several circular walks to make one longer 'ribbon' walk. For example your sons could follow

c110 The Eskdale Skyline from Wha House Farm, Eskdale

up Sca Fell and Scafell Pike before following

c194 Scafell Pike from The Old Dungeon Ghyll, Great Langdale

down from Scafell Pike to Langdale. They could then follow

c281 The Langdale Pikes via North Rake from The New Dungeon Ghyll, Great Langdale

up The Langdale Pikes and then

c329 The Langdale Pikes and High Raise from Stonethwaite

over Ullscarf and down into Borrowdale.

There are countless other combinations they could do and the best way to choose which is best for you is by using our unique interactive Lake District walk maps:

- OS Explorer Map OL4 The English Lakes - North Western Area,

- OS Explorer Map OL5 The English Lakes - North Eastern Area,

- OS Explorer Map OL6 The English Lakes - South Western Area,

- OS Explorer Map OL7 The English Lakes - South Eastern Area

or Ordnance Survey Landranger Maps (pink cover):

- OS Landranger Map 89 West Cumbria,

- OS Landranger Map 90 Penrith & Keswick

- OS Landranger Map 96 Barrow-in-Furness & South Lakeland,

- OS Landranger Map 97 Kendal & Morecambe

NB. 1:25,000 scale Ordnance Survey Explorer Maps offer more detail and are therefore more suitable for walking and hiking than 1:50,000 Scale Ordnance Survey Landranger Maps

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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