Survival Skills in the Scottish Highlands

Are there any places in the Highlands where I can keep my survival skills up to date, die: shelter and fire making. I do not wish to attend a course as I spent twelve years in the forces where I completed my UEL and arctic survival courses. Are there any approachable land owners?

Barry Sewell, Hebburn

A. I doubt if most landowners would agree to you cutting wood to build shelters or lighting fires in their woodland/forest or on their moors/hills. I feel that they're unlikely to agree to you killing wildlife or fish for food as this is where they get the majority of their income. You might be OK with vermin species such as rabbits and rats. Its illegal to kill birds other than game birds and estates would be unlikely to let you do this. You can camp in a tent or a tarp/bivi bag and use a stove to cook, but I suspect that this isnt what you want to do.

Mike Knipe, Crook

A. Sounds like you already have a pretty good handle on this - but I would have thought virtually anywhere away from inhabited areas would suit. I have spent quite a bit of time walking on the Cairngorm Plateau and this area would seem ideal for your purposes. Unlike England and Wales, Scotland positively welcomes wild camping.

For more information see the definitive answer (with respect to wild camping in Scotland) supplied by Scottish Natural Heritage

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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