What is 'wildcamping'?

[Gulfalan67]

Ladies and gents

As a newcomer to this forum i notice people talking about 'wildcamping' a lot.

I looked it up on google and it said camping away from campsites. Are there restrictions on setting up camp in UK and are those actively enforced? Is most bush land over there private land or crown land, and how do those different tenures effect your right to travel/camp overnight...

Just curious...If theres a good weekend website or thread explaining all this stuff just send me a link.

Thanks

Alan

 

[Ystranc]

It very much depends Alan, the problem is that everything belongs to someone in Britain and land is at a premium, recently there has been a growing movement away from official camp sites in favour of some wild unspoiled piece of countryside. Unfortunately the effect this has had is that a lot of pieces of countryside have been spoiled by the very people who went there to enjoy them.
If a wild camper leaves no trace of them ever being there then it is hard to fault them but these days that isn't always the case.

 

[G1ZmO]

In Scotland we have the 'right to roam' and are allowed to wander and camp where we like with some exceptions. e.g. peoples gardens, arable fields, private parklands, etc.
There are other restrictions like only being allowed to camp for 3 days in one spot and in the last few years there have been restrictions placed around some of the lochs in the central belt which mean that you have to pay a small nightly fee to camp on a nominated 'wild camp' spot between March and October (as far as I remember) basically because idiots have been messing up scenic areas as Ystranc mentioned.

NatureScot

Connecting People and Nature in Scotland

www.outdooraccess-scotland.scot