CAMPING for beginners | Ep 01 | Is Wild Camping ILLEGAL in the UK ?

hi guys and welcome to episode 1 of wild camping for beginners so in this particular video I'm going to be discussing if and where you can legally camp in the UK I will go through the differences between private land and open access land and also I'll talk about some of the do's and don'ts of wild camping so hi there guys my name is Paul Messner and I make videos about camping backpacking and the gear that I use so I'm gonna be making a series of videos sharing some information and tips so hopefully they'll give you all the information that you need to know to start in our wild camping in the UK so I'll be covering subjects like where you can legally well camp in the UK there'll be a video on how to choose a tent for your backpacking trips and also videos about sleep systems cook kits and meals etc so if you would like to follow on this series please make sure you hit the subscribe button and then check that little Bell notification symbol and that way you'll be notified when the next video in the series comes out so let's crack on with this one shall we so almost all of the land in the UK is privately owned so that means you can't just pitch the old tent anywhere but there is some good news there are loads of footpaths and trails all over the UK where you can hike and explore some beautiful locations and that can open opportunities for you to find somewhere to pitch your tent so the first thing I recommend you do is buy yourself an OS map for the area in which you want to explore I recommend that you get the Explorer series which has got a 1 to 25,000 scale as it shows a huge amount of detail for example it will tell you what is private land what is open access land the contours of the land and where you can find a water source etc it will also show all the public footpaths and trails it's a great place to start when trying to find a wild camping spot but this OS map will tell me everything about the environment that I want to explore it will show me what is private land which is white in color as you should be able to pick up here it will also show me which is open access land which is like a PG color with a darker peach border around the outside as you can see here here's the peachy land and there's the darker peach color around the border so this is open access land the OS map will also show me which is open access woodland which is like a lime green a yellow color and that again has a salmon peach border around the outside private woodland is a darker green and as you can see there that's a coniferous woodland from the little symbol of the trees footpaths and Bridal ways are designated with green dashes every OS Mac comes with a key so as you can see here footpath Bridal ways byways etc all shown with some type of green - but all these can be walked on so what's the difference between private land and open access land or private land you must stick to the footpath so private land as we've already discussed shown in white you must stick to the footpath you're not allowed to deviate from this green track so you can't just have a wander over and have a look or an explore however in England and Wales with open access land it's a totally different ballgame so open access land allows you to exercise your right to roam the land on foot so this means that you don't have to stick to the footpath like you have to when you're on private land so as you can see on this open access land here which is the peachy color as a footpath upon him right through the middle which you can't stick to if you want but you've also got the right to roam if you want to so that means you can have a wander over here and see what really windy hills all about but without being said most of this open access land is still privately owned so you should really be seeking permission before you decide to pitch it in so you could go down the route of seeking permission to camp on the land that way you'd need to find out who actually owns it so that could either be an individual or a trust like the National Trust or the Forestry Commission or something like that so the majority of time when you see people wild camping they're usually in national parks like the Lake District or the Brecon Beacons in those places there are vast amounts of open access lands for you to explore so some of this local access land is subject to local bylaws so that means that swimming areas in England and Wales are tolerant to wild camping yet in others it's strictly prohibited so you can do a little bit of searching online to find out where some of these bylaws apply and some of the larger bodies that own land like the National Trust they will put the bylaws on their website somewhere so you can find out exactly what you can and can't do on the land so here's an example of the Lake District as you can see from the peachy color a huge amounts of Oh in excess land there's no way near anybody's house or anything like that so does that mean that you can legally camp there so although many people including myself do well camp in the Lake District it's not technically legal it is however tolerated because the people that camp there are generally respectful of the land and it's usually part of a long hike so therefore you do need time in between these long hikes to recoup have something to eat and rebuild your energy supplies so if a hike takes several days you're going to need to rest in between each day so a lot of people backpackers they take a tent and they stop them recuperate so they pitch their tent late at night get up early in the morning and no one ever knows they've been there so although it's not technically legal to come to the lake this week their official website does actually promote it I will put a link to this in the description below they suggest that while camping will make for an unforgettable stay in the National Park however as you can see there are some wild camping etiquette do's and dont's which include camping above the highest fell wall well away from towns and villages leaving no litter you only stay for one night and there's absolutely no fires it's basically common sense and looking after the environment and making sure you follow the Leave No Trace policy as expected there is a disclaimer about seeking the landowners permission but I've never done that and have no problems whatsoever when while camping in the UK so here's a really good example of a very popular place for wild campers in the Lake District as you can see here angleton surrounded by vast amount of open access land there's parking not too far away and a great footpath which can get you up to your location another thing you can do is a quick google of the location and open maps and the bottom left-hand corner you can see a little photo if you click on that it opens a 360 view where you can see all the scenery and potential places to pitch it in you don't have these for every location but it's well worth checking out as you can see they are quite tolerant of while camping in the Lake District as long as you're here up high and you above the highest fell wall and you causing no issues or problems for anybody else shouldn't have any issues at all but that being said none of the other national parks in England and Wales promote wild camping at all unless you first seek permission from the landowner the national parks website does have some very good information of places for camping but none of them are really relating to wild camping but there still are some beautiful places where you can pitch it in so although it's not technically legal I've never had any problems while camping in the Brecon Beacons or in the Peak District when pitching up on open access land I do however always pitch my tent late I leave early in the morning and I'll leave no trace that I've been there whatsoever so so far we've not found anywhere where you can technically wild camp and it'd be legal however there is an exception and that's Dartmoor so most of Dartmoor is made up of common land so if you wanted to you could graze your sheep there but it also has an old bylaw which means you are allowed to wild camp under certain circumstances so these conditions are that you're not camping out of a vehicle and you must pitch your beliefs 200 metres from a road or a footpath so you well out of the way from everybody else and also if you need to use the toilet you must bury your waste I think it's at least a hundred feet away from you camp away from a water source and you must take away your toilet paper with you you're not allowed to just bury that in the ground one thing that you must be wary of though is that in Dartmoor the military do lots of exercises and testing in certain areas so make sure that you do your homework and you don't pitch your tent in the middle of a shooting range so look out for the warning signs make sure you do your homework and find out where the military do their testing other than that you're pretty much free to roam all of Dartmoor picture tent where you like and that also counts for multiple days so far we've discussed England and Wales when it comes to the legalities of wild camping Northern Ireland's pretty much the same all of that land is privately owned too although while camping is tolerated in some of the uplands there again just check your bylaws or be sensible when it comes to finding somewhere to PG 10 so now let's talk about those lucky guys and girls in Scotland shall we while camping in Scotland is a totally different ballgame so Scotland's got some of the most liberal land access laws in the whole of the British Isles so this means you've got much more freedom to explore some of the beautiful scenery and countryside that it has to offer it has some of the highest mountains in the UK many fabulous locks vast areas of wilderness so why does that make Scotland in the wild campers dream well the land reform act of 2003 in Scotland allows people to access nearly all of the land in the country and that also includes wild camping obviously these laws do come with some restrictions for example I couldn't just pitch my tent and somebody's back garden because I would be invading their privacy so you're also not allowed to cause damage to the land in any way an example of this is that I couldn't destroy a farmer's crop just to make sure I got a nice flat pitch from a tent so the laws are based around common sense really I couldn't just pitch you up on the front garden of Balmoral or on the 18th of Gleneagles so in Scotland as long as you're not invading anybody's privacy or causing any damage you can basically come where you like and there's a huge amount of stunning wilderness up in Scotland and in the highlands to explore there are still one or two exceptions in Scotland for example in Loch Lomond there's certain times of the year where you're not allowed to camp along a certain stretch a few years back because of the liberal laws and the easy access a lot of Loch Lomond was getting trashed by people that were chucking the beer cans light and fires that kind of thing so they've put a ban on it at certain times a year so make sure you check before you go because you can define if you are caught while camping in these prohibited areas during these times of the year all right let's head back down to England and Wales so what if you want to go camping and you don't know what the local bylaws are and you want to know if you're going to be arrested or prosecuted if you caught wild camping so the obvious thing to do is reduce your chances of anybody even knowing you were there so by choosing the right location the chances of somebody asking you to leave are going to be drastically reduced if you're stupid enough to ten on the front lawn of Chatsworth house and someone's going to ask you to shift your ass however if you decide to pitch you up on kinder scout well away from the footpath the chances of someone coming across yeah I'm gonna be virtually nil secondly once you pitch that we tend enjoy the peace and quiet don't have a party don't start lighting fires and having the music full blast and there's no need to have a 3,000 lumen torch that's going to turn you into a lighthouse people will be able to see you from miles away but what if you've been quiet pitch discreetly and someone still comes across here and ask you to leave what offense have you actually committed well the actual offense that you are committing comes under the trespass laws trespass is normally covered under civil law so passing policeman is not going to suddenly with piece and cross out and arrest you so generally speaking trespass isn't a criminal offence unless some statutory provision makes it so so this would be something like causing damage to land or threatening or abusing the landowner so in reality the worst case scenario would be the landowner would ask you to leave so in all my time of wild camping I've never been approached by any landowner or asked to leave but never say never if I was ever to be approached by a landowner I was first trying to go she ate in I'd be very polite and say members are sorry I didn't know that I wasn't allowed to camp here I'm just taking a few photographs of the sunset and the sunrise and would it be okay if I left early in the morning and left no trace I would emphasize the fact that I will leave no trace whatsoever caused no nuisance or damage and I would leave at first light in the morning but if the landowner was quite adamant I had to leave straightaway I will respect his wishes and politely pack up and go home so once the landowner has asked you to leave he could pursue you if he wanted to in a civil court for damages but that would be extremely unlikely he or she would only be awarded damages if he'd actually cause damage or if you were in breach of the peace so as long as you behave yourself cause no damage no argument with the landowner you'll have no problem whatsoever so I'll quickly summarize everything that I've discussed while camping in England Wales Northern Ireland is not technically legal unless you're in Dartmoor the access laws in Scotland are much more liberal and you can virtually pick you turn anywhere as long as you're not invading anybody's privacy or causing damage many areas in the UK will tolerate well camping as long as you pitch your tent high above the highest fell wall you pitch late in the evening and leave early in the morning and leave no trace whatsoever as long as you're discreet you should have no problems at all wild camping in the UK that being said don't take my word for it do a little bit of your own research and make your own risk assessment but as you've seen from some of my videos I've enjoyed some beautiful countryside and pitched up with some stunning views I hope you found this video useful in the next video in the series I'm going to be looking at how to choose a backpacking tent so make sure that you subscribe hit that little Bell icon and that way you'll get a notification as soon as the next video is released if you've got any questions at all or you think there's anything that I've missed please let me know in the comments below and I'll try and answer as many as possible until the next time I'll see you in the next video thanks for watching you

Channel: Paul Messner

Views: 451,962

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Keywords: paul messner, camping, camping tips, camping for beginners, wild camping, backpacking, wild camping uk, hiking, camping gear, wild camp, outdoors, backpacking gear, wild camping gear, adventure, is wild camping legal, travel vlog, tent, wildcamping, camp, gopro hero 7, Lanshan 1, camping hacks, tips for camping, how to, tips, wild camping in the uk

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Length: 15min 6sec (906 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 21 2019