Is wild camping legal in the UK?

This is one of the most misunderstood questions in British outdoor life, largely because Scotland's position is genuinely different from England's and people generalise from one to the other. The law is not complicated once separated by nation.

Safety

Step by step

1. Scotland: understand the access rights and their limits.The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 created a statutory right of responsible access over most land and inland water, and that right includes lightweight camping. It applies to most unenclosed land — hills, moors, forests, riversides and lochsides — and it does not apply to enclosed fields with crops or livestock, gardens and the immediate surroundings of buildings, school grounds, building sites or quarries.
2. Scotland: follow the Scottish Outdoor Access Code, because the right depends on it.Camp in small numbers, for a night or two in one place, well away from roads and buildings, take all litter away, use a stove rather than a fire, and deal with human waste properly. Camping from a vehicle at the roadside is not covered by access rights — that is a different activity, often controlled by local byelaws.
3. Scotland: check for camping management byelaws.Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park operates camping management zones where camping is prohibited without a permit during a defined season. Other areas have local restrictions. Check the relevant park or council website for the season you are travelling in.
4. England and Wales: know that there is no general right.Public rights of way give you the right to pass and repass, not to stop and camp. CROW open access land gives a right of access on foot and specifically excludes camping. Pitching a tent without the landowner's permission is trespass — a civil matter in most cases, and the landowner may require you to leave.
5. England: know the Dartmoor exception.Dartmoor is the one place in England with a specific statutory right to backpack camp on certain commons, confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2023. The Dartmoor National Park Authority publishes a map showing exactly where it applies and the conditions attached, which include small tents, short stays and no vehicles. Check the current map before relying on it.
6. England and Wales: ask, because permission is often given.Farmers, estates and landowners frequently say yes to a single small tent for one night, arriving late and leaving early, if asked politely. In upland areas this is genuinely common. It also converts a legally awkward situation into a welcome one.
7. Northern Ireland: assume permission is needed.Northern Ireland has very limited public access rights and wild camping is by permission of the landowner. Forest Service, National Trust and council sites provide most of the legitimate options.
8. Consider the intermediate options everywhere.Bothies — open shelters maintained largely by the Mountain Bothies Association in Scotland, northern England and Wales — are free to use, and have their own code: small groups, leave it clean, do not treat one as a base for a week. Small campsites, certificated sites and 'nearly wild' campsites offer a pitch, a tap and permission for a few pounds.
9. Camp the way that keeps it tolerated.Arrive late, leave early, one or two tents, out of sight of roads, houses and paths. No fires. Take every scrap of rubbish. Leave the pitch so that nobody can tell you were there. Almost every restriction that exists was introduced because of people who did the opposite.
10. Deal with human waste properly.At least 30 metres from water, a hole dug at least 15 centimetres deep with a trowel, everything buried, and all paper and hygiene products carried out in a bag. On high, thin, rocky ground where a hole is impossible, carry it out.
11. Check separately for vehicles.Sleeping in a campervan at a roadside or in a car park is governed by local byelaws, traffic regulation orders and landowner rules, not by access rights, and it is prohibited in many popular areas. Look for the signs and use an approved aire or site.

Tips

• Wild camping high is more likely to be undisturbed and less likely to bother anyone than wild camping by a road or a beauty spot.
• Water sources: camp near one, not on it. Camping right beside a small loch or stream damages the bank and contaminates the water others take from.
• A stove rather than a fire is not just a rule — peat and dry moorland catch fire readily, and moorland fires are extremely destructive.
• If someone asks you to move, move, politely. The reputation of wild camping in England and Wales is the whole reason permission is ever granted.
• In midge season in Scotland, camping high and in a breeze, and carrying a head net, is the difference between a good night and a memorably bad one.

Common mistakes

• Assuming Scottish rules apply throughout the UK — They are a different statutory system. What is lawful on a Scottish hillside is trespass on an English one outside Dartmoor's commons.
• Treating open access land in England and Wales as camping land — CROW access is a right of access on foot and it specifically excludes camping. The right to be there in the day does not extend to the night.
• Leaving a fire ring, a tent, or rubbish behind — Abandoned tents and fire scars after busy weekends are precisely what produced camping byelaws and permit schemes. Every trace left costs everyone access.

Questions people ask