Nearly wild camping

What is nearly wild camping?

Nearly wild camping is camping on a small, quiet site with few or no facilities, usually a field or a corner of woodland on a farm or estate, where you have the landowner's permission but little else. There might be a compost toilet and a tap, or nothing at all. There are no rows of pitches, no shop and no crowd.

It sits between a campsite and a wild camp. You get most of what makes a wild camp good (space, quiet, a night close to the land) with the one thing a wild camp in England usually lacks: permission to be there.

Why is nearly wild camping a good step before a wild camp?

It lets you practise everything a wild camp asks of you, somewhere you are allowed to be and where help isn't far away. You pitch your own tent, cook on your own stove, deal with your own rubbish and sleep without the noise of a campsite, but nobody will ask you to move on at 11pm.

For a first night alone, that removes the two things people worry about most: getting the kit wrong and being in the wrong place. If your mat turns out to be too thin or your stove won't light, you learn it on a site with a gate and a track, a few minutes from the car. By the time you wild camp somewhere it is allowed, such as the Dartmoor Commons or the Scottish hills, your kit and routine are already tested.

It also matters because in most of England and Wales there is no right to wild camp at all. In places like the Peak District, a small, quiet site is the honest way to get close to the experience.

How do you find nearly wild campsites?

Three kinds of site are worth looking for.

Membership networks

The Nearly Wild Camping Club is a members-only network of more than 300 private sites across the UK and Ireland, where landowners host a small number of campers with minimal facilities. Membership costs £24 a year, and you contact each landowner directly. Some sites take small campervans and hammocks as well as tents. Other small-site networks and booking platforms list quiet farm pitches too; read each site's description rather than trusting the category name.

Pop-up and seasonal sites

In England, a landowner can run a temporary campsite for up to 60 days a year, with up to 50 pitches, without planning permission, as long as there are toilets and waste facilities on site. Many farms use this rule to open a field for the summer. Some of these sites are busy, but others are small, simple and a short walk from open country.

Small farm campsites

Plenty of permanent campsites are just a field on a farm with a handful of pitches and basic facilities. National park authorities often list them: the Dartmoor National Park Authority, for example, suggests small farm campsites for anyone who wants a remote feel with basic facilities.

What should you check before booking?

Check the size, the facilities and the rules, because ‘nearly wild’ means different things on different sites.

• How many pitches? A site with five pitches feels very different from one with 50.
• What facilities? A compost toilet, a tap, or nothing? If there's no water, you need to carry it in.
• Fires? Some sites allow fires in a fire pit and many don't. Never light one unless the owner says you can, and never on open ground.
• Arrival and parking. How far is the pitch from where you leave the car, and can you arrive after dark?
• Dogs and children. Some small sites are adults only or have rules about dogs near livestock.
• Is it open? Seasonal sites open and close through the year.

What kit do you need for nearly wild camping?

The same kit as for a wild camp, because that is the point. Take everything you would carry on a wild camp and use it as if the facilities weren't there:

• A one man tent or a 2 man tent you can pitch on your own.
• A sleeping bag rated for the coldest night you expect, and a mat with an R-value of about 3 or more.
• A stove, pot and fuel, so you cook your own hot meal and a morning drink.
• A head torch, a trowel, a rubbish bag and a way to carry water.

The First Solo Night Kit puts the tent, sleeping bag, mat and head torch together for exactly this kind of first night.

How do you plan a first night on a nearly wild site?

Treat it as a rehearsal. Pack as if for a wild camp, arrive with at least two hours of daylight, and pitch before you do anything else.

1. Choose a site within easy reach of home for your first night, so you can leave if something goes wrong.
2. Tell one person where you are going and when you'll be back.
3. Pitch in daylight, with the narrow end of the tent into the wind.
4. Cook, eat and sort your kit before dark, so you know where everything is.
5. In the morning, pack up and check the ground: the grass should look as it did when you arrived.

Afterwards, note what you'd change: the item you didn't need, the one you wished you had, and how warm you slept. That list is the most useful kit advice you'll ever get, because it's yours.

What comes after nearly wild camping?

A wild camp, somewhere it's allowed. That means the Dartmoor Commons in England, most unenclosed land in Scotland, or, with care, above the highest fell wall in the Lake District, where it is tolerated for one night. Our Where to Camp pages explain the rules for each place, and our guide to wild camping in the UK covers the law and how to do it well.

Questions people ask

Is nearly wild camping the same as wild camping?

No. Nearly wild camping is on a site where the landowner has agreed to have you, usually with a toilet or a tap. Wild camping is camping outside a campsite, which in most of England, Wales and Northern Ireland needs the landowner's permission anyway.

Is nearly wild camping legal?

Yes. You are camping with the landowner's permission, which is legal anywhere in the UK.

Can I have a campfire on a nearly wild site?

Only if the landowner allows it, and only where they tell you to. Many small sites ban fires, and a stove is always the safer choice.

Is nearly wild camping good for a first solo camp?

Yes. It's one of the best ways to try a night alone, because you are somewhere you are allowed to be, with more quiet than a busy campsite and help not far away.