One of the pleasures of wild camping is the chance to sleep under the stars in a beautifully remote location. However, there are several things to consider before packing your tent and heading for the hills. Is wild camping actually legal? Do you need the landowner’s permission? And what guidelines should you follow?
Firstly, it’s important to be clear about what is meant by ‘wild camping’. At its simplest, it means camping outside of an official campsite, usually in a remote, natural location. For most hillwalkers and mountaineers, it’s understood as a fleeting and discreet overnight stay far from roads and settlements – typically high on the hills, well away from towns and villages, travelling light with a small shelter, and disappearing the next morning leaving little more than a faint impression on the grass.
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Wild camping in the Lake District
Wild camping is technically not permitted anywhere in the Lake District without the landowner’s permission. In England and Wales, the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (the CRoW Act) grants the public a right of access on foot to land mapped as mountain, moor, heath, and down, collectively defined as ‘Open Access land’. However, if you wish to camp on this land, you are still legally required to seek the landowner’s consent – and since there are no complete, publicly accessible records of land ownership, this is rarely practical.
That said, much like in Scotland, there is a long tradition of camping in the hills, which many landowners – including the National Trust, the owner of much of the fellside in the Lake District – acknowledge. So while wild camping is technically a trespass, it is generally tolerated provided you act responsibly and follow the accepted guidelines.
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What are the guidelines?
A wild camping code of conduct has been produced by several organisations, including the National Trust and the Lake District National Park Authority. While the exact wording of these guidelines may differ, they all share the same aim: to ensure wild camping on private land remains tolerated. The code is designed to help campers minimise their impact on the landscape, wildlife, and local communities, and to make sure the tradition of wild camping can continue for future generations.
The rewards of wild camping high on the Lakeland fells are well worth the effort if you follow a few simple principles. What follows is my own take on the guidelines, shaped by the way I camp and the lessons I’ve learned. Some are straightforward, while others are a little more technical, but in the end it mostly comes down to common sense. After all, the more responsible you are, the more respect you’ll earn as a true wild camper.
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The guidelines
There is a long tradition of wild camping in the Lake District, but it’s important to recognise the difference between true wild camping and illegal fly camping. Please read these guidelines carefully to help you decide whether wild camping is right for you, or whether you’d be better suited to an established campsite.
“Respect the land, respect others, and leave nothing but a good memory behind. True wild campers leave no trace — great ones leave a good example.”
1. Leave no trace
The golden rule of wild camping is simple: leave no trace. Collect all your rubbish and take it with you to protect the environment and respect other visitors. Leave the site exactly as you found it – no burying litter, no moving rocks, no leaving holes, and no fire damage. Bag up and carry out everything, including food scraps, and take care not to damage trees or vegetation. Before leaving, walk the site slowly to make sure nothing has been missed. A wild camping spot should look untouched, as if you were never there at all. It’s also good practice to pick up any litter left behind by others.
2. Toilet duties
It is not acceptable to simply cover human waste with rocks. If you need to ‘go’, dig a shallow hole with a trowel at least 30 metres away from any water source, then cover the contents with turf. Human waste should always be buried, but sanitary items must be bagged up and carried out — never buried, as animals will dig them up. It’s equally important not to use substances such as shampoo, soap, or detergents in local water sources like becks, tarns, or lakes.
3. No fires
Open fires are strictly prohibited anywhere in the Lake District unless you have permission from the landowner. Even if there is evidence that fires were previously lit at a site, only camping stoves should be used to cook food, in order to protect the landscape. Unfortunately, fire pits are often found around lake shores and wooded areas, but the most dangerous location is an old slate quarry. A fire lit above a slate spoil heap, which can contain pockets of air and centuries of decaying vegetation, can spread quickly and smoulder for weeks, potentially destroying a historically important site.
4. Arrive late and leave early
Plan to reach your chosen location late in the day and leave early the next morning. This minimizes your impact on other people enjoying the beautiful landscape. In the summer, I typically pitch no earlier than 7 pm and leave by 8 am. During the long nights of mid-winter, I aim to arrive just before sunset, allowing enough time to set up safely and capture the sunset, then leave shortly after sunrise the following morning.
5. Stay one night and move on
Campers should avoid using a site as a ‘base camp’ while heading out for the hills, leaving tents pitched for several nights. This guideline helps prevent damage to the land, plants, and wildlife in a specific area. Tents are sometimes seen pitched during the day, especially around tarns and in wooded areas, which can detract from the natural beauty of the landscape for other visitors.
6. Only one or two tents
Keep group sizes small to reduce noise and light, and to minimise disturbance to wildlife and farm animals. At night, a group of head torches can be mistaken from a distance for flashing lights, and the increasing popularity of wild camping has led to a rise in emergency call-outs when lights are misinterpreted as distress signals. This wastes resources and can needlessly put lives at risk. Both the National Trust and the Lake District National Park Authority include this guideline on their websites, but unfortunately it is often ignored.
7. Camp high and out of sight
The terms “camp above the highest fell wall” or “above 400 metres” can be confusing in the Lake District, where walls often run over ridges and summits, and some enclosures are well below 400 metres. In general, you should camp above any valley intakes – the walls that separate pasture, farmland, and grazing land from open fell – staying well out of sight and away from towns, villages, and lake shores. Summit camping is acceptable as long as you pitch late, leave early, and move on if others are already there. “Out of sight” refers to being away from towns, villages, and farms, not necessarily from other walkers. I personally camp as high as possible and away from popular paths and tarns; by pitching late in the evening, I’m usually out of sight of anyone else on the fells.
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To conclude, here is a quote from National Trust ranger Roy Henderson, taken from an interview he gave while on a summit camp on Green Gable:
“We have people that are wild camping who are responsible; they put the tent up late, they take the tent down early, and leave no trace, and that’s really not a problem. Then we have the other people that are coming; they are fly-camping, and that is a real problem. They camp close to their cars, near roads and lake shores, leaving a lot of mess and lighting fires. There’s a big difference between what wild campers are doing and what fly-campers are doing. We have guidelines at the National Trust, and if you are following them — camping well above the fell wall, high on the fell, leaving no trace, and taking the tent down early — then we are happy with that.”
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Thanks, sources and further reading:
David Eardly of Fellmandave
‘The Wild Camping Code’ by Ben Weeks, Live for the Outdoors
‘Wild Camping’ by the Lake District Park Authority
‘Wild Camping in the Lake District’ by the National Trust