GREG DICKINSON INSIDE TRAVEL

It’s unlawful, but I’ll keep doing it – why it’s time to legalise wild camping and help the nation come to love nature rather than fear it

Idid something illegal the other day. I hopped on a train out of London with a tent strapped to my backpack, found a secluded spot within the South Downs, put up the tent and slept in it. At the crack of dawn the following morning I made a cup of coffee on a camping stove, folded the tent away and then wandered back to civilisation.

Before you judge me, you’ve probably taken the law into your own hands too. If you’ve parked with a wheel on the curb or moved house without immediately telling the DVLA, then welcome to the club, fellow outlaw.

For, strictly speaking, you must gain permission from the landowner before you camp anywhere in England, Wales or Northern Ireland. Ignoring this is not a criminal offence, so you won’t face a fine or a court summons if you are caught kipping under canvas. But because you are trespassing, you must move on if you are asked to do so.

There are some exceptions to the rule. You can legally wild camp in parts of Dartmoor thanks to a 1985 bylaw, and you can camp on most unenclosed land in Scotland thanks to the Land Reform Act of 2003. There are some parts of England which tacitly allow wild camping, too. On the Lake District’s official website, it reads: “You must have the permission of a landowner to camp on their land, though there is a tradition of wild camping in the Lake District.”

Wild camping falls into something of a legal grey area, but it’s time we made it black and white and legalised the practice on open access land across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. An important first question is: why? The very thought of wild camping may be your idea of Blair Witch hell. But for me – and many others – sleeping outdoors is a simple, liberating pleasure, part of the same neurological architecture that enjoyed climbing trees and paddling in streams as a child.

So why not just sleep in a campsite? There is indeed a fantastic network of sites across the country, but wild camping offers a different experience entirely. The point of a campsite is it comes with basic amenities such as a loo, drinking water and a shower. It is a sanitised, practical, civilised form of sleeping under canvas, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But the thrill of wild camping is removing yourself from everything and everyone. There are no snorers or iPhones at the top of a hill; the only sound pollution you’ll have to deal with is the howl of the wind and the dawn chorus. Without boilers, mains electricity and the like, the carbon footprint of a wild camp is also considerably lower.

Legalising wild camping would also be a big, muddy step towards re-engaging future generations with the natural world. In Dartmoor, for example, youth initiatives are being rolled out to connect youngsters with the landscape. The logic is that showing them that the great outdoors has value means they will strive to protect it when they’re older.

There’s no question legalising wild camping will come with certain challenges. How do we ensure the new law does not degrade our great countryside? How do we protect farmers and livestock? These challenges aren’t insurmountable. What we would be looking at is a designated network of wild camping zones marked on a map, developed in consultation with open access landowners like the National Parks and Forestry Commission. Crucially, wild campers would have to follow a clear set of rules and regulations along the lines of those in Dartmoor and Scotland – plus countries with free camping culture like Norway and Sweden – with the abiding principle being “be prepared and leave no trace”.

We live in a nation of

For me – and many others – sleeping outdoors is a simple, liberating pleasure

enclosed fields, fenced farms and private forests. So I concede it would take a big leap of faith to open up parts of it to wild campers. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. By legalising wild camping, we would finally move away from being a country that views the natural world as something we fear and are restricted from, to something we can explore, respect and enjoy.

If that’s not worth canvassing for, I don’t know what is.

The National Parks website has a useful section on wild camping. See nationalparks. uk/visiting/outdoor-activities/ camping

Legal grey area: wild camping