Top 10 tiny campsites
Author of Tiny Campsites Dixe Wills rounds up his ten favourites.
The most exclusive pitches in Britain
SKIDDAW HOUSE NEAR BASSENTHWAITE, CUMBRIA
Miles from the nearest road, the only way to reach this lonely 200-year-old Lakeland hostel is by hiking or cycling along rough and exposed tracks. A sheltered patch of grass accommodates up to ten small tents whose occupants enjoy corking views of a wide valley rising to the hills of Blencathra and Great Calva.
RUSHEY LOCK NEAR FARINGDON, OXFORDSHIRE
A campsite on the Thames reserved exclusively for those travelling under their own steam, whether on foot, bicycle, canoe or kayak. The distance from traffic lends the place an atmosphere of unhurried tranquillity where the whoosh of water over the weir blends with the chirping of birds and rustling leaves.
GUMBER FARM SLINDON, WEST SUSSEX
Run by the National Trust on its 3500-acre Slindon Estate, the campsite and bothy form an oasis of remoteness in the crowded South-East. Surrounded by the curves of the South Downs and eulogised by Hilaire Belloc, Gumber Farm makes a perfect resting place for those taking on the nearby Monarch’s Way.
THE BUZZARDS KINGSLAND, HEREFORDSHIRE
A secluded site on a biodynamic smallholding, The Buzzards has its own little mere and a private view up a wooded valley. This is a campsite for little tents and for those who tread softly – a good many people simply take root in the bijou field and play host to the three friendly resident cats.
JELLEY LEGS STUDLEY ROGER, NORTH YORKSHIRE
A ravishingly pretty back garden with room for just two tents, Jelley Legs is possibly the tiniest campsite in the land, in one of the nation’s smallest villages. Behind the garden trees (one with a treehouse you can stay in) stands a field of wheat. Behind the field is a deer park, and behind that the romantic ruins of Fountains Abbey.
BUNKORAMA NEAR BARMOUTH/ABERMAW, GWYNEDD
Perched high above the seaside resort’s slot machines and teddy-pickers, Bunkorama inhabits a world of its own, with the sea in front and the southern mountains of Snowdonia at its back. As its name suggests, besides the grassy camping area there’s a barn converted into a very swish and compact bunkhouse.
PLATT’S FARM CAMPSITE LLANFAIRFECHAN, CONWY
There’s a general dearth of campsites set within Grade II-listed Victorian farms but at least this one ensures that no such lack exists on the North Wales coast. The two tiny camping fields are paired with a brace of large open-sided barns for sheltered picnics, with a walled garden beyond.
NORTH RHINNS CAMPING LESWALT, DUMFRIES & GALLOWAY
Sitting among modest hills on a peninsula that bludgeons its way into the Irish Sea, North Rhinns is a warren of individual pitches fashioned from coves and glades carved out of a copse. Spot Britain’s tiniest bird (the goldcrest) plentiful hares, and the hills of Northern Ireland beyond.
INCHCAILLOCH LOCH LOMOND, STIRLINGSHIRE
Step off the tiny ferry onto Inchcailloch, one of a string of islands at the southern end of Loch Lomond, and you enter the world of the MacGregors. There are no roads on this 130-acre nature reserve and on the small beachside campsite you’re alone with the fallow deer, the redstarts and the tree creepers. Bliss.
TEN ACRES VINEYARD WINKLEIGH, DEVON
Neat rows of vines slide gracefully down the gentle slopes of a farmstead and make an unusual and rather pleasing adjunct to a campsite. The vineyard is over 500ft above sealevel which means that from the top of the camping field you can get a cracking view across the vines to Dartmoor.