Wild Camping and the Law in the UK
Ask "is wild camping legal in the UK" and the honest answer is: it depends where you are standing. The UK has three different answers inside one small island, and most of the confusion online comes from people quoting the rules of one part as if they covered the lot. Here is the whole picture, as plainly as I can put it.
Scotland: a right, done responsibly
Scotland is the simple one. Under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 you have a right to camp wild on most unenclosed land, provided you do it responsibly as set out in the Scottish Outdoor Access Code: small numbers, short stays, away from buildings and roads, leaving no trace. It is a right you exercise, not a favour you are granted, and it is why every list of dream UK wild camps leans north.
One well-known exception: parts of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park sit inside camping management zones, where seasonal byelaws (currently March to September) mean you camp in a campsite or with a cheap permit. The zones cover a small fraction of the park and exist because the loch shores were being loved to death. Check the park's map if you are headed that way.
Dartmoor: the English exception
Dartmoor is the only place in England and Wales where wild camping is a right in law. That right was challenged by a landowner and in May 2025 the Supreme Court settled it: backpack camping counts as "open-air recreation" under the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985, and the right stands. It applies to proper backpack camping on certain commons, not to car camping or big group pitches, and the park authority publishes a camping map showing where you can pitch, along with a code of conduct: a night or two, carried in on your back, no fires, nothing left behind.
Everywhere else in England and Wales: permission, and a convention
Everywhere else, including the Welsh hills I walk, the legal position is blunt: all land belongs to someone, and camping on it without the landowner's permission is a civil trespass. It is not normally a criminal matter for a lone camper behaving well, but you can be asked to leave, and the polite answer to that is yes.
Alongside the law, though, there is a convention that has held for generations on the remote high ground of Wales, the Lake District and elsewhere, and it works like this: a small tent, well away from roads, houses and enclosed farmland, pitched late in the evening and struck early the next morning, one night only, no fires, and no sign you were ever there. Camped like that, high on open mountain, you are tolerated almost everywhere and bothered almost never. But tolerance is the right word. It is not a right, and pretending otherwise does the convention no favours.
What I actually do
I camp in Wales under that convention, and I keep it exactly as described: high, late, small, gone by breakfast, leaving nothing. It is also why I never publish the locations of my camps, on this site or in the films. A quiet spot stays quiet because nobody marks it on a map, and a tolerated practice stays tolerated because the people doing it stay invisible. How I leave a pitch is a big enough subject that it has its own page.
The law moves
Access to land is live politics in both Westminster and the Senedd, with campaigns running to extend camping rights beyond Dartmoor and reviews of access legislation surfacing regularly. The BMC tracks this properly. This page reflects things as I understand them at the date above; if a trip hinges on the detail, check the current position rather than trusting a hobby website, mine included.
I'm a hillwalker, not a lawyer, and nothing here is legal advice. Nothing on this site is sponsored and there are no affiliate links.