partly off road tour of the UK coastline / national parks?

[deadtom]

Dear PH,

I am soon to be medically discharged from the army and my partner hates her job in London so we have been thinking of ways to leave the real world behind for bit. We both find ourselves somewhat enamoured by the idea of going for a long drive around the hills and coasts of the UK, but I realised that I actually know very little about organising this sort of expedition.

the broad strokes of the plan is that we buy an old-ish mid size 4x4 ( turn of the century vintage land cruiser colorado, discovery, shogun etc), a decent sized awning / lean-to type tent and take to the highways and byways to slowly make our way around the coasts and hills of the UK including ireland and the scottish islands. we have visions of going by road between nice little towns and trundling our way off road along byways to set up camp for the night somewhere on a remote moorland, and other such cliches.

but this raises a lot of questions, some of which I was hoping you fine folks could help with:
is it possible to really get anywhere off road, or are the national parks far too restrictive when it comes to vehicle use?
how easy is it to actually live out of a vehicle + awning setup?
what vehicle would you use? I've always been a landrover man but being that reliability would be desirable i must concede that something japanese could be better

thanks all

[Watchman]

I watch YouTube videos of people free camping in the US and Australia. It looks right up my street but I don't think you can "legally" do this in most of Europe and almost certainly not in the UK... sadly. I'd be happy to be proven wrong though. It'd be just the excuse I need to equip myself with a roof tent.

Edited by Watchman on Monday 14th May 10:04

[deadtom]

Hmm, that's is pretty much what I expected. I think if it was doable then I imagine a lot more people would do it.

Anyone got direct experience of doing it or know someone who has?

[Watchman]

A quick Google suggests I might not have been 100% right... There are free camping places and wild camping sites (worth Googling for both phrases) in the UK. It seems the restrictions are more on caravans than tents, and more to stop people clogging up lay-bys with caravans or communities of travellers taking over parks and such.

[deadtom]

Further reading suggests it's easy enough to go wild camping but only by hiking in. It's hard to finding any evidence that it can be done while Being vehicle based

[pmfinch]

May be worth being aware that whilst wild camping is legal in Scotland, elsewhere - England and Wales (apart form Dartmoor and Devon apparently) - it is illegal. See: https://mpora.com/camping/wild-camping-uk-guide#Mg... for some suggestions/hints

[Watchman]

pmfinch said:

May be worth being aware that whilst wild camping is legal in Scotland, elsewhere - England and Wales (apart form Dartmoor and Devon apparently) - it is illegal. See: https://mpora.com/camping/wild-camping-uk-guide#Mg... for some suggestions/hints

Yep, I just found exactly the same advice on the woodlandtrust website.

[tuffer]

Not many byways around the coast in the UK that I am aware of and the ones that you do find will be short. I live on Salisbury Plain so plenty around me but still very short in comparison to somewhere like the US. If you really want to get away from it for a while, fly to Denver, hire a Jeep and head to Utah. You could spend a year just exploring the Moab area.

[deadtom]

thanks chaps, I am indeed getting the impression that wild camping as pretty much exclusively an on foot activity here in the UK.
perhaps an alternative then is just to go by road and hike up into the hills instead

[Duhh]

How about doing it by boat?

[deadtom]

would love to go by boat, but that's a whole heap of expensive

[Duhh]

deadtom said:

would love to go by boat, but that's a whole heap of expensive

Decent 15-20 year old 4x4 will be £2000 to £5000. Plenty of live/camp aboard boats in that range. And you'll get to places you couldn't dream about by land.

[deadtom]

Duhh said:

Decent 15-20 year old 4x4 will be £2000 to £5000. Plenty of live/camp aboard boats in that range. And you'll get to places you couldn't dream about by land.

indeed, we had budgeted 3 - 5k for a vehicle. can you really get a good boat for that? I assume you mean a motor boat, as sailing requires a whole lot of learning

[TooMany2cvs]

There are a lot of byways in the UK which are legal for vehicular use, but they rarely link up to actually take you anywhere. Also, all that "empty land" is actually owned by people - and you'd need to get their permission to camp up on it.

[Duhh]

deadtom said:

Duhh said:

Decent 15-20 year old 4x4 will be £2000 to £5000. Plenty of live/camp aboard boats in that range. And you'll get to places you couldn't dream about by land.

indeed, we had budgeted 3 - 5k for a vehicle. can you really get a good boat for that? I assume you mean a motor boat, as sailing requires a whole lot of learning

I had been thinking 20 to 25 ft sailing cruiser myself, but always forget that not everyone can sail. But plenty of motor boats in that price range too, think ex fishing boat/ lifeboat rather than fast cruisers. You could even pick up an old sailing cruiser with an inboard , just use the motor at first then learn to sail later? Maybe try starting a similar thread on the 'Boats, Planes, and Trains forum'?

Edited by Duhh on Tuesday 15th May 08:17

[Shamu]

I've been looking into the same thing, sadly its not realistic in the UK, the problem as mentioned is that all land belongs to 'someone'. Rather than the vast empty expanses of North America or Oz.

I have successfully wild camped in Scotland, in an M240i nonetheless-its just a case of leaving the vehicle and progressing on foot.

Failing that have you looked in to France/Germany or even further afield, Corsica/Morocco? All have miles and miles of what we would consider byways, and plenty of remote locations for camping.

[cailean]

Pyrenees might be your best bet, can easily spend 2-3 weeks exploring with the right maps and guides. 2 day drive there or ferry to Spain. Also have a look at this, mainly trail bike focused but it may give you some ideas. http://www.transeurotrail.org/

[SlowStig]

Just my 2c - I have just got back from a week, camping in the back of my outlander up through Scotland, then Skye and the Outer Hebrides (Harris/Lewis). I am work so can get pics later if needed but basically anywhere in the UK as stated before, is a no for wild camping but in Scotland you can camp with a tent or motorhome as long as you are responsible.

There wasn't anything complex with what I did with mine, I built a platform/storage system to raise the boot floor so it was level with the rear seats laid flat, then had a large kit bag for anything which wasn't clothes and then another bag for clothes which both got put on the front seats when sleeping(with a roof box for anything bulky like pillows). Put a double inflatable mattress on top of the platform/seats which was inflated to fill the rear and then cut out some insulation reflective panels which I used suckers to secure to the windows.

The only thing I found was an issue was condensation, even with all windows slightly open and the sunroof opened there was still a lot of moisture from the two of us sleeping.


Would recommend doing it but make sure you figure out a way to store quite a bit of water somehow, we used some 5L bottles but you may find a better solution for yourselves?

[deadtom]

Thanks for that, sounds very similar to what we are planning. Going to try and acquire a suitable vehicle a few weeks before we set off so I can figure out a system for sleeping And living out of it.

Any absolute must see destinations from your trip?

[SlowStig]

I never thought about doing it with mine until one day I looked in the back and thought I could fit in there...

Places to recommend, Oban(the chocolate shop is amazing), driving up the coast to Skye in general is fantastic.

Skye

Fish and chips in Portree(this place is amazing but watch out for gulls - https://goo.gl/maps/kcewC19Hmm32) ,

the Fairy Pools - https://goo.gl/maps/eFBzj1TvUjJ2

Talisker Distillery - https://goo.gl/maps/PyfiYY9eZKu

Harris/Lewis

Seilebost beach - https://goo.gl/maps/wuS3Vm3oAM72

Calanais Stones - https://goo.gl/maps/8xCCrdcWt8L2

Dalmore Beach (has toilets if wild/car camping) - https://goo.gl/maps/RZFcSvQkMuz

Port of Ness - https://goo.gl/maps/e4Yq2TkhufH2

North Tolsta/Traigh Mhòr beach (also has toilets) - https://goo.gl/maps/uZawVUtR9LA2



There is a few others but those ones stood out the most as places to see in that part of the country. On Harris and Lewis especially, most places we found to camp had motorhomes there so I would advise getting to where you want to stay quite early and beat them to the good spots, otherwise you have to stare at one of those for the night!

If you have any other questions, ask away. I can get you some photos of our setup if you would like but it was fairly simplistic but worked for us once we got the hang of how to get setup fast!