Before embarking on any camping or hiking, always make sure you prepare ahead. Look for where to find hiking equipment and many other things that you would need while there. For this year’s 2020 summer, here are interesting places to visit in the UK.
- Ruberslaw Wild Woods, Scottish Borders
A family-run operation with safari hideouts for glampers pitches inside an Edwardian walled garden and tents with views of the Cheviot Hills in the woods at the foot of Ruberslaw Mountain, a pleasant 15-minute walk from the rest. Catch a glimpse of the roe deer, then head to the old greenhouse’s reading room and settle down under the rafter-high vine with a book.
- Gill Head Farm, Cumbria
It’s hard to find that it feels set apart from other folks somewhere in the Lake District, and at first, this working farm under Blencathra seems like just another nice family place. However, ask for the Secret Area, and you’ll be led over a bridge and into a trees-surrounded riverside nook. With its waterfall and rabbits lolloping from burrows on the old railway embankment, it’s an entirely different space.
- Canal Camping, Norfolk
Although rivers are looser, less observable, we prefer to think of English canals as straight and narrow. Still, this section of the Norfolk Broads is the opposite: the River Ant hums with hired motorboats, while the North Walsham and Dilham Canal is a long-abandoned, rewilded route abuzz with damselflies, its edges crowded with yellow-flag irises mirrored by the river bed’s green underbelly. Set along its rivers, this is a relatively new plot that is still family-friendly for off-grid camping.
- Abbey Home Farm, Gloucestershire
At this organic Cotswolds estate, camping has been open for years, and while real showers have recently been added, the DIY ethos remains intact: those who wish can still heat water over the fire and wash with a bucket and water-can head. A mile from the main field is a glade with a few pitches in a wood planted 30 years ago and a tap glugging fresh water from a borehole just off-it-all. Wood scavenging is permitted, and so are bow saws, one for experienced whittlers to demonstrate their abilities.
- Cilrath Wood Camping, Pembrokeshire
It was expected that the first guests would come here at Easter because this is virgin land. The five pitches are set in a hay meadow, with woods and ponds for exploring, totally enclosed and clustered around an 18th-century farmhouse near Narberth. There’s a real sense of remoteness, but Saundersfoot and Amroth Beach are within striking distance.
- Amber’s Bell Tents, Shropshire
Owner Amber Wykes has a keen eye for what makes her retro-styled canvases, which debuted on a Norfolk country estate in 2012, a nice place to root. Each has its own wet room en suite, and post-lockdown steps hold tents empty between bookings for three days. Last year, four more small camps were added — this one is the most untrammelled in a forest clearing at the base of the Shropshire Hills.
- Alexander House Glamping, Perthshire, Scotland
This place is a short hop from Gleneagles with just two freshly opened yurts and a cabin-on-wheels-owner Jo Lewis is a cousin to the nearby laird-with hills to move into for the day, raspberries to pick and the smell of pine and heather on the wind. Red squirrels, hill hares, and the partridges that nest in the woodpile are interested in wildlife spotting. It is relaxing, producing an immense feeling of being related to the landscape.
- Bert’s Kitchen Garden, Wales
This place is as green as the woods that separate tourists from the coast, between mountains and sea on the less-visited Llyn Peninsula, just a handful of pitches in a vehicle-free meadow, with a road leading down to its shingle beach. Bert was the name of the campervan of the family that toured the globe before upcycling it into the present café for home-baked croissants and teapots.