To camp in random fields without permission in England

[feellikeahugefailure]

I'm thinking about doing a solo trip around Devon and Cornwall in a car. Campsites seem expensive, you have to book and often there aren't any where I need them

I've got a pop up tent.

Would it really be so bad to just pitch it at 9pm in some quiet field out of sight (and without animals) spend the night, then come 6am pack it up and move on?

Obviously I wouldn't litter or leave any sign that I was ever there.

You're allowed to camp wild at dartmoor. Dartmoor is amazing, one end is all lush and green with streams and waterfalls and the other end is equally as nice but has Heather and wild sheep and ponies.

I think that it is a little bit dangerous I mean you might wake up to find yourselves surrounded by cows or something.

And a little tip, be sure that the field you've asked permission to stay in definitely belongs to the person you have asked and not their neighbour who they like to piss off. learned that mortifying lesson at 6am on a Sunday morning whilst naked in my tent with exp.

Id be bloody pissed off, because we offer camping on a really small scale on our farm, but due to planning we can only do it 28 days of the year. Also due to NIMBY neighbours. Our camping gets pretty much booked up, so if some random decides to rock up and pop a tent up, and one of our neighbours spots it and reports it, it's one day knocked off our season, one day's income lost and alot of unhappy campers, who asked and paid, getting phone calls to cancel or shorten their holidays.

OP where are you going to poo when wild camping?

You can usually get away with sleeping in laybys for one night. Lots of motorhomers do it. You could do it in a car depending on how big your car is. DP and I have wild camped in Wales in a campervan - it was OK, but I need a wee in the night so have to take a bucket.

Friends of mine have tried wild camping in the Lake District but they got moved on - by rangers. I suppose you need to pick a really remote upland area to reduce the risk of being caught/disturbed. On my own I would be too scared of 'bad people' and would probably spend all night listening to every tiny noise and waiting for the axe murderer to cometh.

Campsite camping in Devon/Cornwall in the summer is probably considerably more than £7 a night even for a small tent, and most places probably need to prebook anyway. I know we've given up and gone home after not finding anywhere with space in the Lake District before now.

Go for it OP. Also look on the Radio 4 iplayer for the Ann Widdicombe episode of 'I've never seen Star Wars' she wild camped just over her back fence on Dartmoor and she loved it and she was quite funny in the programme.

The farmers got a gun,
The farmers got a gun ...

Wow.

Maybe we should go and arbitrarily "calve up" ops house. I don't know if that would involve dumping a shed load of calves in her house.

Camping in a field is very different from being in someone's garden
Perhaps someone should go and stay in ops house for the night whilst she's not there. After all, if she's not using it at that precise moment, it's "hardly the same" as if she were occupying it.

lurking!

So ego you think it's perfectly acceptable for someone to defecate on someone else's land because other parts of the world lack sanitation? . Just wow!

What has poor sanitation in India got to do with having a shite on someone's land that you're technically trespassing on?

digging a hole and pooing in it I dont have a problem with, nor weeing behind a bush. But staying somewhere, which is privately owned, and deliberately not asking permission I do have a problem with. Because you dont know their circumstances or what problems you might cause.
There are wild camping places. There is council owned land (parks, nature reserves, etc - if you want to snub your nose at someone, start with the 'publically owned' stuff). There are free to roam areas, and actually tons of landowners who would say yes, if asked, but to specifically not ask permission is quite horribly entitled and makes me think that the OP hasnt get the slightest notion of the countryside, and may not be as good at 'leaving no trace' as they think they would be

Ego I don think anyone asks that because they are worried about the OP
It's because it's not fair fir a farmer to have their field disturbed by OP digging a hole to bury her poo. Unless she's planning on keeping it in a container in her car or backpack....

No doubt the next comment will be "who decided humans should poo regularly"

If a field is being used by farmers, some buried poo will not be a problem.

Who owns the beaches? Can you camp on the beach?

From www.nationalparks.gov.uk/visiting/enjoying-outdoors/camping:

For wild camping:

In England and Wales (other than Dartmoor Common areas) ask the landowner for permission first.
Care for the countryside by leaving no trace of your visit behind you.
If you pitch late and leave early, you'll cause less disturbance to wildlife and other people.
<strong>If there are no toilets, use a trowel to bury human waste at least 30 meters away from running water or lakes</strong>, this where to 'go' in the wild leaflet gives a useful guide. (with a link to a leaflet about acceptable shitting in the wild <img loading="lazy" class="inline-flex mumsnet-emoji" alt="Grin" src="https://www.mumsnet.com/build/assets/grin-D7Eg_B6y.png">
Move your tent after two nights to avoid damaging the vegetation underneath it.

If the National Park Authority think it's OK, OP, go for it.
Keep to small groups of just one or two tents to keep noise and disturbance levels down.
Try not to camp immediately beside a lake or river to avoid disturbing birds and animals.

I was coming on to say the same as Nettletea just camp on Dartmoor or somewhere wild camping is allowed, or ask permission or ignore the requests to not camp on common grounds and camp anyway be a use you know you're special but if you'd camped on my uncle's farm he was only allowed x amount of nights camping and you would have stolen one of them resulting in loss of income and nice people who ask being told no. In summation yabu, entitled and quite frankly a bit of an arse.

In Scotland wild camping is only allowed on land where access is also allowed and you are explicitly told to avoid causing problems for locals and land managers by not camping in enclosed fields of crops or farm animals and by keeping well away from buildings, roads or historic structures. If you wish to camp close to a house or building, seek the owner's permission.

Really how difficult will it be for you to just ask the landowner's permission?

The Queen.

So can you pitch up on a beach?