Owning a plot of land

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I have had an idea in the back of my mind for a while now that it would be great to buy a plot of land to use for large family get togethers, we could pitch tents, have campfires, loads of space for the kids to run around etc.

The trouble is my imagination doesn't stretch as far as the practicalities and so I don't take the idea any further.

Has anyone done anything similar who can inspire me and pass on useful tips?

How often do suitable plots of land near you come up for sale? How much do they sell for? How much time do you have to devote to maintaining it?

Have had a look a few times over the last few months and if we are not worried about having it on our doorstep then there are always some floating around. Regarding maintenance I was thinking more of securing it rather than growing veg or anything too time consuming.

DH and I have a half acre field about 3 miles away from home.
We keep chickens and ducks there, so I am usually there twice a day anyway.
We changed our mortgage to buy it, it cost £8,000, which we have been told was very overpriced, but we know the farmer well enough to know we wouldn't have got it cheaper. The area it's I means we will almost certainly never get planning permission.
In the summer, we have parties there and we camp. We have a couple of sheds up, one is a bunk room with a bunk bed and camp bed in it. The other has a camping stove in it and chairs. We keep mugs, plates, knives, forks etc up there (mostly provided by freecycle)
We have plans to put a small woodburning stove in the kitchen shed, and more permanent seating that will double as beds, and a fold down table.

For parties, we put up lights powered by a small generator. We have a brazier so we can keep warm as the night turns chilly, and he dc roast marshmallows.

DH and his father built an earth loo a couple of years ago, but up until then we had a camping loo in a tent. The earth loo is fantastic - occasionally needs levelling, but it doesn't smell at all, and saves us having to hire a loo when we have a bigger party.

Practicalities that I can think of are general maintenance, keeping the grass cut (DH is an ex mechanic and has done up a garden tractor that cost £20 - the dc tend to see cutting the grass as a treat), fencing/walling needs to be checked regularly and fixed as soon as there's a problem. We have dogs, so we make sure the fences have no gaps in them.
We have public liability insurance to cover us in case someone goes in and hurts themselves. We had to change to NFU Mutual for that, but it actually ended up cheaper than our previous policy, even including the field'a cover.

Freecycle has been amazing for us. We've got cups, plates, pots pans etc, and also have a swing and climbing frame for the dc

We have some rigid rules for the dc, and visiting dc, like no chasing chickens, no climbing on walls (dry stone walls, so not safe for climbing on).

Sorry, that's quite long! Having our field is, without a doubt, one of the best things we've done. If you have the opportunity to do it, it's well worth it!

Small I am so that sounds fabulous, and your dc's will have so many amazing memories of their adventures to look back on. Can I be your friend?

I probably haven't covered the stuff you want to know, but feel free to ask anything and I'll do my best to answer :)

Boils - course you can :)
It is fantastic, sometimes we forget how lucky we are!
We are absolutely skint at the moment, but we can always escape whenever we want.

We think there is a resident ghost though - at one party, a little girl (3 at the time) asked why Bob wasn't coming in to play - Bob with yellow eyes (eeek). The field is right next to a (now disused) church and graveyard!
We've never seen anything yet and the field has a very calm happy atmosphere.
I always say hello to Bob in my head as I walk through the gate.

Was just coming to mention PL insurance, but Small has beaten me to it. We also use NFU Mutual, but you can't just buy the PL bit do we had to move our contents and cars to them too. Long gone are their days when you could get PL for a tenner
It is essential though, as if anyone wanders onto your land and injures themselves falling off a gate, our stumbling down a rabbit hole, they can make a claim against you, even if they are trespassing.

Don't let that put you off though, having a spare bit of land for mucking around on and camping is brilliant!

Wow so nice to know that my idea could work. What do you do about water? Is probably obvious for people who camp.

Thanks for answering the toilet question by the way - was wondering about that.

Really good point about the insurance, would never have thought of that.

Do you know specifics of avoiding planning permission eg I assume below a certain roof height and only temporary structures?

We take up a big camping water bottle. If there are more people, we borrow another one or two so we have plenty.

I don't know anything about the planning side, but if there is planning potential, the price of the land is much higher. We have been told that with PP, our field would be worth over £100,000 . I don't know how accurate that is though!