Scottish forests - legal stopovers

[Lightning]

Wild camping used to be mainly fine , exceptions as always but having witnessed it first hand the behaviour of campers - tents and vans has been bloody awful. I’ve again, today, dug a pit at a popular spot - last night there were 5 vans there none with any toilet facilities. I’m not Miss Marple but the amount today fresh shite and big roll would suggest they had simply crapped and expected someone else to pick it up. Oh and 2 of those vans were calis - nice grey 4motion with 20” wheels and a 20 plate 2 tone one. Now, I’m sure they had toilets Pisses me off

I have seen everyone blaming everyone else for this. On one forum, once they established what vanlifers were, they were promptly blamed for everything. People not in the know would assume a California doesn’t have a toilet, unless they ask.

As it is already happening, perhaps compost toilets or a trowel should be provided, In popular locations, as in Scandanavia.

The problem is not the wild camping, it is morons.
The same on a beach, the problem is not sunbathing it’s the morons.

 

[NZCol]

A small percentage of California’s will have a toilet. Anyway, yes it’s the 1% but the proliferation of vans is massive. Wild camping for me is something you do miles away from any road end. Most of the problem spots are easy to get to and the feckless think it’s ON to go and trash them. Anyway, I support a ban for the moment.

 

[Lightning]

A small percentage of California’s will have a toilet. Anyway, yes it’s the 1% but the proliferation of vans is massive. Wild camping for me is something you do miles away from any road end. Most of the problem spots are easy to get to and the feckless think it’s ON to go and trash them. Anyway, I support a ban for the moment.

My view is that it could be managed, by providing education, facilities, and sanctions only on those individuals that abuse it.
Blanket bans make no sense, otherwise we would all be banned from going to the beach because 1% of people abuse it. The problem just intensifies somewhere else if you ban it in a spot. It’s not sustainable.

 

[Lightning]

My view is that it could be managed, by providing education, facilities, and sanctions only on those individuals that abuse it.
Blanket bans make no sense, otherwise we would all be banned from going to the beach because 1% of people abuse it. The problem just intensifies somewhere else if you ban it in a spot. It’s not sustainable.

Also most California’s that stay off grid will have toilet. Why wouldn’t they?

 

[Elly Swanson]

It always seems weird to me that people in campervans think that being off grid means wild camping! Like @NZCol states above, " it's miles away from any roads end". If you really want to wild camp, park the van, go for a hike with a small basher, bivvy, hammock and or sleeping bag, kip over for the night, amaybe cook, pack up, leave no trace and hike back to the van.

 

[Elly Swanson]

My view is that it could be managed, by providing education, facilities, and sanctions only on those individuals that abuse it.
Blanket bans make no sense, otherwise we would all be banned from going to the beach because 1% of people abuse it. The problem just intensifies somewhere else if you ban it in a spot. It’s not sustainable.

I agree with you there Lightning.

 

[Lightning]

It always seems weird to me that people in campervans think that being off grid means wild camping! Like @NZCol states above, " it's miles away from any roads end". If you really want to wild camp, park the van, go for a hike with a small basher, bivvy, hammock and or sleeping bag, kip over for the night, amaybe cook, pack up, leave no trace and hike back to the van.

Language just evolves, if you are not plugged in and not in an official site it’s often referred to as wildcamping. You can wildcamp in a van Lidl car park and have croissants for breakfast. I imagine you can’t do this in a tent.

 

[Elly Swanson]

Language just evolves, if you are not plugged in and not in an official site it’s often referred to as wildcamping. You can wildcamp in a van Lidl car park and have croissants for breakfast. I imagine you can’t do this in a tent.

I think smudging the language and combining the definitions just adds to the confusion. The "wild" in wild camping has been hijacked and now people who may not understand what it involves associate "wild" with uncivilised and out of control, rather than in out in nature. It's not helpful.

It's not just semantics. Language certainly does evolve, but not always in a good way. Perhaps if we stuck to the clearly defined definitions people who live around the honeypot areas would.t be so fearful and hostile.

 

[Elly Swanson]

Language just evolves, if you are not plugged in and not in an official site it’s often referred to as wildcamping. You can wildcamp in a van Lidl car park and have croissants for breakfast. I imagine you can’t do this in a tent.

So, if you can't do it in a tent, it's not "wild" camping.

 

[Lightning]

So, if you can't do it in a tent, it's not "wild" camping.

The term is widely used in the motorhome community. One huge forum has a wildcamping section, another is named wildcamping, and has no tent section. Rightly or wrongly the cat is out of the bag, and been for a while.

 

[Elly Swanson]

The term is widely used in the motorhome community. One huge forum has a wildcamping section, another is named wildcamping, and has no tent section. Rightly or wrongly the cat is out of the bag, and been for a while.

Of course it is, as I said before, it's been hijacked!

I think we'll have to disagree on how it should be described and put that one "to bed". But continue to agree on the idea that solutions to the problem of "whatever you call it" should involve education and facilities.

 

[NZCol]

On that other one I’ve now got the address and name of the registered owner and based on Facebook that’s the person that was having a big shite. So , while it would have been good to post his own back, I’ll deliver a nicely fresh one for him, with a note.

 

[sbmcd]

We have always used the forestry commission mountain bike centres and stayed overnight in their car parks without challenge and will continue to do so, pity that something progressive allowing that officially is to come to an end.

 

[Elly Swanson]

We have always used the forestry commission mountain bike centres and stayed overnight in their car parks without challenge and will continue to do so, pity that something progressive allowing that officially is to come to an end.

It was only ever a trial, so the plan was to end it anyway. Just a real shame it was earlier than expected. Great to hear that you've had no problems at the bike centres. Are you guys BMXers?

 

[Lightning]

I think smudging the language and combining the definitions just adds to the confusion. The "wild" in wild camping has been hijacked and now people who may not understand what it involves associate "wild" with uncivilised and out of control, rather than in out in nature. It's not helpful.

It's not just semantics. Language certainly does evolve, but not always in a good way. Perhaps if we stuck to the clearly defined definitions people who live around the honeypot areas would.t be so fearful and hostile.

It was only ever a trial, so the plan was to end it anyway. Just a real shame it was earlier than expected. Great to hear that you've had no problems at the bike centres. Are you guys BMXers?

I thought the plan was to continue it, and introduce a £5 charge if it proved successful.

 

[Elly Swanson]

I thought the plan was to continue it, and introduce a £5 charge if it proved successful.

I hope when all the dust settles and they look at the data from the feedback survey it's something they can implement. Maybe it could have a knockon effect for other parts of the UK & NI too.

 

[Lightning]

They have changed their minds. This has made my day

Stay the Night

Everything you need to know about FLS' Stay the Night scheme where self-contained campervans can park overnight in some of our forest car parks.

forestryandland.gov.scot

 

[Elly Swanson]

They have changed their minds. This has made my day

Stay the Night

Everything you need to know about FLS' Stay the Night scheme where self-contained campervans can park overnight in some of our forest car parks.

forestryandland.gov.scot

Brilliant!

 

[willwander]

More u-turns than Boris
However great news

 

[loslynch]

As it was the campsites who objected to this scheme, they are clearly trying to force people to use them for commercial reasons only.
Perhaps some people are just not suited to living in popular tourist areas.

“Perhaps some people are just not suited to living in popular tourist areas.”?? Actually the majority of people have been living in tourist areas before they became popular. Establishing the NC500 and the influx of people into Skye in the last decade and now the invasion of staycation-ers has significantly impacted the already incumbent population.

 

[Lightning]

“Perhaps some people are just not suited to living in popular tourist areas.”?? Actually the majority of people have been living in tourist areas before they became popular. Establishing the NC500 and the influx of people into Skye in the last decade and now the invasion of staycation-ers has significantly impacted the already incumbent population.

If people no longer like where they live because of all Emmets, Grockles and incomers, maybe they should just consider moving somewhere else, rather than trying to make people unwelcome.

 

[Honeybee]

I suggest considering staying in England rather than travel to Scotland. Suggesting that people who may have lived in an area all their lives should move if they aren’t happy with the influx of visitors is a totally selfish remark. There are areas of Scotland that are quite frankly full of sing due to wild campers. Locals can’t move freely or park anywhere and struggle to social distance due to the amount of visitors. The honesty box for staying at Glencoe took £15 over a period when there were 150 campers using the facility!

 

[Honeybee]

Sing should say sing

 

[Honeybee]

So clearly doesn’t like sh*t

 

[Lightning]

I suggest considering staying in England rather than travel to Scotland. Suggesting that people who may have lived in an area all their lives should move if they aren’t happy with the influx of visitors is a totally selfish remark. There are areas of Scotland that are quite frankly full of sing due to wild campers. Locals can’t move freely or park anywhere and struggle to social distance due to the amount of visitors. The honesty box for staying at Glencoe took £15 over a period when there were 150 campers using the facility!

It’s also selfish to object to tourists whilst simultaneously not making any effort to accommodate them.
The countryside belongs to all of us, not just the people who live there. If an area no longer suits people, perhaps they could consider either improving the infrastructure or moving somewhere, like England perhaps. The tourists are not going to stop coming just because the locals want to keep beautiful areas to themselves.