Leave No Trace Principles for Wild Campers

Why These Principles Matter in Our Small Islands

Britain is a crowded island group, and the places that feel properly wild are finite. Every popular bothy, loch shore and moorland edge absorbs far more visitors than its vegetation can quietly cope with. A fire scar on a well-used camping spot can still be visible a decade later. A patch of flattened heather may take years to recover. Leave No Trace isn't a set of rules dreamt up to spoil your trip — it's the practical business of keeping these places worth walking to. Get it right and no landowner or ranger will have a reason to move you on.

Pack It In, Pack It Out

The foundation of everything else is simple: whatever you carry in, you carry out. Most wild campers believe they already do this, yet the litter that gathers around popular pitches says otherwise.

• Food waste: orange peel, apple cores, banana skins and tea bags are not "natural" in an upland environment. They take months or years to break down, look awful, and attract scavengers. Take them home.
• Micro-trash: bottle tops, cable ties, torn corners of wrappers, the plastic backing from a blister plaster. These are the bits that blow away while you sleep. Check your pitch before you leave, and again from a few paces away.
• Toilet paper and wipes: bag them and carry them out, even the "biodegradable" ones.
• Line, string and pegs: gather every one. Bright guyline is easy to spot in daylight and impossible to find after dark.

Carry a dedicated rubbish bag from the start, so packing out never feels like a chore at the end of a long day.

Fires: The Marks That Outlast Us

A campfire is the most damaging thing a wild camper does, and the harm is rarely caused by the flames. It is the scorched turf, the ring of blackened stones and the widening bare patch where everyone since has decided to build theirs. Check local rules before you go — in many upland areas, and on much access land, fires are banned outright. Where they are permitted, keep to the following.

• Use an existing hearth rather than building a new one.
• Keep it small — a fire the size of a dinner plate is ample for a brew.
• Never take stones from a stream or loch shore. They hold moisture, crack in the heat, and leave fragments scattered.
• Burn only dead wood lying on the ground. Never cut standing dead trees or snap branches from living ones.
• Burn down to white ash, let it cool completely, then scatter it widely and replace any turf you lifted.

The honest answer for most trips is a stove. It weighs little, works in the wet, leaves nothing behind and lets you cook somewhere genuinely lovely without leaving a mark on it.

Choose a Pitch That Heals Fast

Where you sleep matters as much as how you leave. Aim for durable ground: bare rock, gravel, sand, dry grass or a patch that is already clearly used. Avoid moss, lichen, heather and young saplings — these are the surfaces that take longest to recover.

Pitch at least 30 metres from lochs, streams and tarns, and well away from paths and the obvious "best view" spots that everyone gravitates towards. Don't dig drainage trenches around your tent; a decent pitch and a good groundsheet make them unnecessary. Move your pitch each night where you can, so no single patch of ground gets worn. Arrive late, leave early, and keep your footprint small enough that nobody would know you had been there.

Waste, Water and Washing Up

Human waste is the least glamorous part of wild camping and the one that causes the most quiet resentment among landowners. Do it properly.

• Walk at least 30 metres from water, paths and pitches.
• Dig a hole 15–20cm deep with a trowel, do your business, then refill it completely.
• Pack out toilet paper in a bag. Burying it simply means someone else digs it up.
• Carry out sanitary products. There is no acceptable alternative.

For washing up, move well away from the water's edge and use as little soap as possible — even biodegradable soap needs soil to break it down. Strain out food particles and bag them, then scatter the grey water widely over open ground rather than tipping it into a stream.

Leave It Better Than You Found It

The final principle is the one that turns a set of rules into a habit. Arrive knowing the local access rules and any seasonal restrictions. Take a moment before you leave to look back at your pitch as though you were arriving, and pick up anything that isn't yours. Loose fire rings can be dismantled and the stones scattered; a bit of litter left by someone else costs you thirty seconds and spares a fragile habitat.

Share what you know gently. Most people who leave a mess simply haven't thought it through, and a friendly word over a brew goes further than a lecture. Do the small things well, and the wild places we all love will still feel wild for the next person who walks in.