Wild camping, bothies and the art of the lads’ weekend
Wild camping, bothies or a bunkhouse in the Lakes? Where it’s legal to pitch a tent in the UK, and how to plan an outdoor weekend with your mates that works.
Reviewed, edited and approved by Editor-in-chief Daniel Sköld · Updated 24 October 2026
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At some point the lads’ weekend changed. The pub crawl in Dublin gave way to a curry and a moan about knees. If you’re honest, though, the best weekends you’ve had with your mates in the past few years probably involved a hill, a bit of weather and someone who swore the path was “just over this rise”.
The outdoors suits this age group. You’ve got the kit budget, you’ve got the stamina if you pace it, and you’ve got plenty to talk about on a long walk-in. Before you all pile into a car with a tent you last used in 1998, though, you need to know where you’re allowed to sleep, and what to do when the weather turns.
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Where can you legally wild camp in the UK?
This is where most groups go wrong, so it comes first.
In Scotland, wild camping is part of your access rights under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, and the Scottish Outdoor Access Code sets out how to use them. The code describes wild camping as lightweight and done in small numbers. That means pitching late, leaving early, staying away from houses and roads, and leaving no trace at all. A small group with backpacking tents on a remote hillside fits the spirit. Six blokes with a gazebo and a crate of lager by a roadside loch don’t.
Scotland has one big exception. Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park runs Camping Management Zones on some of its busiest lochsides, introduced in 2017. Between March and September you need a permit to camp in them, and only in the designated permit areas, for up to three nights. You can book online, so sort it before you go rather than finding out from a ranger at dusk.
In England, the only place with a recognised right to backpack camp is part of Dartmoor. In May 2025 the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the right to “open-air recreation” on the Dartmoor commons includes wild camping. That isn’t a free-for-all. It covers certain commons only, and the National Park Authority manages where you can go. Check its camping map before you go.
Everywhere else in England and Wales, including the Lake District, Eryri and the Peak District, wild camping legally needs the landowner’s permission. The same goes for Northern Ireland. Quiet, discreet camps high on the fells have long been tolerated in some places, but tolerated isn’t the same as allowed, and a noisy group camping low down near farms is exactly what gets people moved on. If you want certainty south of the border, book a campsite, a bunkhouse or a farm that offers basic pitches.
Is a bothy weekend worth the walk in?
For a group of mates, a bothy might be the best-kept secret in British walking. They’re basic shelters, usually old cottages or shepherds’ huts, left unlocked and free to use. Most are in Scotland, with some in northern England and Wales. The Mountain Bothies Association, a volunteer charity, looks after around a hundred of them.
Know what you’re getting. There’s no electricity, no mattress, often no toilet, and sometimes no fuel for the fire unless you carry it in. You bring a sleeping mat, sleeping bag, stove, food and a trowel. You also bring a tent, because a bothy is first come, first served and you might arrive to find it full.
The key rule for a group: the MBA’s Bothy Code says groups of six or more shouldn’t use a bothy, because of overcrowding and the lack of facilities. Commercial groups aren’t allowed at all. So a bothy weekend works best for four or five of you. If eight people have signed up to the WhatsApp group, either split up or book a bunkhouse.
The rest of the code is common decency: leave the place cleaner than you found it, carry your rubbish out, don’t damage the building and be friendly to whoever else turns up at 9pm, wet through. Some of the best conversations of the weekend happen that way.
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Lake District, Eryri or the Peak District: which suits your group?
Pick the place that suits the slowest knee in the group, not the most ambitious.
The Peak District is the easy option for most of England. It’s reachable from Manchester, Sheffield and the Midlands in an afternoon, has gentle gritstone edges and limestone dales, and has enough pubs to rescue a wet day. It’s ideal if the group’s fitness varies or someone is coming back from injury.
The Lake District gives you the big fell days: the Langdales, Helvellyn by Striding Edge for those with a head for heights, and long ridge walks that start and finish at a village. Youth hostels, bunkhouses and holiday cottages in the valleys make it easy to walk hard by day and sleep in a bed. Avoid bank holidays unless you enjoy queueing for car parks.
Eryri (Snowdonia) is the most dramatic and the most demanding. Yr Wyddfa on a summer Saturday can feel like Oxford Street with gradients, so think about a quieter range such as the Carneddau, the Glyderau or the Moelwynion, or start at first light. The scrambling here, on Tryfan and Crib Goch, is serious stuff. Don’t make it your first go at scrambling, and never take it on in wind or wet.
Scotland is in its own league. The access rights mean you can build a weekend of wild camping or bothying that isn’t possible anywhere else in Britain. The downside is the drive, so make it a long weekend.
The best lads’ weekend isn’t the one with the biggest summit. It’s the one where everyone gets home and wants to do it again.
How do you stop a lads’ weekend turning into a rescue?
Mountain rescue teams in the UK are volunteers, and a fair share of their call-outs are for walkers who are lost, tired or caught out by the weather. Middle-aged men who were fit in 1995 make up plenty of them.
Plan around the forecast, not the booking. Check a mountain-specific forecast, such as the Met Office mountain forecasts or the Mountain Weather Information Service, because wind and temperatures on the tops are often very different from the valley. Have a low-level Plan B ready for each day.
Navigation is a shared job, not one man’s phone. Carry a paper OS map and a compass, and make sure at least two of you can use them. Phone mapping apps are excellent, but batteries die in the cold, so bring a power bank.
Kit doesn’t need to be expensive, but it does need to work: proper waterproofs, warm layers, a hat and gloves even in summer on the high ground, a head torch, a basic first-aid kit and more food than you think you need. If someone hasn’t done much walking for years, or has a heart or joint condition, a word with their GP before a big weekend is sensible, not soft.
Go at the pace of the slowest walker and agree a turnaround time before you set off. In an emergency, call 999, ask for the police and then mountain rescue. It’s worth registering your phones for the emergency SMS service before you go, for when the signal is too weak for a call.
And follow the Countryside Code, or the Scottish Outdoor Access Code north of the border: leave gates as you find them, keep away from livestock (especially cows with calves), take every scrap of litter home and don’t light open fires where they can scorch ground or spread. Pack a trowel for the bit nobody likes to talk about.
In short
For an outdoor weekend with your mates, Scotland is the only part of the UK with a general right to wild camp, and Loch Lomond’s lochside zones need a permit from March to September. In England, wild camping is legal only on parts of Dartmoor. Elsewhere you need the landowner’s permission, so use campsites, bunkhouses or hostels in the Lake District, Eryri and the Peak District. Bothies are a great free option for groups of five or fewer, as long as you pick routes for the slowest walker and respect the weather.
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