The Best No-Book UK Family Campsites: Pitching Up

by Rhonda Carrier
13 June 2008

With the strong Euro making parents look to holidays at home in 2008, and camping cooler than ever, the UK’s campsites are booking up earlier than ever. The following out-of-the-way sites don’t require advance reservations and will help you avoid the summer scrum as well as be spontaneous. They’re cheap as chips, to boot.

Note that many of the National Trust’s campsites around the country don’t take bookings.

CORNWALL
Treen Farm Campsite
Five kilometres shy of Land’s End, this a towel’s throw from some of England’s finest beaches – especially Pedn Vounder, a tiny isolated cove of golden sand accessed by a 10-minute clifftop walk and a rocky scramble from the campsite. At low tide you can walk along the sand from here to Green Bay and larger Porthcurno beach – a justly famous family favourite. There is even a professional theatre on this site, plus a shop selling organic produce from the farm itself, gorgeous views in every direction and a million other children for your kids to play with on the beach. Charges are £4/adult, £1.50–2/child according to age, and then £4 for a family-sized tent.

LAKE DISTRICT
Fisherground Farm Camping
If you’re looking for something with lots of activities for kids, this no-booking site in the heart of the lovely Eskdale valley has an adventure playground boasting a pond with rafts, a tree-house, a zip-wire and more. It also has its own station on the Ravenglass & Eskdale miniature steam railway. Because it caters to the family market, however, has a 10.30pm no-noise curfew. It’s best to roll up on a Sunday or midweek to ensure you get a pitch, and there’s a minimum two-night stay on summer-holiday weekends and three-night stay on a bank holiday. Prices are £5 per adult, £2.50 per child.

Side Farm Camping
This site right at the southern tip of Ullswater welcomes families and is great for lovers of watersports  (especially canoeing) and mountain-biking, as well as walking, so is great with active older children. There are several pubs and cafés within a 5km radius, but you can set up BBQs on the site too. You’re advised to arrive early in the day, or call ahead, in the high season. A tent pitch is £4.50 per adult, £3 per child, with cars an additional £2.

Syke Farm Camping Site
An extraordinarily scenic site, Syke Farm is just outside the village of Buttermere, with a lake and mountains on its doorstep but only a three minutes’ walk from good pubs, one with a beer garden beside a stream, and a tea-room. Arrive early to ensure a place. Adults are a fiver apiece, kids £1.50–3 depending on age.

Turner Hill Farm
Only large groups need to book ahead for this tranquil grassy site in the gorgeous and unspoilt Duddon Valley, at the heart of a network of footpaths leading over Cumbrian fells and villages, past rivers, crags and gorges. Facilities are limited to the basics, although there’s a new shower-and-toilet block with hot showers and fresh drinking water, and a pub 10 minutes’ walk away. It’ll cost you a princely £3 per adult per night, £1 for under-16s and for a car.

WALES
Shell Island
Though this is Europe’s largest campsite, covering some 300 acres, its ‘Golden Rule’ – that there must be at least 20 yards between tents the same field without prior agreement between campers – means it feels ‘wild’. You can pitch your tent between sand dunes and make camp-fires on the beach, and vehicle access over the causeway to the peninsula is possible only during low tide, making it all feel like an awfully big adventure. As there’s no booking, the website endeavours to give warning of the campsite, which is within the Snowdonia National Park, being full or likely to become full. Adults are £6-7, kids 3–15 £2.50–3 per night, according to season. For our guide to the best Welsh campsites, click here.

ISLE OF SKYE
Sligachan  Campsite
For a really remote feel, this dramatically set site is part of the family-run Sligachan Hotel, which is backed by the awesome Black Cuillin mountain and overlooking shimmering Loch Sligach. It’s a great spot for glen walking or cycling, and for tasting ales from its own micr0-brewery, which uses waters that run down from the mountain, while your kids enjoy the outdoor play area and, within Seumas’ Bar, either the toddler’s space with a ball pool, Lego and more, or the pool tables, dartboards, and electronic and board games. As well as the hotel and campsite, there’s a bunkhouse sleeping up to 20, a five-bedroom lodge, including a family room, and two cottages. Camping costs £4pp; stock up in advance on midge repellent as there are no shops nearby.

Other feature articles by Rhonda