Campsite advice needed!

[Hard-Drive]

This year I have a plan to load up the Defender with the missus, our (by then) 6 month old son, tent, bikes and that kind of thing. In my mind, I will be able to teach him from an early age how to make fire, shoot bears, and do a wheel bearing change using nothing more than a Leatherman, however I suspect the reality will be attempting to put a tent up singlehanded whilst mum attends to his sudden demands!

Now as a responsible human being I realise that camping metres away from another tent and risking keeping strangers awake with any crying etc isn't cricket (in fact in sailing circles a pirate flag on the mast is the symbol for "we have kids...raft up to us at your risk!) and quite frankly noisy campsites with people crammed in and kids running riot is my idea of hell.

Now, I have in my mind an "ideal" campsite, that would be perfect for our needs. It would be something like this...

-In a nice area (Derbyshire, Lakes, Northumberland, Wales or Scottish borders or anywhere picturesque)
-Some great big sprawling farm or similar where we can go and park in the corner away from others for some peace and quiet...for both sides!
-Still have a shower block somewhere...even if it's a quick ride in the Landy...for the inevitable "he needs a wash" moments
-No stupid rules about no fires/no BBQs
-Decent pub somewhere near
-If it was by a lake or sand dunes, perhaps reachable by a mild green lane or track, that would be nirvana...

Does such a place exist?

Thanks in advance!

[C.A.R.]

The places I've been looking at seem to suit your requirements better than mine - I've literally just posted a thread in here about my predicament.

I'm trying to book the New Forest, and the Roundhill campsite (for example) suits your description nicely. There are 'pockets' secluded away from the main site where you could pitch up away from everyone else.

As for camp fires / BBQs, you'll struggle with those anywhere that is considered 'protected' or a national park...like the New Forest.

[Crush]

Golden Cap in Dorset has a 'wild camping' field

http://goldencapholidaypark.co.uk/holiday-options/...

[tex200]

I think this may tick most of your boxes.

http://www.hay-on-wye-camping.co.uk/Walkers.htm

Up the hill from hay-on-wye - really nice owners and great views from the field. It really is pretty basic but it doesn't suffer from silly rules.

[Lady Summerisle]

This should tick all the boxes: https://www.nantcolwaterfalls.co.uk/

Loads for kids to do without annoying adults. There's rope swings in the woods, streams, pools, waterfalls and they actively encourage campfires!

[mrtwisty]

This place might be right up your street. Peak District/Staffs moorland borders, lots of greenlaning spots nearby, basic but with a good shower, quiet and with plenty of room. Love it myself, can't wait for the weather to get a bit warmer.

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/sites/details.asp?revi...

[otherman]

This ticks them all. There's a rule that you don't pitch within 20m of anyone else. In practice we've had a whole field to ourselves. The web pics are a bit missleading there....they must have been taken on their busiest weekend on record.
http://www.shellisland.co.uk/camping.html

[Hard-Drive]

otherman said:

This ticks them all. There's a rule that you don't pitch within 20m of anyone else. In practice we've had a whole field to ourselves. The web pics are a bit missleading there....they must have been taken on their busiest weekend on record.
http://www.shellisland.co.uk/camping.html

Well, took me a while to reply, but we've just booked Shell Island. Hoping the Defender to get us to some pitches a bit more out of reach or normal cars.

Anyway, a 7 month old baby, a 30 year old Land Rover, and 8 nights in the wettest country on the planet...what could possibly go wrong

[Hard-Drive]

So then, Shell Island. Well, it certainly ticked every one of the boxes that I'd put in the original post so many thanks for the recommendation otherman. We pitched our trailer tent on the cliff top overlooking the beach, and had a couple of wonderful evenings sat on the Defender "roof top bar" watching the sun go down. One of my Facebook mates said "are you sure you're in Wales?" when he saw the pics!



The reviews are mixed on Google, and it's clear that they have recently spent a lot of money on the loos/showers, although there are nowhere near enough of them (allegedly because they aren't allowed to build any more which seems a bit odd). And they do need to provide loo brushes! However, there are some downsides, and they are quite significant.

One, is the scale of the place. Whilst on the one hand you have a huge amount of scope for pitching in so many locations, nothing can really prepare you for the size of the operation. You queue to get in. You queue to get out. Reception is a bank of four staff, and a queue. The main loo and shower block will usually have 50 cars parked outside it. Where the approach causeway joins the road, there are some bottlenecks due to residents parking, and quite simply the road cannot deal with the volume of traffic trying to use it. The pics that are on the website were clearly taken at a much, much quieter time.

The second, and this is said slightly tongue in cheek in a PH way, but is sadly very true, is the clientele. Put it like this, Shell Island really needs to feature in the PH "a bit caaaaahncil" thread. If you laid out all the Adidas stripe on display, it would go three times around the globe. Nine times if you separated the three stripes into one. There's more acres of tattoos than there are camping fields, and I reckon at least 65% of the total production run of Vauxhall Zafiras was onsite when we were there too. One family decided to pitch far too close to our neighbour, who pointed out the 20m rule, and were told "I can pitch where I want". Needless to say the family in question then spent the next few days communicating with each other by shouting from dawn till midnight...FFS.

We drove through another field and there's another family with trance pumping out of their car at 100 odd decibels...now I happen to like trance played at 100 decibels but not in the middle of a camping field ruining everyone else's holiday. And then our other neighbours, who left their disposable beach BBQs on the beach, and their bag of rubbish where their tent was when they left. Without wishing to sound too snobby and PH about things, I appreciate that for some people camping at Shell Island is their main holiday, but why the hell do they have to behave like animals all the time with zero regard for anyone else.

Normal traffic rules are supposed to apply, however the done thing seems to be drive round with a can of Red Stripe on the go, with your older kids hanging out the window/sunroof, and younger kids on your lap behind the wheel. Common sense is in short supply it seems...some brain donor decided to attempt to drive across the flooded causeway on Friday night, on a high spring tide, in the dark, in a huge gale. Well, his car got swept off the road, he got swept away from the car, and the coastguard had to get him out of the water by helicopter. And even as we were leaving, a family were waiting on one side of the road looking at us coming down it for some time (big slightly modifed Defender, full of gear, bikes on roof, and towing), and at the last minute Dad decided to almost throw himself in front of us pulling his lad along for the ride too. All Mum can do (not spotting the open drivers window) is say "I can't belive he did'nt fa'ing stop for us innit" to her daughter.

Grrrr, rant over. Don't get me wrong, we might...míght...go back but the sad thing is it's a beautiful spot that is just totally overcrowded and over-run with chavs in the school holidays. Never, ever go there in school holidays.

[Some Gump]

OP,

try plankey mill in Northumberland. Cooking sausages on a wood fire using only twig utensils is mandatory.