Wild camping in England and Wales
No, and the Dartmoor ruling everybody quotes does not change it. What the law actually gives you, why it excludes vehicles by name, and where you can legitimately stay instead.
There is no general right to wild camp in England or Wales, and no right at all to do it in a vehicle. The one famous exception — Dartmoor — is a right for people arriving on foot or on horseback, so it does not help a motorhome.
Everything below is about what the law actually says. The practical question — where you can genuinely stay — is at the end.
The default: you need permission
Land in England and Wales belongs to someone. Staying overnight without the landowner's permission is trespass. Trespass is normally a civil matter rather than a criminal one, which is why "it's only civil" gets repeated a lot — but it still means you can be asked to leave, and it is not a right to be there.
What the right of access actually gives you
The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 created a public right of access to mapped "access land" — much of England and Wales's mountain, moor, heath, down and registered common. People often hear "right to roam" and assume it covers sleeping there.
It does not. Schedule 2 of the Act lists what the right does not entitle you to do, and two entries settle it:
| Schedule 2 | What it excludes |
|---|---|
| Paragraph 1(s) | "camping, hang-gliding or para-gliding" |
| Paragraph 1(a) | driving or riding "any vehicle other than an invalid carriage" |
So camping is excluded by name, and vehicles are excluded by name. The right of access is a right to walk there in the daytime. It was never a right to stay.
Dartmoor — the exception everybody misquotes
(The full Dartmoor guide covers the practical side.)
Dartmoor is genuinely different, and in May 2025 the Supreme Court confirmed it.
Darwall v Dartmoor National Park Authority [2025] UKSC 20, handed down 21 May 2025, was about section 10(1) of the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985, which gives the public a right of access to the commons "on foot and on horseback for the purpose of open-air recreation".
The landowners argued that camping was not "open-air recreation". The Supreme Court disagreed, unanimously. Camping is open-air recreation, and the right includes wild camping on the Dartmoor Commons without asking the landowner.
Now the part that gets left out of the headlines. The Court also held that the words "on foot and on horseback" describe how you may get there, not what you may do once you arrive. The right belongs to people who walked or rode in.
A motorhome cannot exercise this right. You cannot drive onto the commons, so you cannot arrive in the way the Act requires. Parking at the roadside and sleeping in the vehicle is a different thing entirely, governed by the road, any Traffic Regulation Order over it, and the byelaws — not by the 1985 Act.
If you take one thing from this page: "wild camping is legal on Dartmoor" is true, and it has nothing to do with your van.
What about Wales?
The same Countryside and Rights of Way Act framework applies, with the same Schedule 2 exclusions. There is no Welsh equivalent of the Dartmoor Commons Act and no Welsh equivalent of Scotland's access rights. Some Welsh authorities are also active users of Public Spaces Protection Orders on coastal car parks — see what is a PSPO.
And Scotland?
Different country, different law, and still not the answer people expect. Scotland's access rights are real but they apply to people on foot, not to motor vehicles. The full explanation.
So where can you actually stay?
This is the useful part, and none of it requires anyone to bend a rule.
- Pub, farm and business car parks, by arrangement. The landowner can give permission, because it is their land. This is the largest source of genuinely legal overnight stops in the UK and it is chronically under-used
- Aires and council-provided motorhome parking. A growing number of authorities provide them, usually with a service point
- Car parks where the order permits it. Whether you may sleep in a car park depends on the Traffic Regulation Order attached to it, not on the signage you remember — how to tell
- Certificated locations and small sites. Five-van sites run under exemption certificates, often on farms
- Campsites. Obvious, and sometimes the right answer
The two things that catch people out
A Public Spaces Protection Order can ban sleeping in a vehicle even where parking is lawful. It is a behaviour restriction rather than a parking one, and breaching it is a criminal offence carrying a fixed penalty. What a PSPO is.
A height barrier is not a legal statement. It is a physical one, and it is the most common reason a van cannot use a car park that would otherwise be fine. Height barriers explained.
In one line
England and Wales give you a right to walk on access land, not to sleep on it, and Schedule 2 excludes camping and vehicles by name — so the legal overnight options are permission from a landowner, an aire, or a car park whose order allows it.
Sources: Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, Schedule 2 · Dartmoor Commons Act 1985, section 10(1) · Darwall and another v Dartmoor National Park Authority [2025] UKSC 20 (21 May 2025).
Last reviewed 22 August 2026. Law changes, and byelaws and orders vary by place. General guidance, not legal advice.