Best places to practise Bushcraft in Wales

Wales truly is an amazing country, with flowing mountain ranges and vast forests, it has everything you could want from the wild and couldn’t be a better place to practice your bushcraft skills.

In the UK there are only 2 areas where you are allowed to wild camp, which is almost all of Scotland and parts of Dartmoor, however, one of my personal favorites is Wales which has many campsites available all over. Having said that if you have the landowner’s permission then you can camp anywhere you like.

The Snowdonia Range

Mountains, rivers and forest  

Snowdonia is the tallest mountain in all of Wales and England and is surrounded by miles of other, almost as tall mountains and hills. The 2nd biggest mountain in Wales is called Cadir Idris and is located within the same range. Anywhere on both mountains can offer stunning views, flowing streams and forested areas, with various campsites surrounding both mountains.

Llansteffan

Estuary and coastal foraging

This is a small village which has a campsite nearby and at a glance looks like any other small vilage by the sea, but this is one of the best areas to practise some of that coastal foraging.

The village sits on the mouth of a large estury and has a very large flat beach when the tide is out, filled with cockles. This is one of the best areas in all of Wales for gathering cockles and also has numerous other tasty beach treats to find. Mussles grow in small clumps here along side winkles, mussels and a few shrimp stuck in the various rockpools.

Its also a good place to fish for flounder and bass and the hill nest to the town is covered in wild garlic, along with various nut trees and few wild herbs. Without a doubt this is one of the best places in wales to practise your beach foraging skills, and when you get tired theres a rather nice castle on top of the hill to have a walk round.

Machynlleth

Hills, rivers, woods and wildlife

This ancient small town was the home of the welsh parliment during the reign of Owain Glyndŵr during the 15th century, but for such a big claim the town itself is rather small. Various campsites are close to the town and it has a quaint selection of small shops, but the bushcraft comes from the surrounding lands.

Several large hills and forests surround the town along side many streams and a large twisting river. Everything can be practised here in the surrounding area as it offers all types of landscape, but the best thing about this area is the wild life.

Kites, buzzards and various birds of prey are often seen here, and it is a common area for bats and other creatures of the night to be seen. There are even some animals that are only very rarely seen elsewhere, such as badgers and even slow worms which are now a protected species.

Aberporth to Fishguard coastline

Cliff and beach foraging

The distance between the 2 points is about 30 miles, but there are some plentiful wild foods to be had along the way, as well as several beachs and a large estury at poppet sands which is good for flounder and bass fishing.

Towards the end of summer the route closer to the Aberporth side is rich in blackthorn tree’s, which produce a huge quantity of sloes, and the numerous beachs present the oppertunity to gather shellfish and if your lucky some samphire. There is also a large amount of wild water cress in the stream at mwnt which also has a steep hill where porpouise, dolphin and seals can be seen.

The route also has a number of interesting sites to stop off at, such as a couple of old lime kilns, a huge flat beach at poppet sands and witchs caldron, which is a small land bridge crossing an area where the sea has carved out the rock below the path.

Numerous campsites line the route, with a large one at mwnt since its a popular tourist spot but wild camping wont be an option as the path is lined with farmland almost all the way.

Brecon Beacons

Mountain range

This mountain range is where the British army do much of their training and has long been a popular spot for hikers. There are some large pine forests dotted around the mountains and numerous small steams running down the valleys.

The hill themselves are rather bare and mostly covered is short grass and some scrubland plants. There are some areas where billberries can be found and you can often see some of the more uncommon birds of prey here, but generally theres little wildlife compared to other areas to go bushcrafting.

The best thing about these mountains is they present an excellent oppertunity to practise your navigation. The range itself is quite large and can be difficult to find your way when your not standing right on one of the peaks. The army use the mountain range to practise navigation on and also as an endurence test for many an unlucky soldier who’s been made to run over them.

If your after a little more forest than the range has to offer then you can head south to the connecting Afan forest park which has many a large forest.