The best place to practise Bushcraft in the UK
Without a doubt the best single place to practise your bushcraft skills in the UK is Scotland. There’s 2 main reasons for this, first of all it has the tallest mountains and the most remote wilderness, and the second reason is that Scotland is the only UK country that allows wild camping throughout.
Wales and Ireland also have stunning scenery and mountains and make a fine place to do some bush crafting, but they cant compete with the scale of the Grampian mountain range or the almost untouched areas of the countries wilderness.
Scotland is also home to some interesting animals that cant be found anywhere else in the UK, such as the basking shark, wild cats and the Capercaillie which is a member of the grouse family.
(A Capercaillie calling out to find a mate. This strange looking bird can only be found in Scotland)
The remote areas are also home to some of the animals which you might never see anywhere in England, Ireland or Wales like huge red deer, otters, adders and certain birds of prey like the golden eagle and red kites.
As for where exactly to go your spoilt for choice. Scotland has 2 main national parks which are the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs national park starting just above Glasgow, or the Cairngorms national park north east of the Trossachs. Also anywhere north of those 2 areas is rather remote and you wont have to look far for somewhere to go, which brings me to the most important point of bush crafting in this country.
Scotland has the most remote areas of all the United Kingdom and there’s parts within the national park where you can be walking for up to 20 miles in between villages, and with the scale of the mountains and forests that’s easily an entire day of solid walking. The most important thing to remember is that its really easy to get lost here, and the country isn’t known for its nice weather.
A nice sunny day can turn into fog and heavy rain in a matter of a few minutes, and the tall hills and mountains can do a great job of blocking phone signals, so always make sure you have an escape plan when trekking across somewhere remote.
(One of the valleys running off Ben Nevis)
If you want to practise your skills safely and also love a good bit of history, the single best place you can go is to Hadrian’s wall, which runs from coast to coast at a length of 84 miles.
The wall twists and turns through woodland, hills and picturesque Scottish countryside and just in case you get stuck it also passes through a number of small towns and villages where you can stock up on supplies.
You will also be able to wild camp on the Scottish side at night and also pass a number of Roman ruins and various other ancient sites along the way. This walk is recommended for any skill level as it offers all the wilderness you could want with the safety of not getting lost on the way, as well as having the option of some assistance from the local villages should you need it.
Resources
For some further information about what there is to do and places you can stay in the country, heres a list of useful links to help you.
General information about where to stay and places to visit.
Wild life information and articles about local nature projects.
A huge list of camping site across most of the country.
News about local events and information on the countries plants and animals.