With its rolling mountain ranges and huge flowing forests, Wales is one of the best spots to practise some bushcraft. It has three main mountain ranges and due to its shape, a huge amount of coastline and dozens of beach’s, giving you a huge amount of choice in a reasonably small country.
Here’s a list of places were you can get the best experience and the most practise:
Snowdonia – Navigation, Endurance, Camping
Mount Snowdon is the highest mountain in Wales and stands at 1,085 metres tall. The Snowdonia mountain range contains many peaks, all of which are very well documented and have many maps based on them. Because this mountain is so popular you wont have to go far to find a campsite, and apparently wild camping on the mountain is allowed as long as you get permission first.
This would be one of the best places to practise some navigation skills, especially trying to find nautical directions without a compass and experiencing the weather changes at such a high altitude. Unfortunately its a very poor area when it comes to foraging, and most of the mountains contain very little forest so camping and wild foods will be out the question.
Preseli hills – Long distance hiking
The preseli hills aren’t the biggest set of bumps Wales has to offer, but their gentle slopes make for an excellent hiking experience. There are numerous iron age monuments that scatter the hill tops and some excellent views of the countryside.
The main downside to this area is that the hills are very bare, and in places the ground can be very wet and marsh-like. Handy if you want to practise some water purifying but can be difficult to walk on.
Brecon Beacons – Foraging, Camping, Hiking and navigational skills.
This is the place were the British S.A.S do part of their recruiting, with a horrific 16 mile run carrying heavy backpacks running up and down the slopes. This test is so hard that some of the people who tried out in the past have died from exhaustion.
Fortunately if you’re not trying out for one of the best special forces units in the world then this place can be a wonderful experience. The area covers well over 1000 square kilometres and has everything you could ever want to practise some bushcraft.
Forested mountain sides, numerous lakes and streams and a decent amount of foraging make this one of the top choices. Snowdonia is bigger and more impressive, the preseli hills make for much easier walking, but the Brecon Beacons really do have it all.
The forests contain many types of mushrooms and edible leaves and fish can be caught in some of the bigger lakes, though make sure you have permission first.
Clocaenog Forest – Foraging, camping, crafting
Wales doesn’t really have any huge forests, and what it does have doesn’t even come into the top ten biggest in the UK. However the closet thing would be Clocaenog Forest, which covers around 40 square miles and has a nice blend of pine and mixed trees.
This is a great place to work on some crafting skills, as there’s enough remote places to use your knife and axe without scaring the crap out of people. Just make sure you have permission from the landowner of whatever part of the forest you’re in.
The Towy Esturey – Foraging
Llansteffan is a small village located on the mouth of the Towy estuary and is one of the best spots for seafood in all of Wales. There are huge commercial sized cockle beds on the further out areas of the beach, and mussels can be found in isolated rock pools.
The hill next to the beach with the castle on it is covered in wild garlic and a good selection of edible leaf plants and a few berries. There’s a place to camp in the village but no where to pitch a tent in the wild. The area is reasonably small but offers a huge amount of things to forage, and nothing beats fire cooking some freshly gathered cockles and mussels.
Where else to look?
There are many places in Wales that are quite remote, especially in the south-west of the country. Driving down some of the back roads will see you discover a mystical looking forest or the perfect river spot, but because the country is so small you cant really find anywhere that’s classed as wilderness.
I have learned something from personal experience about Wales when it comes to seeking land permission to camp or have a fire, or generally be on someones land doing something. If you are polite and simply ask, then as long as they don’t have livestock in the area then there’s a very high chance they’ll say yes. Be polite and be safe, and you’ll be surprised of all the areas that open up to you.