Wild camping in Snowdonia needs the permission of whoever owns the land, and that is almost never the National Park.
Camping in a car park or on a roadside verge is never allowed, and neither is sleeping in a campervan there.
The firm answer surprises people, because the hills look open and the rule in Scotland is different. Here is where it comes from, and what to do if you still want a night out.
What the National Park actually says
The Eryri National Park Authority puts it in one sentence on its camping page.
“Wild camping is not permitted anywhere in Eryri without prior permission from the landowner or farmer.”
The word to notice is anywhere.
The reason is ownership. The Authority says it owns little land, so it cannot give consent on anyone else’s.
Its list of land it cannot speak for covers most of what a walker crosses:
- farmland
- state and private forest
- land owned by the National Trust, the conservation charity
- riverside and coastal land
- land mapped as open country under the access law
You will read online that wild camping is tolerated above a certain height. No such exception is on the Authority’s page, and a forum post is not permission.
Walking there is not the same as camping there
The right to roam in England and Wales comes from the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, usually shortened to CROW. Schedule 2 of the Act lists what that right does not include, and camping is on that list.
So a hillside shaded as access land on your map is somewhere you may walk freely. Pitching a tent on it still needs the landowner’s permission.
Car parks, lay-bys and campervans
No car park in the park is a place to spend the night, in a tent or in a vehicle.
- Tents: camping in car parks or on roadside verges “is not allowed at any time”, in the Authority’s words.
- Campervans and caravans: the Authority says staying overnight in a car park is not permitted in the National Park.
- Lay-bys and the roadside: avoid them too.
This matters most at popular walking start points, where an early start tempts people to sleep in the car.
The realistic early options are the park and ride or the first Sherpa’r Wyddfa bus. Neither involves a night in the car park.
Why Scotland is different
Many walkers arrive expecting the Scottish rule.
In Scotland, camping is part of the public right of access. The Scottish Outdoor Access Code is the official guide to those rights.
It allows “lightweight camping in a tent, in small numbers and for no more than two or three nights in one place”.
Wales has no such right. Eryri sits under the CROW Act, and Schedule 2 is where camping drops out.
If you want a night in the hills anyway
The legal route is to ask before you go. Most of the park is privately owned and much of it is farmed, and the Authority’s wording is “the landowner or farmer”.
Ask at the farm nearest your planned pitch. If you cannot tell who owns the land, choose another location.
With permission, the Authority asks you to follow its Eryri Wild Camping Code. The main points, in short:
- Camp high and off the beaten track, well away from houses and farms.
- Pitch late in the day and leave early.
- Stay for one night only.
- Keep to one or two tents, with no groups.
- Light no fires and no disposable barbecues. Cook on a gas stove, with care.
- Go to the toilet at least 30 m from any water or path, bury waste at least 15 cm deep, and carry paper and sanitary items out.
- Take away all litter and food scraps.
- Move on without argument if a landowner asks you to.
Plan for the toilet rule before you go. A small camping trowel weighs little and helps you reach 15 cm on stony ground. The paper goes in a bag and comes home.
The Amazon link above is an affiliate link. Should you buy through it, a small commission comes back to the site, and your price stays as it was.
The last line of the Code is the one to keep. If you are in any doubt about whether you can camp, choose another location.
A night high in the hills means staying through the evening and morning weather. Read the mountain forecast for both, not just the walk in.
Where to sleep instead
Stay at an official campsite, booked well ahead.
- Campsites: many official sites also take campervans, but some are tents only and some turn caravans away, so check before you book. They fill quickly from April to September.
- Youth hostels: there are YHA (Youth Hostels Association) hostels inside the park, and they book up too.
Midweek is easier to book in summer. Weekends are the busiest, for the hostels as well as the campsites.
A campsite in the valley still gives you the early start. It just leaves the tent at the bottom.
When this answer changes
It changes in one way. Only a landowner’s yes changes it, and the Code still applies once you have it.
A very small tent, leaving before dawn or having camped there before without being asked to move changes nothing.
The usual kit for a day walk in Snowdonia covers the walk. A night out needs its own shelter, sleeping bag, sleeping mat and stove, and permission on top of it.
You may find an abandoned camp, with a burnt patch and a tent left behind. The Authority’s camping page points you to Gwynedd Council’s website to report it.
We compile and explain public route and safety information. We guide nobody and sell nothing on the hill.
Sources: Eryri National Park Authority, camping and wild camping, Eryri, campervans and motorhomes, Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, Schedule 2, Scottish Outdoor Access Code, camping.
