Can I sleep in my van on Dartmoor?

No. Dartmoor National Park Authority states that there are no overnight stays in vehicles, campervans or motorhomes, and answers the question directly in its visiting FAQs: you cannot stay in a camper van free on Dartmoor. National Park byelaw 6.1 prohibits using any vehicle, caravan or structure other than a tent for camping on access land, and the Authority states you cannot park a motorhome or campervan overnight in laybys, at the roadside or in car parks. The permitted-camping rule on Dartmoor is a tent rule and it has never been anything else.

Do I need permission to backpack camp on Dartmoor?

Not in the areas the Authority shades on its camping map. It describes those as the places where you can and are encouraged to backpack camp without needing prior approval from the landowner. Outside those areas, and on enclosed land anywhere in the National Park, you need the landowner's permission as you would anywhere else in England.

How many nights can I stay in one spot?

One or two. The Backpack Camping Code says one or two nights maximum as part of a longer walk, and byelaw 6.3 prohibits camping in a tent on the same site for more than two consecutive nights.

Where do I go to the toilet?

You bury it. The Backpack Camping Code says to bury poo and used toilet paper under at least 15cm of turf, which means carrying a trowel. There are no bins and no toilets on the open moor, and the Authority asks you to keep away from streams and rivers. If that is not something you want to deal with, the Authority's own advice is to use a campsite.

Is wild camping legal in the rest of England and Wales?

No, not as a general right. Camping on someone's land without their permission is trespass. Dartmoor is the notable exception, under the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985. Scotland is a separate regime with a statutory right of responsible access, which is why so much writing about wild camping in the UK is wrong: it treats one country's rule as the whole island's.

Can I light a fire or use a stove?

No fires. Byelaw 8 prohibits lighting a fire on access land and the Backpack Camping Code prohibits open fires and BBQs. A properly constructed camping stove or cooker is allowed under the byelaw, used so as not to cause danger of or damage by fire.

Dartmoor wild camping: tents only, and what that means for vans

Dartmoor backpack camping is tents only. It does not permit vans, motorhomes or campervans, and it never has. If you arrived at this page because you heard Dartmoor is the one place in England you are allowed to stay overnight, that is true, and it is a rule about a tent you carried in on your back. Dartmoor National Park Authority puts it in three words on its own camping page: no overnight stays in vehicles, campervans or motorhomes.

That is the whole answer for anyone traveling in a vehicle. The rest of this page is what the rule actually is, for the people it does cover.

Why Dartmoor is the exception

There is no general right to wild camp in England or Wales. Pitching a tent on land without the owner’s permission is trespass, and the practical answer almost everywhere is to ask or to book a campsite.

Dartmoor is different because of the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985, which secured public access on foot and horseback to the Dartmoor commons. Whether that Act also covered camping went through the courts, and the National Park Authority records the result on its Byelaw Review FAQs page: a Supreme Court judgment issued on 21 May 2025 ruled that backpack camping was allowed on Dartmoor under the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985.

Scotland is a third thing again, and not a variation on this one. It has a statutory right of responsible access that covers lightweight camping across most unenclosed land, not a single national park exception. If Scotland is where you are headed, read the Scotland guide instead, because almost nothing on this page transfers.

Where you can pitch

The Authority publishes an interactive camping map showing the parts of the commons where backpack camping is permitted. It asks you to check it before you plan a trip, and it is the document that decides the question. Areas it does not shade are not covered, whatever the internet says about a particular tor.

Check the shading for the dates you are going, and pitch inside it. A tor named in an article is not evidence the ground under it is open.

One thing to know before you plan a route: part of the mapped area lies inside the military range danger areas. The boundaries are marked on the ground with red and white posts and warning notices, and the public has access except when the ranges are in use for live firing. Check the published firing times for your dates.

The conditions

The Backpack Camping Code sets these:

Lightweight tent and equipment that fits in a backpack you can carry.
One or two nights maximum, as part of a longer walk or expedition.
Small tents that blend into the landscape, out of sight from roads and buildings.
No more than 6 people in a group.
No open fires or BBQs.
Take all litter home. There are no bins.
Bury poo and used toilet paper under at least 15cm of turf, so carry a trowel.
Do not pollute streams or rivers.
Take extra care during lambing and ground nesting bird season, 1 March to 31 July.

The byelaws are the enforceable version, and they put numbers on two things the Code words gently. Byelaw 6.2(b): no tent within 100 metres of any public road, or in any enclosure. Byelaw 6.3: no more than two consecutive nights on the same site. Byelaw 8 prohibits fires but allows a properly constructed camping stove.

The Authority is also blunt about who this is not for, and it is worth quoting the shape of it: if you worry about carrying your rubbish out, need a bin or a toilet, or need more facilities, use a campsite instead. That is the Authority’s advice, not ours.

If you are in a van

Book a site. The Authority publishes a searchable list of campsites and caravan parks on and around the National Park, and states that designated campsites are a must for large tents, campervans and motorhomes.

Two things that catch visitors out:

Car parks and laybys are not an option, and this is not new. Asked whether the rules for motorhomes had changed, the Authority answered no: you have never been able to stay overnight in motorhomes, camper vans or caravans in car parks and laybys. Stopping in a layby for a cup of tea and a look at the view is fine. Sleeping there is not.

The roads themselves may stop you. Some Dartmoor lanes and bridges rule out a large vehicle, and the Authority tells you not to trust satellite navigation to route you. It publishes a coach driver and motorhome route guide as a PDF, linked from its camping and motorhomes page. Plan the route before you commit to a site in the middle of the moor.

If the distinction between wild camping, free camping and a designated motorhome stopover is what you are actually trying to pin down, that is its own question: see wild camping vs free camping vs aires.

Before you go

The Authority’s own pages were written at different times and do not all carry the same date, so open the camping map and the byelaws page for the dates you are traveling rather than working from anything you read earlier in the year. Every claim on this page, cited to the Authority and dated, is at /rules/dartmoor-backpack-camping/.

Whatever the map or this page says, the posted notice and a Ranger’s direction on the ground beat both. The sign wins.

Sources

Where the original is not in English, the summary above is ours and the linked text is the authority.

Dartmoor wild camping: tents only, and what that means for vans

Why Dartmoor is the exception

Where you can pitch

The conditions

If you are in a van

Before you go

The questions people actually ask.

Keep reading.

Why Dartmoor is the exception

Where you can pitch

The conditions

If you are in a van

Before you go

The questions people actually ask.

Share it with the van chat.

Keep reading.