Bushcraft: Choosing a Location

Unfortunately, we live on a pretty crowded little island where we have little ‘right to roam’ and enjoy the outdoors in freedom (Scotland is a bit different).

All land is owned by someone, and it is important that when you go out to practise bushcraft skills, you are not trespassing, breaking any laws or by-laws, causing any environmental damage or any “alarm and despondency” among the general public. In this era of paranoia about guns and knives etc., it is not unheard of for ‘concerned’ members of the public to call the authorities after they have seen ‘knife and axe-armed’ men in ‘military uniform’ wandering the woods. So, be discreet!

If you cannot find a bushcrafting group (or do not want to join one) in your local area, then your best chance of acquiring a bushcraft ‘permission’ is to approach landowners direct. Have a prepared proposition to present to the landowners of why you want to go into their woods, what you intend doing there and how it will not be harmful to the woods, and will actually benefit the landowner. Some landowners will give you a quick “no!” for an answer – they are generally busy people and will be worried about damage to the woods, squatters and legal liabilities if you hurt yourself on their property etc, and feel the simplest way of proceeding is not to have strangers on the land. Fair enough – it is their property after all – so say a polite “thank you for your time” and try elsewhere. Other landowners can see advantages to having you visit their woods (especially if you point them out), such as having friendly eyes and ears in the woods discouraging those without permission to go there from venturing onto the landowners’property (poachers, fly-tippers, squatters etc), someone in the woods tidying them up, reporting back to them on any problems such as tree disease, fox and badger numbers, game population and more.

Land Ahoy

In the past I have gained permission to run courses on National Park managed land, in country parks, in community woodland and in privately owned woodland, and I know of bushcraft groups that have regular meets on private land, Scout Association campsites, privately owned campsites, church owned land etc. When asking permission ‘sell’ yourself well as an asset on the land, not a liability. At present I have two ‘base camp’ bushcraft sites in woodland near my home and both were arranged by first finding out who owned the land (often the hardest part of getting a permission) then approaching the owner in person. The following illustrates how I acquired my first permission.

I was lucky in that the owners of the wood I was interested in using lived in the same village as I do and we recognised each other from chance encounters in daily life. One evening I knocked on their door and explained what I wanted – in this case their permission to camp in the woods for a weekend while I ran a bushcraftbased canoeing course for members of a buschcraftuk.com website community.

After ground rules were agreed (no open fires, no cutting green wood and other such conditions) I had my permission. An offer of payment was refused – luckily for me. Offers to pay a donation of small amounts of cash to use a wood often makes things easier and on some of the sites I use I donate (around £5 per night) to charity. After the weekend, the landowner inspected the wood and was impressed that he could not see which areas we had used (all part of the ‘leave no trace’ ethos of bushcraft) and I was able to extend my permission to cover hosting ‘meets’ of small groups of my friends purely to practise bushcraft skills.

Being able to alert the landowner to the fact that a neighbouring farmer was cutting down and taking trees from the side of the wood earned me ‘Brownie points’ and now, after several years of good relations, my permission has extended to my being welcome to have a semipermanent base camp area with furniture and camp fireplace in situ, permission to cut small amounts of green wood, foraging and taking fallen wood, not only for use on site but to take home for firewood. All this costs me is a few bottles of homemade Birch Sap wine per year – made from birch sap harvested from trees on the site!

Leave No Trace

Once you have a ‘permission’ you need to look after it. You are there to enjoy the woods, so you do not want to degrade them in any way, and this is where the ‘leave no trace’ ethic comes into play. Obviously you should pack out all the litter you generate – food wrappings etc. and any other litter you find. I have collected massive amounts of glass, oilcans, old plastic etc. found in ‘unused’ woodland. Rubbish is left in some strange places, often by those who should know better. I have found fertiliser sacks and silage wrappings, chainsaw oil cans, beer cans by the dozen, drinks bottles, discarded nappies in pristine woodlands, and even an enamel ‘po’ miles from habitation!

Old, abandoned fire scars from unauthorised camps should be tidied up and your own presence should not be detectable once you leave, unless you have permission to leave a reusable base camp presence. To avoid your fire (if you have permission to light one) damaging the woods, it needs sensible preparation. Clear the area where you are going to have the fire and the area around it of anything that might burn, such as leaf litter and twigs. If there is turf, cut and store the turf. Dig a pit to hold the fire and remove any roots that might carry a smouldering fire underground. Ensure nothing overhangs the fire in a way to cause scorching or burning. Ensure that any sparks that fly from the fire are safely put out. When you are ready to leave, dowse the fire thoroughly with lots of water until you can pick up the ashes and spread them around the area by hand. Conceal any half-burnt logs. Replace the cut turf or spread leaf litter back over the cleared area to camouflage the fire site. If you return to re-use the area, please use your old fire site to avoid sterilising another patch of ground.

Base Camp Basics

At my main ‘base camp’ we have built a raised fire to avoid possible underground root fires etc.

First, we dug a pit some 1.5 x 2-metres and covered it with a layer of twigs and brush and used logs to build up walls. The brush was then covered in a deep layer of earth and the fire built on top of this. On other sites we have built ‘altar fires’, where logs are stacked to build a raised platform, which is covered in a deep layer of soil to take the fire.

If you have permission to cut green wood for tools etc, do not clear-harvest an area but take wood from different areas to spread the impact and cut the wood cleanly, so as to reduce the chance of introducing disease to the tree. If you are collecting dead wood for fires, again have a large collecting area. Dead wood standing or fallen is an important habitat for the insects that are food for other wildlife.

Hygiene is important – it is worth digging a latrine trench (down-wind from camp and away from watercourses) and toilet paper should be burnt (unless there is a fire risk) before you back-fill to bury the ‘remains’. Mark the spot when you leave so you do not dig it again on your next trip!

The ideal bushcraft site would be nice mixed woodland with some trees nicely spaced for hanging hammocks and tarps, and flat areas for ‘ground dwelling’ under tarps or in tents. The best spot would be part way down a slope that is steep enough for good drainage, but not steep enough to make camping difficult. The top of a slope may be too breezy, the bottom a cold spot. There should be water within reasonable distance – stream, river, lake, standpipe or cattle trough – but no risk of the site flooding. The site should be sheltered from strong winds, but have enough breeze to deter midges and with exposure to the morning sunrise or views of the sunset. No site should be threatened by overhanging dead trees or branches!

I have yet to find the perfect site, but have used many that have enough good points to outweigh the bad.