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Exploring the English countryside by van – and 4 good wildcamping spots

August 31, 2016 by Mike 14 Comments

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It’s easy to forget the nice places that sit on your doorstep. Sometimes you only realise this once you’ve been travelling and you come back to your home country.

I’ve been Exploring the North Yorkshire Moors in England. Let me show you what I found (in 14 pictures), and at the end I’ll show you some good places to camp – with or without a van.

The Yorkshire Moors is in the north of England. Here:

campervan-wildcamping-yorkshire-moors-map

Welcome to The Moors…

campervan-wildcamping-yorkshire-moors-view-dalby

The roads twist round the hills through small villages and farms

campervan-wildcamping-yorkshire-moors-road-winding

The small roads are best for exploring

campervan-wildcamping-yorkshire-moors-long-straight-road

Pink heather covers much of the land

campervan-wildcamping-yorkshire-moors-camping

campervan-wildcamping-yorkshire-moors-purple-heather

Cattle graze freely

campervan-wildcamping-yorkshire-moors-sheep

campervan-wildcamping-yorkshire-moors-cows

Much of the land is open access – free to roam

campervan-wildcamping-yorkshire-moors-open-access

Woodland covers about 22%

campervan-wildcamping-yorkshire-moors-forest-trees

It stretches right to the coast. This is whitby abbey

campervan-wildcamping-yorkshire-moors-whitby-abbey

It has the largest concentration of ancient trees in Northern England

campervan-wildcamping-yorkshire-moors-tall-trees

Home to toadstools

campervan-wildcamping-yorkshire-moors-mushrooms

And toads… or maybe frogs?

campervan-wildcamping-yorkshire-moors-toad

This was the sunset at Dalby hill (spot 4 on the map below)

campervan-wildcamping-yorkshire-moors-sunset-sky-leah-shann

Here are 4 places to camp

  1. Harwood Dale Forest. Quiet spot off the road and out of view: Google map link
  2. Silpho Forest carparking area with access to forest trail dirt track – can drive down here: Google map link
  3. Wheeldale Gill. By a stream in small valley with trail through woods: Google map link
  4. Danby Hill. Open gravel area. Very quiet with amazing views of sunrise and sunset: Google map link

campervan-wildcamping-yorkshire-moors-locations

Have you been here in your van? how did you find the wildcamping? we got moved once but found that it was generally not a problem. If you have any more places to add to this leave a comment  🙂

Oh and please share if you liked this post 🙂

Other UK posts: 10 day camper van and Europe’s biggest, filthiest, muddiest festival

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Filed Under: Living and travelling in a van Tagged With: travel, uk

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Comments

  1. Susie Southall says

    August 31, 2016 at 5:16 pm

    Great to see you’ve been wild camping south of the border without hassles…lovely pictures. Seems like vanners are much more likely to get moved on in England than Scotland, I can really recommend you come and explore the Highlands when you get a chance – September/October or May/June are the best months. So much wilderness and amazing things to see!

    Reply
  2. becida says

    August 31, 2016 at 6:22 pm

    I’m really enjoying your travels & England too!

    Reply
  3. William English says

    August 31, 2016 at 8:01 pm

    Having lived in Leeds for a few years sometime ago, the photos evoked some wonderful memories of the Yorkshire moors and the lush surrounding uniquely rolling countryside but sadly you failed to show any photos of any of the unique characters of the area especially in their working class pubs .:-)

    Reply
    • Mike @vandogtraveller.com says

      September 5, 2016 at 5:59 pm

      Cheers. Which working class pubs are you talking about? I did see some unique characters but they were mainly dressed in tweed, driving range rovers and shooting animals

      Reply
      • William English says

        September 5, 2016 at 6:44 pm

        I was recalling my two year sojourn in Leeds and being taken to what they called working men’s clubs replete with of course working men. Enjoyed their company,conversation,opinions which somehow personified much of the history of working class Brits

        Reply
  4. Игорь Самсонов says

    August 31, 2016 at 8:41 pm

    Nice!

    Reply
  5. Kevin Buchanan says

    August 31, 2016 at 9:09 pm

    some nice country there

    Reply
  6. Sacto Senior says

    September 2, 2016 at 4:20 am

    where is the download??? I paid for ebook but haven’t found it yet. I am not sacto senior. How was that name assigned to me? I feel more like “screwed customer”.

    Reply
  7. Sammi says

    September 5, 2016 at 2:26 pm

    Thats a frog. Nice one dude! We’ve vanning about the UK now- I loved Yorkshire!

    Reply
  8. FredNerx says

    September 7, 2016 at 5:16 am

    I’d forgotten how beautiful the moors were. Thanks, Mike.

    Reply
  9. Phil the Ink says

    September 14, 2016 at 2:36 pm

    Easy to forget that the UK is part of Europe and should be travelled in the same way. My van nears completion ready for a January departure – would love some advice on insurance Mike if you have any?

    Reply
  10. Roger tomlin says

    September 26, 2016 at 10:45 pm

    Hello great post, I’m from Scarborough and one of the best places to grow up with the moors on the door stop! There are loads of places to camp on or near the coast, ravenscar, car park at sandsend under the arch is good. The lion inn on Blakey ridge is a good spot land lord doesn’t ideally mind, just have a meal and few pints! All the best roger!

    Reply
  11. Morry Mashado says

    December 30, 2016 at 4:49 am

    Yorkshire the best area of a great country, we Australians start in that area as Margrit has an uncle in the Ilkily area . twice we have purchased an old van and once we just hired a windowless Transit delivery van a put a mattress on the floor and all our cooking gear in plastic boxes from the 2 pound shop. Other times we have hired a camper. We free camp every where and have only been moved on a couple of times, shower in the forests or secluded side roads by dropping a curtain from an extendable broom handle between the back doors with a plastic ground sheet hung off it buy fence wire. All villages have toilets as well as supermarkets so there is no need for portable units. We hired a canal boat twice and that is another good way to see England for a week or two.

    Reply
  12. Suzanne Taylor says

    September 18, 2017 at 12:50 pm

    I was lucky enough to grow up in a little village on these moors, right next to Danby where you camped.
    Lovely blog and photos☺️
    The heather is looking particularly amazing this year!
    We do lots of wild camping with and without the van.
    Remember to leave nothing but footprints people ??

    Reply

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