Wild camping kit list: what to pack for a night on the hill

Written by James Frost, founder of Flaming Phoenix and the maker of Phoenix Bars. Updated November 2026.

Quick answer: For one night of wild camping in the UK you need a small, low-profile shelter, a three-season sleeping bag and insulated mat, a warm camp layer, waterproofs, water treatment, food that needs little or no cooking, a headtorch and the safety basics, packed into a 35 to 50 litre bag that weighs about 10kg all-in with mid-range kit. The rest is how you use it: pitch where you're allowed, arrive late, leave early and leave no trace.

This page covers the full list, the law in plain English, typical pack weights, and the one simplification that makes a first wild camp easier: you don't need a stove.

I sell food to people who sleep on hills for work and for fun, West Highland Way walkers and expedition teams among them, and the kit conversations keep coming back to the same points: you need less than you think, the heavy mistakes hide in the food bag and the just-in-case pile, and the first night out is ninety percent nerves about things that turn out to be simple. So this list comes with the nerves addressed.

Where you can actually wild camp in the UK

In Scotland, you have a legal right to wild camp on most unenclosed land under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, provided you follow the Scottish Outdoor Access Code: small numbers, short stays, away from buildings and roads, no fires, no trace. The main exception is parts of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, where seasonal byelaws mean you need a permit or a campsite between March and September. On Dartmoor, the Supreme Court settled the long legal fight in 2025 and backpack camping is lawful on the commons, following the park's code. Everywhere else in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, wild camping technically needs the landowner's permission; in practice, a discreet, high, single-night camp pitched at dusk and gone by breakfast has a long tolerated tradition in some upland areas, but treat that as custom rather than entitlement, and if you're ever asked to move on, be pleasant and move. The golden rules do most of the legal work for you: pitch late, leave early, stay small and quiet, light nothing, take everything home. Our guide to where wild camping is legal in the UK has the detail for each part of the country.

The pack

35 to 50 litres is plenty for one night, noticeably smaller than the 45 to 60 the full multi-day kit list works from, and a smaller bag is its own discipline. Line it with a dry bag or rubble sack; UK rain finds rain covers eventually.

How heavy should a wild camping pack be?

For one night, aim for about 10kg all-in, including food and a litre of water. Budget kit lands nearer 13kg and lightweight kit nearer 7kg. The pack, shelter and sleeping bag make up roughly 38 to 47% of the total at every level, and they account for well over half of the saving between budget and lightweight kit, so that is where weight comes off fastest. The figures below are approximate weights for typical kit sold in the UK.

Leaving the stove kit at home saves about 350 to 800g, but a filled half-litre flask weighs around 800g, so go stoveless for simplicity and discretion rather than to save weight. Waterproofs often end up worn rather than carried, which takes them off your back but not off the total.

Shelter: small, low, and the colour of the hill

A one-to-two person tent under 2kg in green or earth tones is the standard answer, pitched low-profile out of sight of paths, roads and houses. The romantic answer is a bivvy bag, just you, a waterproof sack and the sky, which is the lightest, stealthiest and most memorable way to do a clear night, with a tarp as the halfway house. First-timers: the tent. You'll sleep, and you'll go again, which is the point.

The sleep system

Same trio as any night out: three-season bag, insulated inflatable mat, and a pillow solved by stuffing your down jacket into a dry bag. UK hill nights get cold in August, and cold sleepers quit wild camping after one trip; if you invest anywhere, invest here. Full detail on choosing the trio sits in the multi-day list.

Clothing

Whatever you walked up in, plus a warm camp layer that goes on the moment you stop, a dry set for sleeping including the sacred dry socks, hat and gloves even in summer, and waterproofs regardless of the forecast. That's the lot. The second outfit stays home.

Water

Camp within reach of running water but pitch well back from it, and treat everything you drink with a filter or tablets however clean the stream looks. Carry a litre up for the evening and refill on the way out; water is the one weight you can largely outsource to the landscape.

The kitchen, and the case for not bringing one

A small gas stove, canister, pot and spork make the classic setup, and a hot evening meal on a hill is one of life's better dinners. The option most first-timers never hear about is to skip the stove entirely. A no-cook camp removes the faff, the washing up, the fire risk in dry spells and the biggest flame-and-light giveaway of a discreet pitch, and it costs you almost nothing: a filled flask from home covers the evening brew, dinner is a cold spread or a couple of high calorie bars, and breakfast is eaten while you walk out. It's how a lot of experienced campers do fast overnighters, and it's the simplest way to run a nervous first camp. I make Phoenix Bars, so I'm biased, but this is the camp they suit: up to 557 calories in a compact, 120g bar that needs no stove, no bowl and no flame, so one covers a cold dinner and another is breakfast on the walk out.

Food for one night

One night is forgiving: dinner, breakfast, and more daytime snacks than seems sensible, because hill appetite is real and an underfed camp is a cold one. The wild camping food guide has a full plan for the evening and the morning. Our guide to the best camping snacks picks the ones that keep without a fridge. Weight barely matters at this duration, so optimise for ease and morale over grams; the density arithmetic only starts to bite on multi-day carries. For those, our table of the lightest high calorie food for backpacking ranks common foods by calories per gram.

Favour things that survive a rucksack and need nothing done to them, our calorie-dense foods and high calorie snacks guides are full of candidates, and always pack one spare feed beyond the plan, the habit our emergency food guide is built on. The full eating strategy for longer routes lives in the hiking nutrition guide.

Safety and the small essentials

Headtorch with a red mode, which preserves night vision and makes your pitch far less noticeable, plus spare charge. Offline map on the phone and a paper map and compass you can actually use. Power bank, whistle, small first aid kit built around blisters and painkillers, and an emergency bivvy or foil shelter. Tell someone where you're headed and when you'll be back in signal. Then the kit that separates campers from litterers: a lightweight trowel and bags, everything carried out including toilet paper, plus midge repellent and a head net from late spring to autumn if you're anywhere Scotland-shaped.

First camp nerves, answered plainly

The toilet: walk at least 30 metres from any water, dig 15cm with the trowel, fill it in, and bag out your paper. It stops being a big deal the first time. Being found: it almost never happens with a late, high, discreet pitch, and if it does, a friendly apology and a moved tent ends it. Sleeping alone: the noises are sheep, wind and your own tent, the actual risks out there are weather and navigation, not people, and both are managed by the forecast, the map and telling someone your plan. The best first camp is a hill you already know, one night, good forecast, an escape route home in under an hour. Confidence compounds from there.

What to leave behind

Fires and disposable barbecues, always and everywhere: they scar ground, start moor fires and announce you to the whole glen. Speakers. Glass. The camp chair, the second pan, the big towel, and the just-in-case bag. If it doesn't keep you warm, dry, fed, found or legal, it stays home.

The condensed wild camping kit list

Pack: 35 to 50L bag, dry bag liner. Shelter: sub-2kg muted tent, or bivvy and tarp. Sleep: three-season bag, insulated mat, jacket-in-dry-bag pillow. Clothing: walked-in layers, camp insulation, dry sleep set and socks, hat, gloves, waterproofs. Water: filter or tablets, one litre carried. Food: dinner, breakfast, generous snacks, one spare feed, flask if going stoveless, stove kit if not. Safety and small stuff: headtorch with red mode, offline map plus paper map and compass, power bank, first aid, whistle, emergency bivvy, trowel and bags, midge kit in season, rubbish bag. Before leaving: forecast checked, someone told.

Frequently asked questions

Is wild camping legal in the UK? Legal on most unenclosed land in Scotland under the access code, with seasonal permit zones in parts of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, and lawful on Dartmoor's commons. Elsewhere it needs landowner permission in principle, with a tolerated tradition of discreet one-night camps in some upland areas.

Do I need a stove for wild camping? No. A cold dinner, a breakfast eaten on the walk out and a flask from home make a simpler, more discreet camp with no fire risk, and it's the easiest version of a first night out. It saves little weight once you count the filled flask, but it removes the cooking, the washing up and the flame.

What size pack do I need for one night? 35 to 50 litres covers a one-night camp comfortably. If it doesn't fit, the problem is the pile, not the pack.

What sleeping bag rating do I need for wild camping in the UK? Choose by the comfort rating, not the limit or extreme figure. For UK hills from spring to autumn, a bag with a comfort rating of about 0 to 5°C on a mat with an R-value of 3 or more covers most nights. A summer-weight bag with a comfort rating around 10°C will often feel cold on a clear night at height, even in July.

How much food do I need for one night of wild camping? Plan dinner, breakfast and snacks for the walk in and out, roughly 2,000 to 2,500 calories, plus one spare snack. Depending on how calorie-dense your choices are, that packs down to about 700g to 1kg.

Is it safe to wild camp alone? With a checked forecast, a route you can navigate, a sensible pitch and someone who knows your plan, yes, and solo is how most people fall in love with it. The real hazards are weather and terrain, and both are planning problems.

Where should I pitch? High and discreet beats low and convenient: out of sight of paths and buildings, off farmland, back from water, on ground that drains, arriving at dusk and gone early. The view is the reward for the extra climb.

Written by James Frost, founder of Flaming Phoenix and the maker of Phoenix Bars. We feed wild campers, multi-day hikers and expedition teams in 21 countries, and this list is distilled from their packs. Last updated November 2026.

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Sources: Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003; NatureScot, Scottish Outdoor Access Code; Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park camping management byelaws; UK Supreme Court, Darwall and another v Dartmoor National Park Authority [2025] UKSC 20.