Start With Weight, Not With Wishlists

The first rule of a wild camp is that you carry everything you take, and you carry it uphill. Every item you pack has to earn its place twice over: once when you pitch in the rain at dusk, and again when you haul it back down the following morning. Aim for a total pack weight of around 8 to 10kg for a single night out, including food and water, and be honest about what you actually need rather than what looks reassuring on a shop shelf.

The simplest way to keep things light is to spend your money on the three items you sleep in and on: shelter, sleeping bag and sleeping mat. These are worth buying well and buying once. Everything else can be borrowed, improvised, or left at home.

Shelter You Can Pitch in the Wind

A lightweight two-skin tent weighing between 1.5 and 2kg is the sensible starting point. Look for one that pitches flysheet-first or all-in-one, because pitching an inner tent in horizontal rain in the Cairngorms is a miserable experience. Check the hydrostatic head — 3,000mm on the flysheet is plenty for British conditions — and make sure the pegs are decent. The thin wire pegs supplied with many tents bend on the first rocky pitch; swap them for a set of stronger ones and carry a few spares.

Practise pitching it at home, in the garden, before you go. Time yourself. You want to be able to put it up in under five minutes, in the dark, without instructions.

Alongside your tent, carry an emergency shelter — a two-person bothy bag weighing around 300g. It is not a tent and not somewhere to sleep, but if someone in your group twists an ankle or the weather turns vicious, sitting inside a bothy bag out of the wind while you eat something and make a plan is genuinely lifesaving. Treat it as part of your standard kit, not an optional extra.

Sleeping Bag and Mat

For three-season UK camping, a down or synthetic bag with a comfort rating of around 0°C to -2°C will cover most nights from April to October. Ignore the "extreme" rating printed on the label — it means the temperature at which a warm, well-fed person survives, not sleeps. The comfort rating is the one that matters to you.

Down packs smaller and lighter for the same warmth, but loses its loft if it gets damp. Synthetic keeps working when wet, which is worth considering in a country where drizzle is the default. Whichever you choose, store it loose at home and never compress it for long periods.

Underneath the bag, an insulated mat is not optional. It does more for your warmth than a heavier bag would. Look for an R-value of at least 3, ideally 4, for spring and autumn camping on cold ground. Inflatable mats are comfortable but puncture; closed-cell foam mats are bombproof but bulky. Many hillwalkers carry a short foam mat under a lightweight inflatable — a bit of extra insurance for very little weight.

Cooking and Water

A small gas stove and a 100g or 230g canister will boil what you need for a dehydrated meal and a brew. Keep it simple: one pot, one stove, one lighter, and a spare lighter. Wind is the enemy of gas stoves, so take a foil windshield or choose a sheltered pitch.

For water, a filter or purification tablets mean you can refill from streams rather than carrying several litres uphill. A squeeze filter weighing around 100g is the easiest option, and a back-up of tablets costs almost nothing in weight. Choose your source sensibly — fast-flowing water above farmland and away from obvious contamination — and still treat it.

Take a small trowel and a bag for carrying out your used toilet paper. Wild camping in the UK is only tolerated in most places because campers leave no trace, and how you manage this is the clearest sign of whether you belong out there.

Clothing and the Changeable Weather

British weather does not negotiate. Pack for wet and cold even when the forecast looks kind, because forecasts change in the hills and you will be out there when they do.

• Waterproof jacket and trousers — a proper shell, not a showerproof coat.
• Warm insulation — a synthetic or down jacket for the evening, kept dry in a stuff sack.
• Spare dry layers — a base layer and socks kept specifically for sleeping. Getting into dry clothes at camp transforms a grim evening into a good one.
• Hat, gloves and a buff — light, cheap, and the difference between a comfortable night and a cold one.
• Head torch with fresh batteries, plus a spare set.

Add a small first aid kit, blister plasters, a midge head net if you are in Scotland between May and September, and a paper map with a compass. Your phone will run out of battery and signal; the map will not.

Packing It All Together and Testing It

A 45 to 55 litre pack will swallow this kit comfortably. Line it with a dry bag or two rather than relying on the pack's own waterproofing, and keep your sleeping bag and spare clothes in their own waterproof sacks. Weight should sit low and close to your back, with the heaviest items around your hips and the things you need during the day — waterproofs, snacks, map — near the top or in side pockets.

Before your first wild camp, do a shakedown night. Pitch in a friend's field or a campsite, cook your meal on your stove, sleep in your bag, and pack up in the morning. You will learn more in one night than in a month of reading, and you will discover which items you never touched. Leave them behind next time.