My girlfriend's brother recently did a sort of Ray Mears 'bushcraft' style course, so he and I intend on taking a tentative bivvying trip soon for him to practice his skills and generally enjoy the great outdoors.

The thing is though we're not really sure where to go! As we're only beginners at this sort of stuff we'd ideally like somewhere that isn't too far from civilisation should things go awry, but far enough away for it to feel 'proper'. Yorks, Derbys or Notts area would probably be best and I reckon we'll just be going for a night to begin with.

Any suggestions? Or perhaps any fellow bivvyers may like to share their experiences doing something similar?

Beer garden next to a pub.
You can form a decent shelter from the bench umbrellas, and food and drink is quite easy to find.

get a copy of "the book of bivvy"

gives you lots of useful info and some nice route/challenge suggestions. Also tells it like it is, without any bullsh**

It's funny how bivvying in suddenly becoming popular in the non mountainearing masses. To do it properly you want to be out for a least a week, that way you really learn how to travel light and be as self sufficient as possible.

definitely start with the odd night out though as you soon learn what's worth taking and what is excess weight.

hints:

thin light sleeping bag and a warm jacket is much better n more usable than a big sleeping bag.

down sleeping bags do not like bivvying in the wet or being fully zipped into a bag without decent ventilation as they get a bit soggy and turn to cack if you are not careful.

army ration 24hr packs are you friend as they are cheap, have enough food for a couple of days using minimal water and you can eat them cold if it's widdling down and you just need to zip up tight for the night.

Finally- Have a nice drink in a hipflask for a nightcap.

Have fun 😀

Hipflask comes first. 2 nights means 2 flasks, 1 with malt and the other Rum.

Oh, and watch out for these

http://www.bigcatsinbritain.org/index2.htm

I agree with the light sleeping bag plus warm jacket, much more practical.
The cheaper bivi bags will probably just have a draw cord closure and are only really any good for single night or fair weather forecast bivis imo. If you intend to go hardcore all weather or multi nights, get a more expensive bivi bag with better design closure or hoop bivi/superlight single man tent type thing, at a few extra grammes. If you're doing it hardcore, it's also worth having plenty of extra room in your bivi bag to store kit you want to keep dry.
All the bivis I've done have been climbing in the alps, sounds really macho, but single night and with good weather forecast, so not really.

Thanks for the replies folks, some good tips.

I've heard that 'Book of the Bivvy' mentioned before so I've ordered a copy from Amazon.

Any other advice more than welcome.