MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
I'm down in England next week and have a couple of spare days. Plan is to head to the Lakes and do a bit of biking and hillwalking.
Any recomendations for nice campsites? Small, but with showers. Not big holiday parks full of caravans. I'll have the car so location isn't a big deal, but if pressed I wouldn't mind being around the Ambleside area.
Cheers.
After a few minutes on the Interweb, the National Trust one at Great Langdale seems to tick many of the right boxes. Is it any good?
I loved the Low Wray farm site, camp by the lakeside, nice and scenic,
[url= http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-global/w-localtoyou/w-northwest/w-lakedistrict-feature/w-northwest-lakedistrict_camping/w-northwest-lakedistrict_camping-low_wray.htm ]Low Wray Campsite[/url]
Langdale site's well placed but can get busy
Sykeside at the foot of the Kirkstone Pass is an excellent site with godd facilities and a 10 min drive to Ambleside.
Google it.
Sykeside is decent in Paterdale and +1 for the NT in Great Langdale.
Sykeside campsite is ace, on the A592 out of Ambleside. Small-ish, pub on site, showers etc.
Just a wee bit cold in the mornings..
+1 also for Sykeside, (even though our MTB group were barred from returning) 😥
Sykeside looks good. Just googled it and it sounds ideal. Cheers.
+1 for Sykeside. Great location and views, great start point for High Street too - straight from the campsite either along the road to Hartsop or along the other side of the valley floor around the shore of Brotherswater.
+1 also for Sykeside, (even though our MTB group were barred from returning)
Me and a few of my mates got our school banned from there 20 years ago, we used to go 2-3 times a year with either cadets or DoE then one fateful,Summer we set fire to another groups' breakfast porridge and Hob Nobs and that was it - the Gnome barred us (we called the campsite owner the Gnome because he looked like one - in the days before Craig David he had one of those silly strip beard things that made him look just like a garden gnome...).
hmmm, the management there are still a little quirky to say the least. worth putting up with though for all the reasons stated above.
I thought the owner of Sykeside was meant to be a mardy bugger. I liked Side Farm just down the road (which is right at the end of the excellent techy Ullswater singletrack), though there isn't a flat bit of ground anywhere on the site 🙂
Have a look at the quiet site near there too - check out the pub!
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http://www.thequietsite.co.uk/
I'm with Grum, the quiet site is fantastic , I really loved my stay there!
I've used the Cool Camping books to find some great campsites.
They've got a web map search tool now:
http://www.coolcamping.co.uk/campsites-home
That National Trust campsite at Langdale is lovely - had a good few trips there. Great old (ancient) pub just down the road too.
There's another site a few miles before it on the same road - not as nice but good if the NT one is full (it's small and does fill up fast).
Side Farm and Low Wray are my first choices.
The latter is an easy bike ride into Ambleside and made up of several small fields so doesn't feel too busy. Must admit I get a rather good discount there too which helps keep it in favour.
[i]then one fateful,Summer we set fire to another groups' breakfast porridge and Hob Nobs and that was it - the Gnome barred us [/i]
Cheers. That made me laugh out loud.
And thanks for the other replies too. Some great looking recommendations.
Oh, and I've got the Cool Camping Scotland book, and think it's great. Didn't want to buy the English one for just one trip though (that's right, typical mean Scot!).
Sykeside is good, two pubs on site too! Went there last year. The one in Glenridding though (could be Side Farm) was pretty bad - the site was OK but the world+dog now have cheap tents and they were packed in really *really* tight and people were partying until 4am and screaming/shouting etc.
Never again.