Finding a pitch in areas of long tussocky grass

[Fuji-san]

I'm hoping to do some wild camping soon in hilly areas, I'm a bit worried that when it comes time for pitching up the tent, I'll be surrounded by tussocky long grass and gorse. Is it mainly down to luck in finding a decent level patch thats been trimmed down by grazing? Has anyone pitched on the long tussocky grass?

I had a look around the net for info, but its a hard one to find the right search terms, google is just bringing up results listings of camping shops and campsites along with geological studies of scottish terrain.

Here is an example of the kind of terrain I'm referring to


Also, any other tips and info from your experiences with wild camping pitches is very welcome

[Border Reiver]

If it's really impossible to find an area the size of your tent footprint, cut or pull some of the long grass and use it to create a soft level area to pitch your tent on. It's a lot more comfortable to lie on than a hard green area.

[nigheandonn]

Geograph seems to be the tool of choice (or one of them) for looking for flat areas - it doesn't cover the whole of the grid square, of course, but if a spot looks tempting to you then it might have done to others

[mynthdd2]

If it's really impossible to find an area the size of your tent footprint, cut or pull some of the long grass and use it to create a soft level area to pitch your tent on. It's a lot more comfortable to lie on than a hard green area.

Sound plan

[Lournieloon]

I'm hoping to do some wild camping soon in hilly areas, I'm a bit worrie

I'm hoping to do some wild camping soon in hilly areas, I'm a bit worried that when it comes time for pitching up the tent, I'll be surrounded by tussocky long grass and gorse. Is it mainly down to luck in finding a decent level patch thats been trimmed down by grazing? Has anyone pitched on the long tussocky grass?

I had a look around the net for info, but its a hard one to find the right search terms, google is just bringing up results listings of camping shops and campsites along with geological studies of scottish terrain.

Here is an example of the kind of terrain I'm referring to


Also, any other tips and info from your experiences with wild camping pitches is very welcome

d that when it comes time for pitching up the tent, I'll be surrounded by tussocky long grass and gorse. Is it mainly down to luck in finding a decent level patch thats been trimmed down by grazing? Has anyone pitched on the long tussocky grass?

I had a look around the net for info, but its a hard one to find the right search terms, google is just bringing up results listings of camping shops and campsites along with geological studies of scottish terrain.

Here is an example of the kind of terrain I'm referring to


Also, any other tips and info from your experiences with wild camping pitches is very welcome

Higher the ground much less tussocks, just remember and carry enough water up with you. Less midges too 🙏
Your problems become rocky so take a good inflatable mattress, sleep tight 😎

[Caberfeidh]

Check on the map for green areas beside watercourses. These may turn out to be pleasant lawns of soft turf, nibbled by deer and fluffed up by badgers. They also may turn out to be midgie-infested swamps, prone to flooding if rain falls miles away and puts the burn in spate. Hacking down the tussocks and piling them into a heap may form a large soft mattress or it may form a large funeral pyre - that stuff is hellish incendiary. I would avoid it altogether. You could try Bear Gryls' trick of sleeping inside a hollowed-out dead yak, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Look what happened to the last guy to camp in tussock grass...

[ChrisButch]

When looking for a site high in the hills, I used to examine the map closely for any points in a stream valley where gaps between contour lines temporarily widen, indicating a levelling off of the slope. These are the most likely places to find small areas of shorter grass, since they often indicate a slight change in the course of the stream leaving behind a patch of gravelly flood plain. Obviously you need to check that this isn't still a mini flood plain if spate conditions are expected: but I rarely failed to find something like this, even if I had no idea at the beginning of the day where I'd be ending up.

[rgf101]

Also - stop early, stop often. More than once I've wandered past good camping spots thinking "ah, if I don't find anything up ahead I can come back here." But I never do, I keep walking in search of a slightly better site until I'm knackered and end up pitching my tent wherever my rucksack happens to fall.

I second Geograph - people tend to point their cameras at lochsides and ruins, which in turn tend to have flat bits of ground. A google image search for "wild camp MOUNTAIN NAME" can also be useful.

I camped on tussocky grass once, but it didn't bother me. Due to the fact I'd also opted to camp, for some incomprehensible reason, on a steeper-than-advisable slope, and the tussocks were the least of the irritations.

[Fuji-san]

Thanks for all the advice lads


The idea about pulling up some of the grass is a timely one, I just found an old post here in the walking highlands archives that said similar, and I was out for a long walk yesterday and I saw that a group had taken a spade to the hillside and made what looked like cuttings for bivvy bags, there where 3 or 4 of these cuttintgs about 5 metres apart, I'm thinking it might have been a group doing army training of some kind, it looks like a bomber idea, probably 20 or 30 minutes with a military entrenching tool would turn a slope into a clear level pitch. I probably wouldn't have noticed the cuttings if tent pitches weren't on my mind. And, regarding those larping Vikings in that pic – digging is the Military shovels secondary purpose, its primary one being... a melee weapon!

I'll have a go with my tent, but since I saw those cuttings I'm now really getting into the idea of a adding a bivvy bag and trailstar tarp to my kit, I know many say that tarps aren't a great idea in Scotland due to the midgie, but I'm one of the lucky few that midges don't seem to find tasty enough to bother biting. and they tend to leave me be. I read there are decent trailstar clones on aliexpress btw in case anyone else finds the idea worth trying.

Pic of the trail star from Chris Townsend's blog


I'd never heard of Geograph, trying it out now, it looks useful af, cheers mate. I'm also thinking that google sat view might be handy? Anyone used that in preparing a trip? The resolution for hills doesn't seem as good as it is on cities though.

I just tried google pic search for “Wild Camp” and adding locations – I'm getting loads of results even when putting in obscure local hills, Good job those bloggers! Thats gonna be a real help too. Thanks for the tip mate.

Has anyone used a monocular to help find pitches? I heard it can be useful for scanning the hills up ahead to gauge the terrain by the colours and shades of the ground.

And I know what you mean by charging on past good spots, I'm thinking of using a garmin or something to save possible pitches as GPS waypoints, I wonder if there is a GPS database of good pitches? I could imagine something like that being popular in the US, us Scots would maybe see that as cheating? and adding a favourite pitch to a database would run the risk of turning up later and finding it occupied. It would be ideal for the inexperienced though. I tried a quick google and it brought up something like that geared for parking spots for RVs.

[Sgurr]

If you are climbing a hill, why not just continue to the summit? Have seen a very few tussocky summits.

[Mal Grey]

Some good advice above, I also use Geograph alongside OS maps and Satellite views. On the latter, you can actually often tell the difference between real tussocks and just slightly bumpy grass. The former tent to be a lighter, almost straw coloured shade of green/yellow at lot of the time, the latter more a normal grass green. Though not quite lawn!!!!

If you are stuck with tussocks, you can often get away with stamping out a roughly body shaped area, but it can be quite difficult to pitch some types of tents over the tussocks around. This is one reason that I do prefer a free standing tent design; you can at last get it standing up even if the pitch is difficult and decent peg points are in the wrong places.

As for digging holes and levelling platforms. No , basically, unless in a minor way and you return it all carefully to place when leaving. Even if moving stones around, I put them back where they were before leaving. All you should be leaving is some slightly flattened grass that will recover quickly, though the odd bit of pulled or cut tussock grass could be distributed around to leave minimal impact I guess.

[Skyelines]

. I'm also thinking that google sat view might be handy? Anyone used that in preparing a trip? The resolution for hills doesn't seem as good as it is on cities though.

The resolution on the Bing Maps sat view is often much better than google, plus it has the advantage that you can switch to the OS maps down to 1:25,000. so you can note location of possible sites.

[Mal Grey]

. I'm also thinking that google sat view might be handy? Anyone used that in preparing a trip? The resolution for hills doesn't seem as good as it is on cities though.

The resolution on the Bing Maps sat view is often much better than google, plus it has the advantage that you can switch to the OS maps down to 1:25,000. so you can note location of possible sites.

Also on MS Maps, it can sometimes be much better. For OS Maps subscribers, the aerial photos there are specific to OS, taken by their own surveying flights.

Being anal about these things, I end up checking most of them!

[Fuji-san]

As for digging holes and levelling platforms. No , basically, unless in a minor way and you return it all carefully to place when leaving.

I agree mate, and it's actually easy enough to put something like that back to how it was, I've used the Dakota fire pit in the past, and it can quite easily be put back, and if you are really careful, it can be even be excavated in layers, and can be put back exactly as it was. (go-to method of excavation for those looking to evade tracking.)

It's possible that bushcraft types often excavate their campsite a little, and put it back together so carefully that it is unnoticeable, but yes, it would be **** if everybody started doing it and left big holes everywhere. That said, the cuttings I saw didn't look too bad, and might even be useful to other bivvyers who come across them, they certainly didn't look as bad as the fire scars, bottles and cans left by ignorant chavs. I've actually cleared out one of those sites on my travels. Lugging a bin bag full of someone elses garbage back to the trail head where there was a wheelie bin.

I never new Bing and MS had there own maps, I'll check them out thanks, and the tones of the yellow and green shades on the terrain will be also good for scanning ahead with a scope, I'm hoping my knowledge of that kinda thing will improve with experience.

[Alteknacker]

If it's really impossible to find an area the size of your tent footprint, cut or pull some of the long grass and use it to create a soft level area to pitch your tent on. It's a lot more comfortable to lie on than a hard green area.

Before the days of mattresses this is what we'd routinely do as scouts - thought mainly to have insulation between ourselves and the ground. As I recall, we found it pretty effective.