Camping in Caernarfon

Camping around Caernarfon means choosing between the sheltered lowland sites near the Strait and the wilder, more exposed pitches up into Eryri, and the terrain shifts fast between the two. Down towards the coast and along the Menai Strait, ground tends to be flatter and better drained, with established campsites offering easy access to the town, the water and gentle cycling on routes like Lôn Las Menai. Head inland towards Llanberis, Waunfawr or Beddgelert and you're into proper mountain country: steeper, rockier ground, thinner soil that holds water badly after rain, and a climate that can turn from bright to driving rain within an hour, even in summer.

It's worth being clear on the law before planning anything ambitious: wild camping in Wales is not a legal right, unlike in Scotland. Pitching a tent on open land without the landowner's permission is technically trespass, a civil rather than criminal matter, but landowners can and do ask campers to move on. In practice, there's a long-standing informal tolerance of quiet, no-trace overnight camping high on the open mountain above the enclosed farmland of Eryri, roughly above 450-500 metres, provided you arrive late, leave early, take everything with you and cause no damage. That tolerance is not the same as permission, and camping lower down on farmland, in valleys, or anywhere near roads and villages should be assumed to require asking first. Several farms and landowners around Snowdon and Beddgelert do grant permission for a small fee if you contact them in advance.

Weather is the other planning factor. Eryri's peaks generate their own microclimate, and rain, wind and low cloud can arrive with little warning regardless of the forecast down in Caernarfon itself, so anyone camping high needs a genuinely weatherproof setup and a realistic view of conditions, not just what the town looks like at pitch time. May, June and September tend to offer the best balance of settled weather and manageable midge and crowd levels; July and August are warmest but busiest, especially around Llanberis and the main Snowdon paths, and results in more competition for informal pitches.

For anyone who'd rather not gamble on the weather or the legal grey area, glamping is well established in the area, with shepherd's huts, pods and yurts at sites scattered between the Strait and the mountains, offering a proper bed and some shelter while keeping the same easy access to both Caernarfon's castle and Eryri's peaks.