Camping in St Andrews

Camping around St Andrews means camping on the Fife coastal plain: gentle, well-drained farmland running down to low cliffs and long beaches, with almost no serious hills to contend with. The terrain is easy on both pitching and walking, and most parks sit on level, grassy ground a mile or two out of town. What you gain in convenience you give up in wildness; these are established holiday parks, not remote pitches.

Weather is the thing to plan around. Fife's east coast is among the driest parts of Scotland, which is good news for canvas, but it is also exposed to whatever the North Sea sends in. Wind is a likelier problem than rain, so pick a pitch with hedge or dune shelter and peg down properly. The haar can settle overnight and burn off by mid-morning, leaving everything damp, so a spare set of dry clothes earns its space.

Under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, wild camping is legal across most unenclosed land in Scotland, provided you follow the Scottish Outdoor Access Code: small groups, one or two nights in one spot, well away from houses and roads, no fires where there is any risk, and everything carried out again. In practice the land immediately around St Andrews is enclosed farmland, golf course or nature reserve, none of which is suitable, and the beaches and dunes are heavily used and often subject to local restrictions. If you want to wild camp, walk south along the Fife Coastal Path towards Kingsbarns and Fife Ness and find open ground well beyond the town, or head inland to the Lomond Hills.

The season runs roughly from March to October, and most parks shut for the winter. May, June and September are the pick of it: long daylight, settled conditions, and none of the July and August pressure on pitches. Book ahead for weekends from mid-June to late August, and for the Dunhill Links week in autumn, when even the campsites fill. Midges are far less of an issue here than on the west coast, but pack repellent for still evenings inland.