Yes, you can wild camp in Cairngorms National Park, as long as it is lightweight camping with a tent under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code, and from 1 April to 30 September you cook on a stove because fires and barbecues are banned. If you are in a van or motorhome, wild camping does not apply to you at all: the park treats a night in a vehicle as overnight parking, with its own rules.

Everything below comes from the Cairngorms National Park Authority’s own pages and the Access Code, checked on 18 October 2026.

What counts as wild camping here

The park authority defines it as carrying all your kit in a rucksack (or on a bike, horse or canoe) and camping somewhere remote. The terms come from the Access Code: small tents, small numbers, and no more than two or three nights in any one place. Take all your litter and every trace of your pitch away with you, and do not pollute.

The park’s camping page sets no permit and no booking for this. It says simply that you may wild camp in the National Park if you do so responsibly.

In practice, the authority’s own test is a good one. If you need more gear than you can carry, are camping with a big group, or want a flushing toilet nearby, book a campsite instead.

For toilets, the Access Code says to go well away from buildings, paths, water and farm animals, and either bury it in a shallow hole or bag it and carry it out.

The fire byelaw

From 1 April to 30 September every year, the park’s fire management byelaw bans fires and barbecues anywhere in the National Park. The fine is up to 500 pounds.

What that covers:

  • Banned: campfires in any form, including fire pits and fire bowls, wood and charcoal stoves, and disposable barbecues.
  • Allowed: camping stoves running on gas, liquid fuel, methylated spirits or solid fuel blocks, and gas barbecues used safely.
  • Exceptions: gardens (including holiday cottages and short-term lets), the existing stove or fireplace in a bothy, and registered campsites, where the site’s own policy decides.

Outside the byelaw months, the authority’s advice is still blunt: there is almost nowhere in the park you could light a fire responsibly. Bring a stove and plan on using it all year.

Vans, motorhomes and roof tents

The park authority says the Access Code “does not apply to the use, or parking of, campervans, roof tents and motorhomes.” So a roof tent on your car counts as a vehicle, not as wild camping. Your options for a night are:

  1. A formal roadside lay-by. You can park overnight, but you cannot camp. Everything has to stay inside the vehicle: no awning, no table and chairs, no cooking outside. Follow any posted fees or time limits.
  2. An aire or authorised overnight parking location. The park’s campervan map shows them. Most have no facilities, so they suit only self-contained vehicles with an onboard toilet. Pay where the site asks.
  3. Off-road with permission. Woodland car parks, tracks and pull-offs need the landowner’s permission overnight. If permission is not clear, park somewhere else. A “no overnight parking” sign means exactly that.

Sleeping in a vehicle on private land without permission is likely to count as encampment, which is an offence under the Trespass (Scotland) Act 1865, according to the authority.

Wherever you stop, move on after one night. Empty grey water only at a proper waste point, never onto the ground, and chemical toilet waste only at a disposal point, never in a road drain. The campervan map lists both.

Right now

It is October, so the fire byelaw is off until 1 April 2027, but the no-fires advice still stands. Tent campers can use the Access Code across the park. Van drivers work to the lay-by rules and the car park signs.

The sign wins

If a sign, a ranger or a landowner tells you something different from this page, follow them. The authority’s pages are the current version of the rules.

For the full Scottish framework, see what the Outdoor Access Code allows. If you are coming up from the south, Loch Lomond’s permit zones work very differently, and the NC500 reality check covers the Highland route. The rules pages compare other countries.

Sources

  1. Camping and campervans, Cairngorms National Park Authority
  2. Campervans and motorhomes, Cairngorms National Park Authority
  3. The fire byelaw, Cairngorms National Park Authority
  4. Camping, Scottish Outdoor Access Code (NatureScot)

When a source is not in English, follow the link for the official wording.