Brig's Farm

Tucked away along winding, hidden country lanes, Brig’s Farm offers real back-to-nature, wild camping at its simplest. Little more than a beautifully-located field dotted with apple trees and surrounded by woodland, the campsite has stunning southward views over rolling countryside towards the Jurassic coast, just a few miles away.

There are no marked pitches or electrical hook-ups here – you just pick your favourite spot and set up camp. Most people head up to the top of the sloping field, where they can tuck in beside the woodland and enjoy the best of the views.

The latest additions to this 12-acre West Dorset small holding are a couple of antique Bedford lorries, with fitted beds, wood burners and kitchen facilities. One is an ex-army truck with chunky off-road wheels, the other has a huge wooden sun-deck with its very own wood-fired hot tub. Both enjoy the same superb views as the tent campers.

In all, Brig's Farm is a relaxed and informal site, run by the laid-back Mew, who farms the 12-acre small-holding according to organic principals and is building his own eco-friendly house in one corner of the site. The campsite’s eco-footprint is low, with compost toilets and its own running spring water. There’s also a wooden swing and a trampoline for the kids.

Campfires and families are welcome and on Friday nights the brick-built wood-fired pizza oven is fired-up for Mew’s home-made pizza and salad nights. However the real joy of this site is its location, with fantastic footpaths on its doorstep, winding through bucolic landscapes and quiet, hilly country lanes for cyclists to explore. Approaching the site, you feel like you are zig-zagging uphill into the middle-of-nowhere. But it’s actually only a short drive or cycle (though the route back is steeply uphill!) down to the beach at Charmouth where fossil-hunting and swimming on the beach are popular activities.