Southover Woods and Camping

All the joy of wild camping is offered at Southover Woods in rural Dorset – with one or two of the rough edges taken away. For one thing, this is a bonafide campsite so there’s no worries over being asked to move on and, for another, there’s the important business of access to a loo. Nonetheless, these small concessions to campsite life can't take away from the back-to-nature experience of camping here in rustic woodland surroundings. You can't drive to your pitch, pop into a clubhouse or pick up supplies from the campsite shop but you can truly immerse yourself in nature. You can sling a hammock between trees, you can have acres of wood to yourself and you can enjoy the simple pleasures of going off grid: campfires, birdsong and breathing easy among the trees.

The choice of pitches at Southover Woods is more like a choice of separate campsites. Biggest of the lot is the enormous Tenders Pitch which offers a yurt, an outdoor kitchen shelter, its own facilities and space for up to 30 people to pitch tents together among the trees. At the other end of the scale are Decanter, Lordship and Villager pitches; these well-spaced clearings in the trees each sleep up to eight and share a loo and shower. And, if you prefer to be bathed in sunshine, the meadow pitches at the edge of Southover Woods will be just right for you.

The whole idea here is to offer people the chance to relax in nature and if you embrace that idea, you could spend your weekend or week right here; the woods stretch to 60 acres after all. But the paths that criss-cross the woodland are a tempting way to explore too. The long-distance Hardy Way and Jubilee Trail offer alluring routes to follow to nearby rivers and villages. Beyond that, if you’re happy to get back in the car, there’s all of Dorset to explore including its Jurassic Coast, just half an hour’s drive away.