The two furnished bell tents at Campston Hill Wild Camping sit isolated from each other and everything else, half a mile from the nearest road in the Welsh borderlands. This is a chance to get off the beaten track in a proven location, while enjoying the comforts of home. You could see it as glamping that’s been taken off grid or wild camping made incredibly easy. Either way, you’ll get a tent with made-up beds and your own compost loo and shower. So what about the wild? Well – there’s no electricity and no neighbours: essentially it’s you and the view. And that view, by the way, is quite astounding. By day it’s green fields all the way to the Black Mountains, by night their inky outline lit-up by undimmed stars.
This is Monmouthshire, on the edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park which is recognised as a Dark Sky Reserve. In short, it’s a great place for stargazing thanks to the lack of light pollution. The two tents at Campston Hill are doing their bit to keep it unpolluted too – there’s no electricity here, so don’t forget your torch. They are pitched within a working farm and on your arrival, host Ellie, will come to meet you by the road. She’ll lead you, more than likely from her quad bike, up the farm track to your home-from-home. You’ll find it well set up with everything you might otherwise have packed for a camping trip already provided here.
While the vibe on site is wild with cooking on campfires and a shower that’s open-roofed under trees, you’re actually not far from anything you might need or want. The local pub is a good one and about ten minute’s drive. The town of Abergavenny is 15 minutes away and has everything you might need by way of supplies. Abergavenny is also a launch pad into the national park and all of its adventures, though you can set off on some of those directly from site. There are footpaths across the farm that lead straight to Offa’s Dyke Path, less than a mile away, and beyond it into the mountains.