Wild camping at Loch Lomond: the rules and where you can pitch

Wild camping at Loch Lomond: the zones, the £4.50 permits and where you can still pitch for free

Yes, you can wild camp at Loch Lomond. Scotland's access rights let you pitch a small tent on most open land, and the Park is no exception. There is one rule to know before you pack, though: from 1 March to 30 September the busiest lochshores sit inside four Camping Management Zones, and camping there needs a £4.50 permit or a campsite booking. Skip that and you risk a fine of up to £500. Everywhere else, and everywhere in winter, you are free to camp under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code.

The awkward bit is that the zones cover exactly the places that look most like wild camping spots. The shore at Balmaha, the lay-bys along the A82, the woods at Sallochy: all zoned. Half the "wild camping at Loch Lomond" lists online are actually lists of permit areas and campsites, so before you drive up to a spot somebody recommended, check it against the zone map.

The rules come first because everything else depends on them. Then the three ways to spend a night by the loch: proper wild camping outside the zones, a permit pitch on the water for £4.50, or one of the National Park's own basic campsites. If what you really want is a campsite with showers and a hook-up, skip straight to our campsites at Loch Lomond guide.

Correct as of August 2026. The byelaws are under review, with a public consultation that closes on 21 September 2026. Nothing changes until the Scottish Government decides, which will be 2027 at the earliest. We will update this page when it does.

Is wild camping legal at Loch Lomond?

Yes. The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 and the Scottish Outdoor Access Code give you the right to camp responsibly on most land in Scotland. The Code describes wild camping as lightweight camping "done in small numbers and only for two or three nights in any one place", away from buildings, roads and historic structures, and never in enclosed fields with crops or livestock.

The catch at Loch Lomond is the Camping Management Byelaws, introduced by the National Park Authority in March 2017 after years of litter, fires and abandoned tents on the lochshores. They apply from 1 March to 30 September each year in four zones that together cover less than 4% of the Park. Inside a zone in season you must hold a permit or stay in a campsite. Outside the zones, and outside the season, normal access rights apply.

The byelaws also make it an offence to sleep overnight in a vehicle away from the road inside a zone, and to collect wood and light a fire irresponsibly outside a designated area. Vehicles parked on a road or verge, and trunk road laybys, are outside the byelaws, but laybys are for short rest stops only and you must never park overnight in a passing place.

Where are the Camping Management Zones?

The four zones follow the busiest stretches of shore. We have checked the boundaries below against the Park's byelaw zone maps (August 2026), but the boundaries matter to the metre, so look at the maps on the Park's website before you set off.

Everything else in the Park, which is the vast majority of it, is outside the zones. Loch Katrine, notably, is not in a zone.

Camping permits: what they cost and how to book

A permit costs £4.50 per tent, or per motorhome or campervan, per night. You book online through the National Park Authority up to four weeks in advance, for up to three nights in one area. Tents can arrive from 1pm and must leave by 11am; a motorhome permit is valid from 7pm to 10am. If you stay at Three Lochs Forest Drive near Aberfoyle there is a £3 vehicle access charge on top. Cancel up to a week before for a refund, though bookings under £9 are not refunded.

Be clear about what £4.50 buys: a legal place to put a tent by the water in season. Most permit areas have no facilities at all, and the better ones stretch to a composting toilet and a picnic table. The booking system groups them by loch: Loch Lomond, Loch Long, Loch Ard, Loch Achray, Loch Venachar, Loch Voil, Loch Earn, the Falls of Leny, and the Three Lochs Forest Drive.

Tip: the National Park's own figures are worth knowing. Nearly 300,000 people have camped in the permit areas since 2017, 97% of them responsibly, and complaints have fallen from 324 in the first year to 40 in 2025. The system works, and rangers do check.

Where can you wild camp for free?

Anywhere in the National Park outside the four zones, or inside them from October to February. In practice that means going up, or going north.

Ben Lomond and the high ground. The zones are lochshore strips, so the summit plateau and upper slopes of Ben Lomond sit outside them, as do the Arrochar Alps (the Cobbler, Beinn Narnain, Beinn Ime), Ben Vorlich, Ben Ledi and the Trossachs hills around Ben A'an. A high camp with the loch 900 metres below you is the best wild pitch in the Park, and it is the one the byelaws were never aimed at. Our Ben Lomond walking guide covers the route; carry everything up and everything back down.

The West Highland Way north of Rowardennan. The East Loch Lomond zone ends just north of Ptarmigan Lodge, about a mile beyond the Rowardennan car park. Beyond that the Way runs along one of the loneliest stretches of the loch to Inversnaid and on to Inverarnan, with bothies at Rowchoish and Doune and small shoreline clearings between. Lochan Maoil Dhuinne, on the low path north of Ptarmigan Lodge and beyond the zone boundary, is the pitch West Highland Way walkers know. There is no road access, which is exactly why it stays quiet. You are very much in the wild here: the facilities are what you carry.

Glen Falloch, Glen Dochart and Glen Ogle. The glens north of the loch towards Crianlarich and Killin are outside the zones. They are farmed and stalked, so keep away from buildings, avoid enclosed fields, and be alert to deer stalking signs in late summer and autumn.

Cowal and the Trossachs forest. The Cowal peninsula on the west side of the Park and most of the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park network are outside the zones. Forest tracks make for easy walk-in pitches away from the car parks.

Wherever you pitch: two or three nights maximum, small numbers, no fires unless in a bowl with wood you brought, bury or carry out human waste well away from water, and take every scrap of litter home.

The best permit areas on the lochs

If you want the water rather than the hill, a permit is the honest answer in season, and £4.50 is not much for a lochside pitch. These are the areas worth picking, by loch.

Loch Lomond, west shore. Firkin Point and Inveruglas take motorhomes as well as tents and sit right on the A82 with the loch in front. You will hear the road behind you all evening, and forgive it at sunrise when the light comes over the Ben.

Loch Lomond, east shore. The permit pitches between Balmaha and Rowardennan are the most popular in the Park because they are closest to Glasgow and on the West Highland Way. Book early for any weekend from May to September.

Loch Chon and Loch Ard. In the Trossachs West zone, quieter than Loch Lomond itself and favoured by paddlers. Loch Chon also has a National Park campsite (see below).

Loch Venachar and Loch Lubnaig. Both close to Callander in the Trossachs North zone, with car park access and pitches on the shore. Loch Lubnaig is the pick for a first permit camp: easy to find, calm water, good for kayaks.

Loch Voil and Loch Earn. The Balquhidder glen and the two shores of Loch Earn between Lochearnhead and St Fillans are the furthest from the crowds and the least booked; the quiet South Loch Earn Road side has permit pitches of its own.

Loch Achray and the Three Lochs Forest Drive. Forest pitches near Aberfoyle; the Forest Drive is the motorhome option in the Trossachs, with the £3 vehicle charge.

The National Park's own campsites

The National Park Authority runs four basic campsites of its own, a step up from a permit pitch without being anything so grand as a holiday park. All are tents only and book up to four weeks ahead for up to three nights (two on Inchcailloch).

Sallochy is the one everybody wants and it has had an unsettled year: the Park's campsite index listed it as temporarily closed at the time of writing while the landowner, Forestry and Land Scotland, negotiates its future. Check the Park's website before you plan around it. Coilessan, on Loch Long, is closed for the 2026 season, and a road closure on the B829 from Aberfoyle was affecting access to Loch Chon at the time of writing.

Can you camp on the Loch Lomond islands?

Be careful here: the islands off Balmaha, including Inchcailloch, sit inside the East Loch Lomond zone, so in season the only legal way to camp on them is the booked Inchcailloch campsite, reached by the Balmaha boatyard ferry or your own kayak. The islands further out (Inchmurrin, Inchcruin, Inchfad and the rest) lie outside the zones, but they are privately owned or nature reserves and several are inhabited or grazed; access rights still apply for lightweight camping, so stay well away from houses and farms and treat the nature reserve islands as no-camping. Kayak camping on the loch is a serious undertaking: the water is cold all year and the weather turns fast.

Can you have a campfire?

Only where it causes no damage, which on the lochshores means a raised fire bowl and never a fire on the ground. Collecting wood in the National Park is an offence under the byelaws, so bring your own or buy it from the campsite. Never light a fire in a dry spell, and be aware that the current byelaw review proposes tightening this further to contained vessels only, with rangers able to order fires out when the wildfire risk is high. If in doubt, do not bother: a stove makes a better cup of tea anyway.

Can you sleep in a campervan or car by the loch?

Not off the road inside a zone in season without a permit; that is an offence. Firkin Point, Inveruglas and the Three Lochs Forest Drive are the permit areas that take motorhomes, at £4.50 a night (plus £3 at the Forest Drive) and valid from 7pm to 10am. Laybys are for short overnight rest stops, not for camping, and passing places are never for parking. From 1 April to 31 October Forestry and Land Scotland also runs Stay the Night parking for self-contained motorhomes at selected sites around Scotland. For anything longer, our campsites guide lists the sites with hook-ups.

What happens if you camp without a permit?

Breaching the byelaws is a criminal offence. The maximum fine is £500 and a conviction gives you a criminal record, which Mountaineering Scotland points out "could affect your work and travel prospects". Rangers patrol the zones through the season and the Park's own data says only 9% of tents are found outside permitted areas, so you would be in a small and easily spotted minority. Mountaineering Scotland objected to the byelaws when they were introduced and still advises members not to defy them.

Midges, ticks and weather

Midges run from roughly late May to September and are worst on still, damp evenings on the west side of the loch. Take a head net and repellent, and pitch where there is a breeze. Ticks, which can carry Lyme disease, are present throughout the Park in spring and summer; check yourself and your dog every evening and carry a tick remover. The weather does what it likes, so a tent that will take wind and a set of waterproofs are not optional.

If wild camping is not for you

The byelaws put some people off, and there is no shame in that. Our guide to campsites at Loch Lomond covers the sites with showers, hook-ups and a pub within walking distance. If you would rather skip the tent altogether, browse glamping pods and huts and dog friendly stays on the loch, or go further afield with our glamping in Scotland guide.

Plan your trip

• Hiking Ben Lomond

• The West Highland Way

• Campsites at Loch Lomond

• Loch Lomond

• Camping and caravan sites in Scotland

• Glamping in Scotland