Information if you are planning on visiting Scotland to complete your DofE expedition in Central Scotland.
The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award
Clockwise,
Commercial Quay,
84 Commercial Street,
Edinburgh,
EH6 6LX
T: 0131 343 0920
E: [email protected]
Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park camping byelaws group exemption form
Central Scotland boundaries map.gpx – for eDofE mapping
Managing woodland access and forest operations in Scotland – aimed at forest managers but has useful information about access in forest areas for walkers and cyclists.
Camping is legally managed within the Loch Lomond National Park camping bylaw areas. Other estates have identified preferred camping sites including;
- Comer estates (Gleann Gaoithe)
- Invergeldie estate (around Loch Turret)
- Auchnafree estate (Glen Almond)
Blackwater reservoir
Due to lambing the farmer at Glenhead farm asks that teams going into the Craig of Balloch use the red route on this map during the lambing season, rather than the path in the valley.
Loch Lomond National Park camping By-laws
Since 1st March 2017 bylaws have governed camping in areas around Loch Ard, Loch Chon, Loch Arklet, Loch Venechar, Loch Lubnaig, Loch Voil and Loch Earn. These byelaws restrict camping within the areas covered every year between 1st March – 30th September (the majority of the DofE expedition season).
A general map of the area covered can be downloaded from the National Park website, detailed 1:25k maps of the areas covered can be found in the full byelaws document, and GPX’s of the areas are available below. Camping outwith the narrow areas covered by the byelaws remains covered by the usual Scottish laws.
For teams planning to camp within the area covered by the byelaws the National Park recommends that groups plan to apply through the ‘Group camping permit exemption’ process. This will have several advantages over the online permit system for the public;
- It will be free
- Groups will be able to apply for camping on sites outwith the publically permitted sites
- Groups will be able to apply to camp with larger groups than public permits are available for
Applications will need to be submitted at least 4 weeks before the expedition. For DofE teams there is a shortened version of the application form (either an editable word version or a PDF version).
