Wild Camping in Perthshire & the Southern Highlands

Current conditions

Heading higher or staying out longer? The mountain weather page covers summit forecasts, and if the night turns on you, a bothy is the dry fallback. Between September and March, check aurora conditions before you pick a pitch — a dark-sky camp is the best seat there is.

About this region

Perthshire sits in the rain shadow of the western hills, which makes it the driest and often the most forgiving wild camping in the Highlands. The country is built around long lochs — Tay, Rannoch, Earn, Tummel — and the deep enclosed glens that feed them, Glen Lyon and Glen Tilt among the longest walking corridors in Scotland. Most of it is permit-free Access Code land, with one important exception: Loch Earn, Balquhidder Glen and Loch Lubnaig lie inside Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park, and their lochshores are camping management zones where a permit area or campsite is needed from 1 March to 30 September.

Best camping spots

• Loch Rannoch north shore (quiet forest and shoreline pitches)
• Glen Lyon (long enclosed glen, riverside ground)
• Loch Tummel and the Queen's View country
• Schiehallion and the Carie/Braes of Foss approaches
• Rannoch Moor edge at Rannoch Station (train-accessible)
• Ben Lawers high corries above Loch Tay

Getting there

The A9 is the spine, with rail stations at Pitlochry, Dunkeld, Blair Atholl and the remote Rannoch and Corrour stops on the West Highland Line. Many glens are long single-track dead ends (Glen Lyon, Loch Rannoch) — fuel up and plan the return.

Why come here

The driest Highland weather; long drove-road glens for multi-day trips; train access at Rannoch and Corrour; some of the best autumn colour in Scotland along the Tay and Tummel

Frequently asked questions

Can I wild camp at Loch Earn?

Only in a permit area or a campsite between 1 March and 30 September. Loch Earn is inside Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park, and both its north (A85) and south (South Loch Earn Road) shores are a camping management zone, which runs from the shore to the road and about 200m beyond it. Outside those dates, and on the hills well above the loch, standard access rights apply. For lochside camping with no permit, Loch Rannoch and the quieter parts of Loch Tummel are better bets.

Is Perthshire really drier than the rest of the Highlands?

Yes, noticeably. Perthshire and the eastern Highlands sit in the rain shadow of the higher western hills, so they catch markedly less rainfall than Lochaber or Wester Ross. It is the reason Perthshire makes such a reliable fallback: when the west-coast forecast is grim, the Tay and Tummel glens are often dry. The trade-off is that the highest ground — Ben Lawers, the Tarmachan ridge — still gets full Highland weather.

Do I need a permit to wild camp in Perthshire?

Only in the corner of Perthshire that lies inside Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park. Loch Earn, Balquhidder Glen and Loch Lubnaig are in its camping management zones, so a permit area or campsite is needed on those lochshores from 1 March to 30 September. Elsewhere — Rannoch, Tummel, Glen Lyon, Glen Tilt — there are no permit zones, just the usual Access Code responsibilities around stalking estates, livestock and Leave No Trace.

Where can I wild camp without a car in Perthshire?

The West Highland Line is the key. Rannoch and Corrour stations sit in the middle of open moorland with legal camping straight off the platform, and Pitlochry and Blair Atholl give access to Glen Tilt and the Beinn a' Ghlo country. Rannoch Station in particular is one of the few genuinely car-free wild camping bases in the Highlands.