>>2042 Are you driving about or cycling or train or what? If you're on the hoof or a bike you can probably just stealth camp in a secluded spot on private land as long as you're not blatant/clear off at first light.
Not sure what the situation is in Scotland, but in England and Wales it's this as far as I am aware: generally speaking, there is no public land you can camp on. Even in places where you have the right to ramble along the public foot paths you do not have the right to camp without the land-owners permission. That said, to get in trouble you have to get caught and therein lies the proper answer to the question: Camp late, break early, leave no trace… and with a bit of common sense you'll probably be fine.
In more detail: set up your tent after it gets dark (yes, that means quite late during the summer) and break early. If you're not gone by 8am you're doing it wrong. Leave no trace means just that: don't leave a burned spot from a camp fire (in fact, keep fire to a minimum), bury your bog roll and take your trash. And for heavens sake, I don't care how peaceful those cows or sheep appear do not camp on pasture that's in active use. It obviously differs from person to person but a lot of land owners don't really care if you stick to those rules.
You may still get issues with the odd grumbly dickhead who, for whatever reason, never evolved the ability to form a complete sentence beyond "get oif moi land", but that's where chatting with other campers can help: ask around who in the area is really picky about campers and who tolerates them best.
I would mirror >>2050 's advice in England; Talk to the local farmer; I've done long walks across Britain several times, and apart from letting you camp almost all the time, they will sometimes offer bite to eat, a good place to camp or even somewhere more comfortable, depending on the rurality of the area. Farming tends to be quite a dull activity and most farmers aren't bothered as their main grumbles are theives and 'da youf'.
In England, trespass is actually only a civil law, which means it actually really isn't one. You can't be prosecuted for it unless you somehow cause over a grand in damages. You can be called to court, but if you attend but refuse to be tried by anyone other than a magistrate and a jury of your peers, can't have any sort of penalties imposed upon you.
I've found as a rule the more northerly you are in the UK, the more accommodating people are towards wild camping (as well as hitch-hiking). I've successfully camped for nearly a week in this weird public park that had sheep grazing in it in Carlisle. On the contrary, when I was in Glastonbury (town, not festival) the only response I could get from farmers and such was 'no camping'.
There are no real designated areas either *for* camping not *not for* camping (apart from campsites but fuck that) - main thing is to use your discretion, try to use land that is not in use and out of the way. Depending on where you're coming from, you might think it will be possible to find somewhere nice and out of the way to camp overnight in a city or a large to midsized town, but that is nearly always not the case.
To be honest lad, even in the south I never had a problem with farmers. Their friends however...
Firstly, we were doing it as a youth group, which seems to help. Make it sound like its a bunch of younguns getting close to nature, in a supervised environment and you should be fine.
Sorry, and secondly: don't be surprised if you are woken up at 6 in the fucking morning by a load of dickheads with guns and dogs demanding to know what you are doing on land belonging to someone else. Nowadays, mobile phones are your friend here. Just ensure you have the farmer's number saved.
As far as the camping thing goes, I'd add that if the farmer seems reluctant, stress that you won't make a mess and then offer a tenner. As a rule farmers are curmudgeonly cunts, but if they get a whiff of cash it changes everything. Make a point of knocking the next day to say that you've cleared everything up and thanks for being allowed to stay. This doesn't get you anything but it's the right thing to do and makes life easier for the next lot.
>>2203 >That's the going rate for a fully serviced campsite with hot showers, toilets, washing areas, onsite shop and cafe.
I wouldn't want to camp there, though. I have all of those things if I sleep at home. If I'm going to camp then the reason is to be away from all that.