Dernwood Farm Wild Camping

Great campsite for the kids. Pitched at the top of the field by the children's play area which is nestled on the outskirts of the woods. Beautiful walk around the campsite and the bluebells were a sea of purple. Truly stunning. On the downside it took us 4 trips with the large trolley to unload the car and take all our stuff to the field. Pretty tiring and not great if you have young children. The wind can really pick up across the field so pitching up on the far side or the bottom of the field is advisable although you will get a better view of the electricity wires and pylon! Shame as its a beautiful campsite. Would be nice to have hot water and showers/washing up stations. I spoke to the owners and it is planned for 2014. Lovely swimming pool in Hailsham that we took the kids to so we could have a hot shower and wash. You must try their home made lamb burgers. Fantastic. 

A wonderfully warm welcome from Amanda greets us as we arrive, luckily still with plenty of daylight left as walking through the woods to the site in the dark is a quite a scary experience if you haven't been there before! Pick your trolley and wheelbarrow carefully as although it isn't a long walk (maximum 10 minutes at a slow pace) when your pushing and pulling your gear it can seem like miles.

But trust me the walk is worth it and all adds to the sense of adventure as Dernwood is wild camping it at it's best. A wonderfully large field, surrounded by woods makes for peace and quiet, isolation and when the sun sets wonderfully dark star filled skies. If your after glamping though this isnt for you. Two very basic toilets, cold running water only and beware the wind whips up the field at quite a pace.

Unlike the other reviewer the pylon didn't bother us or spoil the experience. Do make sure you buy some steak and taste their sausages - both were extremely tasty especially when cooked in the open.

At one point I commented that it was like camping in the 70s, children played with wild abandon, fires burned and we could hear the guitars and drums brought by other campers. We only stayed two nights but it was enough to soak in the atmosphere and know that we most certainly will return!

This is a lovely campsite in many ways. Most of the information in the introductory text is absolutely correct - it just misses one important detail. It’s true that there is no electicity on site but unfortunately the existence of electricity is all to obvious as a major powerline runs right over the site with one of the pylons actually in the camping field. On the plus side, the campsite is in a wonderful setting tucked away in the woods, miles from any roads and you really do get a sense of being away from it all. It is also great to be able to have a camp fire and cook meat from the farm on it. Whilst it is possible to camp at the opposite end of the field some distance from the pylon it is quite hard to escape the view of it. I realise there is little the owners can do about this but unfortunately it would put me off visiting again.

Once you are all set up then this is a great camp site although there are some practical issues to be aware of if you have a young family. The half a mile walk through the woods gets very muddy in the wet (take wellies) and it is therefore somewhat of an endurance having to lug everything from your car to the field (and back again). As this is a camp site that is within easy range of London there is clearly going to be a high demand on trolleys on a Friday between 6 and 8 pm and again on a Sunday 10-12 am. Given that the the only other infrastructure on site are two pretty basic WCs and a cold water sink then I think it is not asking too much for more trolleys to be provided and some gravel placed on the muddy parts of the track. Another WC hut at the top end of the field would have been useful. Other than the inability to drive to the pitch to drop stuff off this is a great camp site so long as you are aware there is no shower block or hot water.

Some notebable good and bad points on this site. On the plus side, the staff were friendly, the field was quiet and had very pleasant surroundings. It was also huge which meant there was a lot of space for pitching and playing. On the minus side, people shouldn’t understimate the time and effort in lugging stuff from the car park to the field. It was at least 10 minutes. There was also a lack of enough wheelbarrows so sometimes there were none to use. I would add an hour to two hours for both setting up and unpacking becuase of this. Not ideal after a long drive and or it is wet. Packing up was always in the back of your mind because of this. The other major issue with that there was only two loos, one cold water washing place and ONE DRIBBLY TAP for the whole huge field. This was totally inadequate. For the reasons above, I would question its suitability for families, especially ones with young kids.