Why the British hills punish a careless fire

There is something deeply satisfying about a small fire at the end of a long day on the fells. It warms your hands, dries your socks and gives a bothy or a wild camp its own quiet theatre. But the British countryside is not a wilderness of endless rock and gravel. Our hills are often thick with dry heather, tussock grass, dead bracken and peat, and peat is the real problem. It burns underground, smoulders for days and can flare up again long after you have packed up and gone home.

Even a modest campfire leaves a scar. On popular summits and lakeshores you will find blackened circles where soil has been sterilised, stones cracked by heat, and a ring of half-burnt timber. Those marks can last for decades. On thin upland soils they may never fully heal, because the humus that took centuries to form is gone in an hour.

Add the realities of modern Britain — tinder-dry springs, heather moorland managed for grouse and grazing, water catchments feeding reservoirs, and wildfire alerts that close whole valleys — and the honest answer is that an open fire is usually not appropriate at all. That is not killjoy advice. It is about keeping the places we love worth walking to.

Where fires and stoves are permitted

There is no general right to light a fire in England or Wales. Permission comes from the landowner, and on most open access land it simply does not exist. Many national parks and popular beauty spots ban fires and disposable barbecues outright in high-risk periods, and rangers put up notices that are worth reading rather than ignoring.

In Scotland, the outdoor access code is more permissive but still firm: keep any fire small, controlled and away from anything that could catch. Where ground is peaty, wooded, or close to crops and young trees, don't light one. Some estates and nature reserves ask for no fires at all — follow the signs.

• Use fire pits, hearths or braziers provided at campsites and bothies.
• Ask the landowner or farmer directly if you are camping on private land with permission.
• Check wildfire risk warnings, fire severity indices and local signs before you set out.
• Assume no fire on peat, heather moorland, conifer plantations, dry grass or near water sources.
• Remember that a stove counts as an open flame too — treat it with the same care.

Choosing and using a stove properly

For almost every British trip, a stove is the better tool. It boils water in minutes, leaves nothing behind, works in a howling wind if you shelter it, and does not care whether the heather is crisp as tinder. Gas canisters are simple and clean; methylated spirit and liquid fuel stoves are reliable in cold weather; a simple solid-fuel block will do for a brew.

Set up on bare ground, a flat rock or a metal tray — never on dry vegetation. Use a windshield or a natural dip in the terrain, and keep the stove out of the wind so the flame does not crawl sideways. Place it where it cannot tip, and never leave it unsupervised, even for a minute.

The one rule that matters most: never burn a stove inside a tent or a closed porch. Carbon monoxide is colourless, odourless and kills people every year in Britain. Cook outside, or in a well-ventilated shelter with the door open. Let a hot stove cool before you refuel it, and check the seals on canister connections before you strike a match.

If you do light a fire, do it well

Sometimes a fire is right: a designated spot, a damp evening, a group of friends, permission granted. Then keep it small, contained and short-lived. Use an existing ring rather than building a new one, or better still use a fire pan or a mound fire — lift the turf carefully, build on bare mineral soil or sand, and keep the whole thing the size of a dinner plate.

Burn only dead wood you find lying on the ground, and keep it to thumb thickness or smaller. Break nothing from standing trees, living or dead. Do not burn pallets, treated timber or plastic; the fumes are toxic and the nails stay behind. Never use stones from a river or lakeshore, as wet rock can shatter and send fragments flying.

Putting it out and restoring the ground

A fire is not finished when the flames stop. Douse it with water, stir the ash and embers with a stick, douse again, then stir once more. Feel the ash with the back of your hand — if it is warm at all, it is not out. Only when it is cold should you scatter the ash thinly and widely, well away from the fire site.

Then put the ground back. Scatter the ring stones downstream and out of sight. Replace any lifted turf, duff or leaf litter, and rake the surface so it looks as though nobody had ever been there. If you have scorched a patch of soil, that damage stays, which is exactly why so many experienced walkers now carry a stove and leave the fire at home.

Skills that keep you warm without flames

Most fires are lit for warmth, food and morale, and all three can be met without one. Carry a flask of hot soup for the summit. Learn to layer properly — a dry baselayer, a fleece, a windproof shell and a hat will beat a fire on a windy ridge. Pitch your tent out of the wind, eat something hot from the stove, and get into a dry sleeping bag early.

Practise your stove craft at home before you rely on it in the rain, and know how much fuel a weekend needs. A tidy, quiet camp with no blackened ring left behind is not a compromise. In the British hills, it is the mark of someone who knows what they are doing.