Two Areas, One Wild Camp: Introducing The Wildacre and The Old Thorn

Introducing The Wildacre and The Old Thorn: Two Wild Areas, One Special Site

If you've visited Castle Wild Camp before, you'll know the feeling of arriving and wondering which corner of this remarkable place you're going to call home for a few nights. Well, we've been doing some thinking - and we're excited to share a change that we hope will make choosing your perfect glade even easier.

From this season, our camping glades are divided into two distinct areas: The Wildacre and The Old Thorn. Both are every bit as wild and wonderful as you'd expect from Castle Wild Camp, but each has its own character, its own atmosphere, and its own cast of wildlife. Here's what you need to know.

The Old Thorn

The Old Thorn is the heart of the original Castle Wild Camp site - and in many ways, it's where the journey began. This area is farmland that was abandoned back in the 1980s and has spent the decades since doing exactly what nature does when left to its own devices: growing, tangling, thickening, and filling with life.

Today it's a dense, atmospheric mosaic of blackthorn, hawthorn and oak - some of it well over fifty years old - threaded with paths and punctuated by glades where you can set up camp and feel genuinely tucked away from the world. It's the kind of place where you wake up to the churring of a wren two feet from your tent, and fall asleep to tawny owls calling across the dark. The glades in The Old Thorn are: Bullfinch, Castle View, Chaffinch, Kestrel, Kingfisher, Nuthatch, Red Fox, Tawny and White Admiral.

The Wildacre

The Wildacre is something newer - and in its own way, just as exciting. This five-acre field has been given back to nature, and we're watching it transform in real time. Where there was once arable farmland, wildflowers are now establishing, grasses are growing tall, and the insects, birds and small mammals that follow are moving in season by season.

Camping in The Wildacre feels open and spacious - big Norfolk skies above you, meadow stretching around you, and the quiet satisfaction of knowing you're witnessing rewilding in action. It's a different kind of wild to The Old Thorn; younger, lighter, and full of a sense of possibility. Our Hideaway Cabin is also nestled in the woodland right next to The Wildacre - perfect for those who want the magic without the tent pegs. The glades in The Wildacre are: Badger, Barn Owl, Beaver, Hare, Hedgehog and Nightingale.

So which one is right for you?

That depends entirely on what you're after. If you want to feel cocooned in ancient scrub, surrounded by decades of undisturbed nature, The Old Thorn is your place. If you'd rather have open meadow, wide skies, stars and a front-row seat to rewilding as it happens, The Wildacre is calling.

Either way, the site is now clearly signposted so you'll find your way easily on arrival - follow the signs for your area, then on to your glade.

Not sure which glade to pick? Our glade selector will help you choose. And as always, if you have any questions before you book, drop us a line at hello@castlewildcamp.co.uk — we love hearing from you.

See you in the wild.

The Castle Wild Camp team