Tent Pitching Sites?

Hi folks, 

So, I had a relatively nice overnighter on Mull a couple of weeks back, with a dry, calm night followed by a very, very wet day. I'm glad the night didn't involve much weather, as the the place where I pitched my tent left a bit to be desired!

Turned out that everywhere was a bit of a swamp, regardless of altitude or the gradient of slope, and I wasn't wholly willing to trust in the groundsheet of my tent to keep me dry. I eventually found a little dry flat platform (on the north slope of Glen Clachaig, below An Cruchan, if you were interested) after a good hour of clambering and a 250m ascent leaving me rather more hungry and tired than I'd have liked!

Similar conditions pop up all over the place... big expanses of peaty moorland where everything oozes. Question for you folks... how do you go about finding a good camping spot in that sort of terrain? Or is the answer "avoid camping anywhere near there"? If I go back again, it is tempting to do it in the depths of winter when it will have frozen nicely!

There are times you just can't avoid it.  But I know from experience I can trust my groundsheets.

On one occasion I pitched on thawing snow in Norway, when I woke up the next morning those bits of groundsheet not weighed down were afloat!  Plenty of condensation on it, but no leaks!

Pete.

Well, I guess I'll have to find somewhere suitable to pitch the tent one wet weekend, fill it with heavy stuff and see what happens. I wouldn't worry nearly so much about my big, heavy tents, but when I'm walking on my own I use my laser comp which is a bit more of a delicate little thing, and learning about its waterproofness isn't something I really want to do when its getting dark and I'm half a day away from somewhere warm and dry!

In some areas of Scotland I've noticed that along the edges of rivers, streams or burns there are some patches of drier ground. Not good if there is a risk of flooding due to heavy rains perhaps but sometimes by following streams you might just find somewhere. The ones I have used have either been a bit of an island or in the bight of a burn. However with all upland areas ground conditions do change rapidly. I once pitched on a nice, dry and sunny evening near Eskdale in the Lakes and woke to find out I was pitched in about 6" of water. It was a nice, flat area that we've camped in many times and have never seen it more than slightly wet. Certainly we thought it was fairly free draining and was always so. Live and learn!!