Campfires and barbecues: the rules on Isle of Wight campsites

In short: 35 of the campsites we list allow campfires in some form, but almost all of them have rules: usually you must use the site's own fire pits, or keep the fire raised off the ground. Most other campsites allow barbecues if they're raised off the grass. Away from campsites, fires are not allowed on National Trust land or in Forestry England woods, and the council asks people not to use disposable barbecues on beaches or in parks.

Which campsites allow campfires?

Campfires are mostly found on small farm sites, pop-up fields and glamping sites. The big holiday parks and most touring parks don't allow them, usually for insurance reasons or because the pitches are close together. The map shows where the campsites with fires are.

The full list is on the campfires allowed page, with each site's own rules on its campsite page. A few that are well set up for it:

• Camp Wight, Ningwood: a woodland site where fires go in the site's raised firepits, which you rent with wood, kindling and firelighters. Fires are allowed except in extreme drought.
• Stoats Farm, Totland: hired fire pits with a supplied Swedish log; your own fire pit isn't allowed.
• Kingston Smallholding, Shorwell: a fire pit on each pitch with free firewood.
• Camp Corve, Chale: communal fire pits with logs, and private pits with the bell tents.
• Oakdene Orchard, Wootton: each pitch has its own fire pit.
• Windmill Campersite, Carisbrooke: a communal fire pit and a big BBQ and pizza oven, with wood supplied.
• Chapelfurlong Farm, Hulverstone, and Wild Oak Farm, Wootton: summer fields where campfires are allowed.

Many glamping sites give each unit its own fire pit, often with wood included: Tapnell Farm, Wight Classic Camping, the Garlic Farm yurts, Sibbecks Farm and Puckaster Cove among them.

Fire pits, raised fires and open fires

"Campfires allowed" can mean quite different things, so read the small print before you pack a bag of logs.

Comforts Farm, for example, requires any fire to be in a fireproof container at least 30cm off the ground. The Hydeaway allows fires but not in dry, windy or hot conditions, and you must buy fuel on site. Sunrise Hill bans fires and barbecues in dry, windy or hot weather. Several sites sell logs, and some ask you to use only their wood.

Barbecues on campsites

Barbecues are allowed at many more campsites than fires, but nearly always with a rule about keeping them off the grass. Disposable barbecues scorch a square of turf that takes weeks to grow back, which is why so many sites ban them on the ground.

• Heathfield Farm, Freshwater: no campfires, but barbecues on your pitch if raised off the grass. Bricks are provided, and there are communal BBQ areas.
• Whitefield Forest, Ryde: no campfires because of the forest next door; barbecues raised off the ground, with bricks at the refuse points.
• The Orchards, Newbridge: fire pits banned; barbecues mustn't touch the grass, and there are blocks for disposables at the top of the touring field.
• Grange Farm, Brighstone Bay: raised barbecues and small fire pits fuelled by charcoal or gas, but no wood.
• Ninham, Shanklin: charcoal barbecues only, raised off the grass; no fire pits or chimineas.

Gas barbecues are usually the least trouble: they're quick, they don't mark the grass and some sites that ban charcoal still allow them. Whatever you use, keep it well away from tents and awnings. Never take a barbecue inside a tent or awning, even when it seems to be out: it gives off carbon monoxide as it cools.

Beaches, National Trust land and the forests

Outside a campsite, the rules are much stricter.

• National Trust land. The Trust owns much of the Island's most open country, including Tennyson Down and the Needles headland, Compton, Brighstone Down and St Helens Duver. Fires and barbecues are not allowed on its land. In July 2026 a fire on Headon Warren, the Trust's heathland above Alum Bay, took firefighters several days to put out and burned heath that the Trust says will take years to recover. It is thought to have started from a small campfire.
• Forestry England woods. Fires and barbecues aren't allowed in Forestry England woods, which on the Island include Brighstone Forest and Parkhurst Forest.
• Beaches and parks. The Isle of Wight Council advises against using disposable barbecues on beaches and in parks and green spaces, and has banned barbecues at Fort Victoria Country Park during past dry spells. If you do barbecue on a beach, keep to the sand below the vegetation, let it cool completely and take it home, rather than leaving it by or in a bin.

The legal position on wild camping, and the National Trust land, is covered in our wild camping guide.

Fires in a dry summer

The Island's chalk downs, heaths and cliff-top grassland dry out quickly in a hot summer, and a stray spark can carry a long way in the wind. Campsites that allow fires can stop them at short notice, and several say so in their rules.

• Check with the site on arrival, and again if the weather turns hot and windy.
• Keep fires small, and never leave one unattended, even for a few minutes.
• Keep a bucket of water or the site's fire bucket next to it.
• Put it out completely before bed: drown it, stir it, and drown it again until it's cold to the touch.
• No fireworks or sky lanterns. Most campsites ban them anyway.

Looking for a fire under dark skies? See our guide to stargazing, or browse farm campsites and small sites, where fires and quiet evenings tend to go together.