Cycling UK Forum

Yes we have had wild boar and camping (may have had an experience myself) but on a recent wonderful ride round the Yorkshire Dales, the wonderful scenery naturally turned my mind to freecamping - with a tent or bivi.

But apart from the scenery, the other thing I noticed of course was lots of sheep.

I wouldn't camp/bivi anywhere near cattle - big things/have been known to trample folk to death in their clumsy way.

Nor at the other extreme would I pitch a tent anywhere near the "humble" cat - likely to scratch your tent to bits

But how are sheep likely to react to a tent?

Leave well alone or approach and do something daft?

May seem like a daft over-cautious question but I find them unpredictable and appear to be profoundly stupid - many's the time I have been cycling the other side of a dry stone wall with quite a distance between us and the daft things have turned and walked/run away - you would have thought experience/some sort of passed down sense would have taught them that a bloke on a heavily loaded bike is hardly likely to suddenly vault the wall. A fox would just sit and marvel at MY stupidity.

Sweep wrote:But how are sheep likely to react to a tent?

Leave well alone or approach and do something daft?

They might munch grass right up to the edge of the fly but nothing worse than that IME (a fair few campsites shared with them over the years)

Pete.

I would say if you are in the tent or around it no problem. Shooed away they will stay away.

But leaving it empty for a long period with bread or other tasty stuff in it (esp. just under the fly) might be another thing altogether.
50 sheep once attracted, and given time, make a mincemeat mess of a tent.
Some (shy) herds won't be a problem but others could be.
IMHO.

I've experienced nothing worse than munching noises immediately outside hindering sleep, even the time I hopped over a field wall to bivvy (near Settle, after dark), and woke up in the morning to find a large bull grazing 10 m off.

An acquaintance did get run over by a sheep one time. In a Jetpacker (very low, dark green), sheep bleating one side, lamb bleating the other, followed by sheep running noises.

Hi,
Sheep not much of a problem unless you leave your tent undone, Once a sheep pulled my rucksack out of the tent.
Last time I was camping on the moors, I camped with sheep horses and Cattle.
Early in the morning heard munching noises Then a bit of sniffing, I coughed loudly and the horse ran off
I think a bit different camping on open moorland to camping in a field full of cattle.

On several occasions I've removed sheep from small tents on campsites while the owners were away for the day. Each tent was a complete mess inside with food, urine, droppings and mud trampled into the unlucky owners sleeping bags and groundsheet. One featured a distressed sheep trapped inside and trying to escape by bursting through a seam at the back of the cotton inner tent - it had forced it's head through the split but was then unable to withdraw it's horns and its struggles were gradually demolishing the tent. The worst incident was revealed by the rear end of a sheep collapsed in distress, half in and half out of the tent door, slowly suffocating with it's head fully inserted into the waxed inner bag of a cornflakes box........it recovered slowly after the bag was removed and staggered off but I suspect I'd arrived just in time to save it.
In every case these were obviously fairly tame animals habitually grazing on the campsite and used to scavenging for food. They were adept at nosing the door zip open if it wasn't securely fastened.
The Brotherswater campsite on Kirkstone Pass had signs warning campers not to leave food unattended in their tents as the local badgers will simply tear through the walls to steal it.( I've not been there for a few years so they may have been culled by now?)
A friend wild camping in the Fannichs in the Highlands returned from a days walking to find the porch of his Vango nylon flysheet ripped to shreds with signs of several deer having visited. The same guy also demonstrated that it's not just the larger animals that you have to look out for - on the very first outing for his £200 lightweight rucksack an unidentified rodent gnawed a perfect 2" diameter hole through the base to get at the food inside. He was very annoyed but shouldn't have left the thing in the tent porch overnight......

why on earth would you camp near sheep, all their baa-baa-ing . I was camping at Truleigh Hill YHA and there were sheep in the next field not much fun.

mercalia wrote:why on earth would you camp near sheep, all their baa-baa-ing . I was camping at Truleigh Hill YHA and there were sheep in the next field not much fun.

I think it's called nature mercalia.
Re responses I should stress that I am talking about wildcamping, will be sleeping in tent only, packing up first thing in the morning and moving on.
So am really only concerned about nocturnal sheep interference.
I have had food in a porch interfered with by unknown Nightime visitors in the past.
Once had a hedgehog ferret around under the edges of a groundsheet. Gave me an odd dream - didn't figure it all out until the next day.

Sweep wrote:Re responses I should stress that I am talking about wildcamping, will be sleeping in tent only, packing up first thing in the morning and moving on.
So am really only concerned about nocturnal sheep interference.
I have had food in a porch interfered with by unknown Nightime visitors in the past.
Once had a hedgehog ferret around under the edges of a groundsheet. Gave me an odd dream - didn't figure it all out until the next day.

Still if you hide your food and shoo them away you'll be ok.
However when you started the thread I expect you didn't expect sheep to be more of a threat than Wild Boar!!

Which they clearly are!!

As there are no accounts on here of Wild Boar damaging tents- yet.

Sheep can sound unnervingly human when they cough - just a point to note!

Sweep wrote:Nor at the other extreme would I pitch a tent anywhere near the "humble" cat - likely to scratch your tent to bits

Really? I find that hard to believe.

feefee8 wrote:Sheep can sound unnervingly human when they cough - just a point to note!

Indeed quite so.
And lambs can sound very human infant like.