Fears are growing over the impact of social media on the Lake District.
Several incidents of litter and fly-camping were recorded over the Easter weekend – which has prompted one local woman to call for better enforcement in the national park.
Fi Kennedy, 49, who lives in Dacre, near Ullswater, said she discovered several burnt out fires along the shoreline and one couple fly-camping on Wordsworth Point on Glencoyne Bay on Easter Monday.
The 49-year-old is well-known in the area for her Lake District photography and moved to the area four years ago after holidaying in the national park since being a child.
Fi has spent months photographing and documenting incidents of fly camping, severe litter and damage to the environment.
She said: “It has progressively got worse, but it was the worst I’ve seen it after Easter. It was just fire after fire after fire which culminated in me at the end of Glencoyne Bay actually putting out a fire one couple had burning on the shore.
“This particular couple were camping on Wordsworth’s daffodils on the corner of Glencoyne Bay. The fire pits were further up.
“It’s the first time I’ve properly challenged someone, but I’d just seen so much that morning that I was just crushed. It was just a tipping point.
“When I was pouring water on it, the earth was bubbling up beneath it, they’d had it burning all night by their tent on the edge of Ullswater.
“I said to the couple this is our home, would you like it if I came to your home and lit a fire in your garden?
“The man said no and I said then why do you think its ok to do that here? He then said ‘oh I come from Newcastle, I don’t know.’
“You say to them did you see all the signs because there is signage saying no fly-camping and no fires and they say ‘oh no I didn’t see them’.
“The answer when you tell them they can’t camp here or have fires here is always ‘oh I didn’t know’ but they do know, they definitely do know.”
Before she found the burnt out fire pits and fly-campers on Glencoyne Bay, Fi also claimed she saw a woman urinating in the open by a van.
She said: “I also saw a woman who was parked in a lay-by in a van they’d clearly been overnighting in and she jumped out of the van and just urinated in the lay-by in front of me, so I’d had that before I’d even got to Glencoyne bay.
“When you’ve got people weeing in a lay-by at half seven in the morning you just think what the hell is going on here.”
Fly-camping – which happens when people don’t follow the rules of wild camping – has become an increasing issue along with fire and litter incidents in the Lake District in recent years.
It’s an increase that some have said has come hand in hand with a rise in the Lake District’s popularity on social media.
In 2023, we spoke to one of the Lake District National Park’s western lakes rangers, who said teams were feeling the impact of social media and that trying to educate people and stop fires and fly-camping was like playing ‘whack a mole’.
While teams try their best to clean up after fly-camping and litter incidents, local people and communities are often left to do so due to a lack of funding and enforcement powers.
Fi said as a photographer litter, fly-camping and scorch marks in the earth from fires in the Lake District is a harsh reality that social media doesn’t want to see.
She added: “People don’t want to see this stuff, I’m known locally for taking pictures because I love it here, my entire life has been based around holidaying here and now I’m fortunate enough to live here.
“It’s heart-breaking when you love somewhere and this is what is happening. For those of us who do live locally we’re left to pick up the rubbish and soiled underwear and nappies and human faeces.
“But all people see online is the beautiful Lake District and rolling fells and I want people to enjoy that because I have for the bulk of my life.
“I just want people to be more respectful of what they’re doing when they come here.
“I think we used to say oh it’s just a small minority spoiling it for the masses and actually it’s not a small minority anymore, that is the problem, and there isn’t any real powers in place to stop it.”
While campfires may seem harmless – they’re widely banned across the national park and beauty spots across Cumbria.
Ground containing peat beneath may look normal from the surface but it cannot fully regenerate when burnt, meaning the scorch marks remain.
Fi said she believes the Lake District is in desperate need of rangers with stronger enforcement powers to help better tackle fly-camping and littering.
She said: “If education is not going to work, then there needs to be some kind of enforcement brought in whether that be people or rangers with greater powers. The police are not particularly interested.
“I understand that police are stretched around here, there’s barely enough of them to cover the big towns, but they also don’t see all this as a very serious crime.
“But there needs to be something done, there needs to be rangers with proper powers to fine someone on the spot or move them on.”
The order aims to deter anti-social behaviour and give the council’s teams and police the ability to issue fines as a last resort.
Westmorland and Furness Council have confirmed they currently have no plans yet to do the same – but Fi said she worries it’s not enough.
She added: “Everyone wants the tourism here and the money and the numbers, but we just gloss over the actual impact it is having on local communities.
“That’s the other thing with fly-camping is these people aren’t staying at a campsite, they’re not using local facilities, so it’s a much wider impact on the community and hospitality in the area.
“People think they can come up here and just do it all for free, you’ve got vanlifers and fly-campers and its the campsites and local communities that miss out.”
Fi added that she did feel the Lake District’s rise in popularity on social media was to blame for the increase in litter and fly-camping incidents.
She said: “It is social media, it is the rise of social media, but I also think there’s been a cultural shift and people seem to act very entitled these days.
“They think they can do what they like and that the rules don’t apply to them.
“Sometimes if I post on Facebook that I’ve found a fire or fly-campers I’ll sometimes get comments saying ‘they’re not doing any harm’ but the rubbish they leave behind, the scorch marks from fires, they are doing harm.
“Why do you want to go to a beautiful part of the world and then just set it on fire? I don’t understand it.
“They want to go to these places and take the pictures for social media, but then what you don’t see is the photos of all the rubbish left behind, the burn marks and other stuff.
“My concern is that at some point there’s going to be someone challenge a fly-camper or someone littering and someone is going to get hurt.”
Patrols were also introduced ahead of the Easter weekend in a bid to address irresponsible parking in the Lake District.
Fi said vans often cause problems by parking in lay-bys and passing places and staying overnight.
She added: “I went up to do Place Fell and drove through Hallin Fell and the church car park and bottom of the fell was just completely full with vans and cars of people staying over night on top of the fell.
Something has to change, whether that’s down the legal or enforcement route. I want people to come and enjoy the Lake District, but I really want people to be respectful and mindful and do it with care.”
Fi said that without proper enforcement the job of cleaning up after fly-campers and littering incidents is falling to local people.
She said: “If we don’t do something about it as locals, it just gets worse and worse, but also as locals you feel like you’re banging your head against a brick wall because you never get anywhere.
“It’s like these people are walking away Glastonbury style waiting for someone to come and pick up their tents and rubbish afterwards.
“Something needs to be done, something needs to be said and more people need to start speaking about this.
“We are so privileged to live where we live and I really understand my privilege and with that comes responsibilities. I do go out and look at certain areas where problems are and I’m not the only one doing it, but we shouldn’t have to be doing it. We need enforcement.
“But I do feel the tide is changing slightly and there is more people stepping forward and saying this is not okay.”
Love the Lake District? Read more about how to leave no trace here.
Is it illegal to wild camp in the Lake District? Read more about wild camping and fly-camping here.
