Are national trust campsites free to members?

[California Col]

As above! Does anybody know?

 

[andyinluton]

As above! Does anybody know?

No you still pay, & you don't even get any sort of discount.

 

[California Col]

Thanks! Won’t bother with a membership then.

 

[chockswahay]

Thanks! Won’t bother with a membership then.

Well…….. there’s much more to National Trist than campsites…..

 

[andyinluton]

Well…….. there’s much more to National Trist than campsites…..

Yes there is, your membership contributes to all sorts of things - buying rainbow lanyards for staff & public shaming of people who happen to be descendants of slave owners. Latest row is about a country house in their ownership that burnt down, they won't rebuild it despite being given the circa £60m rebuild costs by the insurance company....


On the positive side there's a good few carparks that they own in Devon & Cornwall that are free for members.

 

[ArunAlec]

You don’t need to visit many NT properties to make membership worthwhile.

 

[soulstyledevon]

You don’t need to visit many NT properties to make membership worthwhile.

A week parking in Cornish beaches almost breaks you even.

 

[California Col]

Well…….. there’s much more to National Trist than campsites…..

Yep, I know. But in truth we haven’t visited an NT site in years, it’s not really our thing especially as they aren’t all dog friendly.

 

[Kayleigh]

Thanks! Won’t bother with a membership then.

I use the NT car parks often and probably get my moneys worth from them alone.

 

[GrannyJen]

Like all "sweet and nice" organisations it ends up being stuffed full of cronies thinking good deeds and being terribly understanding to whingeing minorities.

However I first supported them when they saved most of the Cornish coast from being fenced off and helped make possible that truly remarkable trail, the South West Coastpath, one of the top ten trails in the world. For that alone they will always get my support.

Part of their problem is that other terribly sweet and nice people thinking good deeds leave them legacies of listed crumbling piles that cost a fortune to repair and maintain. Perhaps why they trousered the insurance cash rather than rebuild the now smouldering crumbling pile.

 

[Velma's Dad]

Part of their problem is that other terribly sweet and nice people thinking good deeds leave them legacies of listed crumbling piles that cost a fortune to repair and maintain. Perhaps why they trousered the insurance cash rather than rebuild the now smouldering crumbling pile.

I don't know all the details but I gather that attempting to recreate even the ground floor of the interiors at Clandon Park would cost massively more than the insured value (£115 million has been reported) and of course it could only be a copy. The originals, apart from one room, are now gone forever. The current plan is to conserve the structure and take the opportunity to display it as a way to read the underlying architectural skeleton of an eighteenth century Palladian mansion. I think it could be done quite imaginatively and well but in any case it's arguably not a good use of the Trust's reserves to spend a huge amount on a single property just to create a replica of what existed.

 

[The Tall Luthier]

I’m very disheartened to read two posts that criticise the National Trust for supporting minorities in our society. In a country where my gay friends still have abuse thrown at them in the streets, having the big guys there to help normalise their existence can never, ever be a bad thing.

We’ve made great strides towards a Liberal society in the last 100 years, we’re doing really, really well, but we ain’t there yet!

The NT chose to buy multi coloured lanyards instead of purple or green ones, and that’s what makes you upset, Rainbows? Sugar and spice, sweetness and nice! More of the same please, there’s enough hate being thrown around currently.

 

[andyinluton]

I’m very disheartened to read two posts that criticise the National Trust for supporting minorities in our society.

I don’t have a problem with the NT supporting minorities. What I do have a problem with is the way they have gone about it. Forcing staff to wear rainbow lanyards whether they wanted to or not - what paid for the lanyards? Donations & memberships that were given to rescue & maintain heritage assets.

Why should those at the top of an institution like the NT impose their beliefs on the mostly voluntary staff. They should be staying strictly neutral in all matters & let the staff decide.

 

[The Tall Luthier]

I don’t have a problem with the NT supporting minorities. What I do have a problem with is the way they have gone about it. Forcing staff to wear rainbow lanyards whether they wanted to or not - what paid for the lanyards? Donations & memberships that were given to rescue & maintain heritage assets.

Why should those at the top of an institution like the NT impose their beliefs on the mostly voluntary staff. They should be staying strictly neutral in all matters & let the staff decide.

You do realise that this was one incident, in one stately home, six years ago? Implemented as part of a celebration of our heritage, namely, 50 years of decriminalisation of homosexuality. What better way than to splash a little colour around. Felbrigg Hall was donated to the trust by a gay man in 1969, 48 years later the NT told the history of the house, outing the donor. Apparently much to the outraged and embarrassment of his family. Here’s the rub though, he was gay, he had no descendants to leave the house to, exactly which members of his non family were still alive fifty years later to be embarrassed?

The trust were wrong to impose rainbows on everyone, the reversed their decision. But it really says a lot more about the ten staff who were too homophonic to wear ’a colourful ribbon’ don’t you think?

By the way, Equality isn’t a belief these days Andy, it’s law!

But given that it’s one incident, one mistake, six years ago. Is that really a reason to let Rees Mogg get his hands on an otherwise great organisation? He really doesn’t have a great track record of any worth.

 

[RockinNRollin]

The campsites are ran by the commercial arm of the NT, which is separate (at an operational level anyway) to the houses/parks/gardens etc... We stay on NT campsites regularly as we find them excellent, we also visit the properties a fair bit so we definitely get our monies worth.

OP: before making a cast iron decision, have a look on the NT website. Apparently there are 328 dog-friendly locations

Dog-friendly walks and days out

Discover new places to explore with your dog, including dog-friendly walks and days out that you and your dog can experience together.

www.nationaltrust.org.uk

 

[WelshGas]

You do realise that this was one incident, in one stately home, six years ago? Implemented as part of a celebration of our heritage, namely, 50 years of decriminalisation of homosexuality. What better way than to splash a little colour around. Felbrigg Hall was donated to the trust by a gay man in 1969, 48 years later the NT told the history of the house, outing the donor. Apparently much to the outraged and embarrassment of his family. Here’s the rub though, he was gay, he had no descendants to leave the house to, exactly which members of his non family were still alive fifty years later to be embarrassed?

The trust were wrong to impose rainbows on everyone, the reversed their decision. But it really says a lot more about the ten staff who were too homophonic to wear ’a colourful ribbon’ don’t you think?

By the way, Equality isn’t a belief these days Andy, it’s law!

But given that it’s one incident, one mistake, six years ago. Is that really a reason to let Rees Mogg get his hands on an otherwise great organisation? He really doesn’t have a great track record of any worth.

The National Trust was NOT set up to protect minorities nor majorities in any form but to protect the nations historical buildings and national heritage.

 

[GrannyJen]

The trust were wrong to impose rainbows on everyone, the reversed their decision. But it really says a lot more about the ten staff who were too homophonic to wear ’a colourful ribbon’ don’t you think?

No. If you accept it was wrong for the trust to try to impose their decision then surely you must also accept it could be right for some volunteers to oppose such an imposition. To just label 10 people as "homophobic" because they objected to an imposition that even you see as wrong is a slur on them.

People are allowed to have an opinion without necessarily be seen as a bigot or phobic.

 

[WelshGas]

There used to be a saying " Live and let Live " but now it seems to be " Live if you agree with me or be Cancelled in Society if you don't agree ".
The trouble with the last statement is that the minorities that INSIST they are correct and who are doing the cancelling will and are facing a backlash from the majority and it will not go well for them . The General Public are by and large very tolerant but take exception to being spoken down to and will have their say to the detriment of the minorities in the longterm.

 

[GrannyJen]

The trouble with the last statement is that the minorities that INSIST they are correct and who are doing the cancelling will and are facing a backlash from the majority and it will not go well for them .

I think it's doing immeasurable harm to those minorities. Most gay people I know, who are in settled, loving relationships, just want to get on with their lives. They do not want to be demanding rights, holding protests, heckling visiting professors at universities. None of us, regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation are ever going to be universally liked so why demand it? I'm not universally liked, some people see me as a shrivelled old bigoted academic, an interfering old busybody or lots of other less flattering epithets.

You can't win over all the people all the time and just demanding acceptance is banging a drum that makes even totally uninterested, live and let live folks say: "Just who are this lot to demand rights from me".

 

[andyinluton]

OP: before making a cast iron decision, have a look on the NT website. Apparently there are 328 dog-friendly locations

Dog-friendly walks and days out

Discover new places to explore with your dog, including dog-friendly walks and days out that you and your dog can experience together.

www.nationaltrust.org.uk

Don't get too excited - their idea of dog friendly & mine are two different things - this is the entry for the "dog friendly" workhouse in Nottingham it has a two paw rating..........


Despite being one of the most austere buildings of its time with architecture based on prison design, The Workhouse and Infirmary is now a great place for you to visit with your dog.

Where can dogs go at The Workhouse?
Dogs on leads are welcome to explore the picnic field and car park.

 

[ArunAlec]

Getting back to the OP’s question….. given the small number of NT campsites, I doubt whether it would financially viable to let members camp for free. I already wonder how they manage to give “free” access and parking as part of the membership deal.

 

[andyinluton]

Getting back to the OP’s question….. given the small number of NT campsites, I doubt whether it would financially viable to let members camp for free. I already wonder how they manage to give “free” access and parking as part of the membership deal.

They've not really got anything other parking & free entry to houses to offer. If they didn't give that they wouldn't have many members...

 

[Perfectos]

I already wonder how they manage to give “free” access and parking as part of the membership deal.

NT Membership is not free.

you pay in advance to access NT facilities (or you pay per visit: the public rate + parking)

the NT turns over in excess of £600+ million per annum, so it has quite a healthy budget to play with, given that much of that is from annual subscribers & NT is Largely run by volunteers.

 

[chockswahay]

We love the National Trust…… (which is a bit weird I s’pose because many of the properties come from times when the world was clearly ’haves’ and ‘have nots’, and I would have been at the front of the revolution back in the day yelling “Off with their heads!”) however the fact is that for a one off fee we get access to beautiful historic and unique properties and parks all over the UK and free parking in nearly all the coastal car parks in Cornwall (worth it for that alone!).

We have just moved from Scotland where we had Scottish membership which as it happens is considerably cheaper than the English membership (especially if one of you is over 60 ).

Funnily enough, a few years ago we used to stop overnight in many of the ‘house car parks’ by simply being discreet, placing ourselves at the far end and often having a quick word with one of the attendants although they never officially sanctioned our presence,, just turned a blind eye. Unfortunately those days have gone now

We also used to, and still do, stop overnight in some of the more remote car parks out of season, again common sense and discretion prevailing .

We have often thought how useful it would be if the National Trust would allow campervans to stop overnight, say between 18:00 and 09:00 when the car parks would otherwise be empty. We would be happy to pay a modest fee (£10 perhaps?).

So there we are, long live the National Trust

 

[RockinNRollin]

We have often thought how useful it would be if the National Trust would allow campervans to stop overnight, say between 18:00 and 09:00 when the car parks would otherwise be empty. We would be happy to pay a modest fee (£10 perhaps?).

I noticed recently in Scotland that some of the forestry commission car parks did this