At the foot of the seven-mile hulk that is the Long Mynd, and next to a 17th-century cottage on the outskirts of the village of Little Stretton, sits a little secluded paradise for those who like to combine their camping with a bit of walking. Or even a lot of walking.'The average walker can get a week's hiking in without once using their car', says Oscar, who has run the site with his wife Pam for over 40 years. Indeed, there's been a campsite here since the 1920s, when Oscar's grandfather William Prince was the owner.

In a world too often characterised by blandness and uniformity, the creative touches with which Foxholes Castle campsite abound are a balm to the soul.Take the full-sized knight, for instance, who looks out over the owners' castellated roof, his raised sword defying all-comers. Then there's the metal sculpture of a fox skulking around a hedge, the Easter Island head (no campsite should be without one) popping up in the middle of a field, and the little Buddha adorning a quiet corner.

Cross a 170-acre farm that takes a maximum of 10 tents at any one time with friendly owners who hold a relaxed pitch-where-you-like attitude and you've got yourself one very roomy campsite. And if you don't mind a walk to the facilities (about two thirds of a mile at the furthest point), you really can get away from everything and everyone.

As every fan ofAE Housman knows,'Clunton and Clunbury/Clungunford and Clun/Are the quietest places/Under the sun.' It's refreshing to note that, over 100 years after Shropshire's second-best poet (lest we forget, Wilfred Owen was an Oswestry lad) penned his paean to Clun and its hinterland, the village remains a somnolent backwater, apparently inoculated from the rapid pace of 21st-century life. Less than fittingly then, its youth hostel is housed in a former mill that was probably the noisiest thing in the village during Housman's time.

The back of beyond. There's nothing quite like being there, but it's an experience few campsites in England can actually guarantee. That's what makes the journey to Welsh Bicknor's hostel so satisfying. Launch yourself up a steep hill from Goodrich Castle and you'll find the road eventually peters out into a treelined lane plunging down the other side into a huge loop of the River Wye.

It was all very well for Dante to claim that the only perfect view is the one of the sky above our heads, but then he never climbed the hill west of Ludlow to Whitcliffe Campsite. Had he done so he might have had some serious second thoughts, for here is a panorama to rival any cloudscape you might care to imagine.

The further west one ventures into Herefordshire the more it seems like a different country all of its own, lost in some distant time; the sort of place you could expect to turn a corner and bump into a buxom milkmaid shouldering a rustic yoke. It's no surprise, then, when the friendly owners at Penlan Campsite inform us that the 'modern' part of their stone and wooden farmhouse dates from the late 1600s (the rest of it being a good hundred years older).

Some say that Britain's decline as a world power is directly attributable to the dearth of campsites offering facilities for campers who want to bring their horse along. If that's so, no one can blame the owners of Monstay Farm, whose stables are ready and waiting (though will need to be pre-booked). Opened in 2009, the 100-acrc sheep-and-catde farm's campsite sports two slightly sloping fields, one with a gorgeous view west to the Cambrian Mountains, while the other looks south over a Hock of sheep and Mortimer Forest.

The sign of a really good campsite is when you can crawl from your tent in the morning and find yourself gazing into the eyes of a young stag — not the bleary-eyed groom-to-be variety, but a real red deer. Camp at the top of Eastnor Castle's 23-acre camping field - right next to their deer park -and there's every chance it could happen to you.

You can make your way to Caves Folly Eco Campsite by public transport and be collected, but you're positively encouraged to arrive on foot, bike, or even horseback (stabling can be arranged locally). A no-car policy is the only rule at this most laid-back and welcoming of places to stay.