About our site

Set in a secluded 4 acre area surrounded by high hedges, backed by open public land and away from the nearest roads or houses, 'Swanage Bijou Camping at Kirkwood Park' is by far the closest camping area, (and an easy level 7 minute walk across parkland), to Swanages Town centre shops, bars and restaurants, the lovely sandy beach with safe swimming, the Swanage Steam Railway Station, and the pier.

The camping area for tents has no car access.  We provide a fleet of wheelbarrows to assist you moving your gear up to 40 meters (or less).  The benefit of this is a relaxed site with no ordained pitches, no lit roadways, no car radios or early morning engines starting up and no worries about your kids mixing with traffic in the camping field.

There is a small area near the reception building with grass parking for a limited number of small VW type campervans.

The surrounding 20 acres of fields are public open parkland space suitable for kite flying, dog walking and ball games.  There is a free modern children’s adventure playground and free new skateboard park only a 60 meter off road walk away.

We aim to provide 'camping as it used to be' without fussy rules.  You pick the pitch that suits you best, meaning you can group with friends.  Our one important request is that our guests show respect to each other and our neighbours by not creating late night noise.  Our simple guidelines are a quiet site from 11pm to 8 am  It's harder, but we appreciate it if this is applied to young children and dogs.  If either have too much energy we ask you to take them to the park next door to work off steam!  We are a pretty easy going lot, but the site is staffed at night to assist with these guidelines. Young, single sex and multiple tent groups may be requested to provide a fully returnable noise bond.  As a result we hope that you get a good nights sleep!

Simple but clean facilities are provided on site with seven lit, mains connected toilets, six free hot showers, hot water sinks and hot water washing up facilities. We have free elctricity for your use around the reception building and provide pumps for airbeds and cooling with fridges and freezers for free.  We charge mobiles in the reception (at your risk) for £1 a go.  Maps and info on walks and things to do are available in the reception and we are always happy to help you choose what to do with your day.

Want to camp but don't have a tent?  Orgainse your own luxury bell tent through Swanage Bijou Glamping  We provide 5 meter bell tents fully furnished inside and out for a very comfortable stay for up to four adults, or two adults and three children, without the need to put up (or take down!) your own tent.  

The burning of small open fires and bar-b-q's are allowed by your tent on a raised steel tray provided free (but with deposit) by us. For obvious reasons fires must never be lit on the ground and must be attended to at all times and extinguished by 11pm.  They must also be located at least 3 meters from any tent.  We may have to stop fires when conditions are either very windy or very dry.  Reasonably priced sparkless firelogs are for sale in the reception.

Important notes:- Swanage Bijou Camping is a temporary ancillary camping operation attached to Swanage Golf Games, with facilities and areas operated on that basis.

We prefer car movements to be kept to a minimum out of courtesy to our neighbours. We are so close to the town centre and sandy beaches that we hope you will prefer to walk as it is easier, greener, cheaper and healthier!  Under normal summer weather conditions a grass car parking space (separate from the camping field by up to 40 meters) is provided with each tent booking. 

All bookings must be made on-line prior to your arrival and are to be for a minimum of two nights unless we opt to over-rule our own policy for you - sorry we are not a one night stand party site!

Access to the camping area is by foot only.  We advise you to carefully consider the up to 40 meter walk over rough ground to and from your tent prior to booking and do not recommend this site if you have any member of the family who cannot easily walk this distance in the near dark!

We consider it important for tourism in Swanage to have as little impact on the environment as possible and so we present every arrival with a recycling bucket and monitor waste to ensure that every camper undertakes the simple but important task of sorting out their recycleable materials.  We recognise that your stay is about relaxing and kicking back but ask you to take a few moments to care for your (and my!) childrens world!  Last year the recycling got to a respectable 60% of all waste so please help us to break that record this year!