Bear and Cedar Camping

View prices & book 8.7 66 reviews
Pitches
New
Dogs are welcome
Toasting marshmallows
A typical pitch

  • Spacious family-run site on the edge of the South Downs National Park
  • A 10-minute drive to Lewes; half an hour to the south coast
  • Dog-friendly pitches with firepits to hire; pub five minutes' walk
Whether you’re looking for walks, beach days or just some quiet time amid gorgeous scenery, a stay at Bear and Cedar Camping should suit you rather well. This friendly family-run East Sussex site is just on the eastern edge of the South Downs National Park, about 10 minutes’ drive from Lewes: an excellent location for countryside and coast adventures. As an ever-developing site that's new in its journey, it doesn't yet have dedicated washing-up facilities, but there is a fresh drinking water tap and a sink to use, as well as modern and regularly cleaned bathrooms with showers and toilets. Groups, families, couples and solo travellers are all welcome here, as are dogs. There’s a fabulous five acres to play with here, but guest numbers are always kept manageable to make sure there’s plenty of space for everyone to relax and for kids to play games safely. When conditions allow, firepits can be hired for outdoor evenings, stoking the flames as the sun sets. All of this means time spent on site is pretty lovely – but the location also means you should certainly be getting out and about as much as you can. There are plenty of walking and cycling trails around here, plus farm and adventure attractions for the kids and a tempting winery for the grownups. Lewes is a handy place to find supplies, but you won’t have to go that far if you just fancy a pint, some chips or a coffee – Ringmer is about a mile away, with takeaways, cafés and pubs, and there’s another pub even closer at five minutes’ walk.

Campground type

Tent sites 50
RV sites 10
Open now
Opens July 17
Please note

Admission

  • At least one of the party members must be aged 21 or over.
  • Under 18s must be accompanied by their parents or legal guardians.

Dogs

  • The campground/park does not accept breeds/crossbreeds listed in the Breed-specific legislation (i.e. Pit Bull Terrier, Japanese Tosa, Dogo Argentino, and Fila Brasileiro) and/or any of the following: Staffordshire bull terrier, American Staffordshire terrier, Rottweiler, any Mastiff or Tosa.
  • Your dog must be tattooed or microchipped.

General

  • Discount cards and gift vouchers cannot be applied to bookings made via Pitchup.com.
  • Please note that the toilet/shower facilities are unisex.

Occupancy

  • No bachelor/bachelorette parties permitted via Pitchup.com.
  • The park caters for families (immediate members) and couples only - bookings from all other forms of groups are not accepted.

Reception

  • There is no reception building on-site: on arrival please contact the number provided on your booking confirmation.

Safety

  • Fires, barbecues and/or firepits will not be permitted in dry, windy and/or hot weather conditions.
  • If making a fire, the fuel, logs and coal have to be purchased on site.
  • No charcoal barbecues allowed.
  • No gas barbecues allowed.

Languages spoken

English

Open from Fri, Jul 17 to

No availability here for your search criteria

Reviews

  • 55%
    10
  • 15%
    9
  • 12%
    8
  • 3%
    7
  • 3%
    6
  • 3%
    5
  • 3%
    4
  • 1%
    3
  • 3%
    2
  • 0%
    1
Location
9
Value for money
9
Accommodation
No rating
Facilities / Activities
8
Customer service
9
Child friendliness
9
Cleanliness
10
Wifi
7

86% would recommend this campground to a friend

85% would stay here again

What customers say

This new campsite gets rave reviews for its super clean, modern, and roomy restrooms and showers, called "world-class" by many. Campers love the friendly owner, Bear, the quiet vibe, and the large, flat sites with country views. It’s well-located for exploring the area. A few guests mentioned noise from a dog kennel and rowdy groups, but management is on it. More amenities are coming, including a dishwashing area.

Summary AI-generated from Pitchup.com customer reviews. Last updated 8/18/2026

Filter by topic

Reviews page 1 of 7
Arrival date (latest first)

Bear gave a very friendly welcoming…

Overall

7 out of 10
Location
8
Value for money
8
Facilities / Activities
7
Customer service
10
Child friendliness
No rating
Cleanliness
9
Wifi
No rating
Matt N. 1 review

Primitive grass tent or RV campsite

Liked Bear gave a very friendly welcoming and warming to have someone greet new arrivals.

Toilets & Showers very clean and well maintained.

Recommend to friends Visit again

This was a lovely campsite, love…

Overall

10 out of 10
Location
10
Value for money
10
Facilities / Activities
10
Customer service
10
Child friendliness
No rating
Cleanliness
10
Wifi
No rating

Primitive grass tent or RV campsite

Liked This was a lovely campsite, love the fact you can pick your pitch and it was very spacious! Bear was lovely and came to check we were okay and happy. The showers and toilets were one of the best campsite toilets I have seen and were very clean! Bear was here at 6am cleaning them this morning. Would definitely come back again!

Disliked We couldn’t stay longer

Recommend to friends Visit again

From the manager: Thank you so much for such a lovely review! It genuinely means a lot to us. 😊

We’re so pleased you enjoyed the freedom to choose your own pitch and had plenty of space to relax. It’s also lovely to hear that you were happy with the toilets and showers — Bear works so hard to keep them clean and fresh, even if that sometimes means he is up at 5am! 😂

We’re so glad you felt welcomed and that we were able to come and check you were happy during your stay.

And we absolutely love your only dislike… “we couldn’t stay longer”!

We’ll happily take that as a compliment. ❤️


We’d love to have you back anytime… hopefully next time you can stay a little longer!

Great facilities - showers and toilets…

Overall

10 out of 10
Location
10
Value for money
10
Facilities / Activities
No rating
Customer service
No rating
Child friendliness
No rating
Cleanliness
No rating
Wifi
No rating

Primitive grass tent or RV campsite

Liked Great facilities - showers and toilets looked brand new and spotless
Quiet site, plenty of families with children but respectful of informal curfew and playing out away from other tents. Site is in brilliant location.

Recommend to friends Visit again

Overall, a very pleasant and well-maintained place to stay.

Overall

9 out of 10
Location
8
Value for money
9
Facilities / Activities
10
Customer service
10
Child friendliness
No rating
Cleanliness
10
Wifi
No rating

Primitive grass tent or RV campsite

Liked Lovely campsite with a beautiful meadow surrounded by trees. Everything was very tidy, and the toilets and showers were impressively clean.

Disliked The only downside is that the campsite is next to a business and storage area. It seems to be guarded by dogs, which bark from time to time. This wasn't a problem during the day, but they were barking quite a lot between around 4 am and 7 am, so I'd definitely recommend bringing earplugs if you're a light sleeper.

Also, the lock on one of the toilets wasn't working. Hopefully they'll fix it soon.

There are also no kitchen sinks for washing dishes. Instead, two buckets are provided. It wasn't a problem for us, but it's useful to know in advance.

Recommend to friends Visit again

From the manager: Thank you so much for your lovely review and for taking the time to share such helpful feedback.

We’re really pleased to hear that you enjoyed the meadow and found everything tidy and the toilets and showers impressively clean. We work very hard to keep the site looking its best, so it’s lovely to hear that appreciated.

Just to clarify regarding the toilet lock, unfortunately the recent heat has caused one of the toilet doors to warp slightly. The lock itself is working, but the warped door is preventing it from closing and locking properly. We’re already working on fixing this as we speak and hope to have it resolved very soon.

Regarding the barking, the business and storage centre next to us isn’t guarded by dogs. There is a kennel a few fields away, and when the weather is very still and quiet, unfortunately the sound can carry across the fields. We completely understand that this may be noticeable to light sleepers, and we appreciate you mentioning it so future guests know what to expect.

We’re also in the process of working towards installing a proper washing-up station as soon as we’re able to, and we hope this will be a great addition to the site!

Thank you again for the kind words and constructive feedback. We really appreciate it and hope to welcome you back again in the future! 😊

A wonderful campsite run by two…

Overall

10 out of 10
Location
10
Value for money
10
Facilities / Activities
No rating
Customer service
10
Child friendliness
No rating
Cleanliness
10
Wifi
No rating
Anonymous

Primitive grass tent or RV campsite

Liked A wonderful campsite run by two lovely, attentive people who clearly take pride in their business. The loos and showers are fantastic! Clean and very spacious.

Recommend to friends Visit again

From the manager: It was a pleasure to meet you both, you were both such a hoot! And thank you for your kind comments also, we have repeated several times to each other ‘this is a great operation’ after you said it walking past us on Sunday!

It is a huge honour for such experienced campers to shower our site with such lovely words, so thank you so much.

We can’t wait to welcome you back again, safe travels to you!

G

Noisy dogs and insufficient (if clean) facilities for the price.

Overall

3 out of 10
Location
6
Value for money
2
Facilities / Activities
2
Customer service
5
Child friendliness
No rating
Cleanliness
8
Wifi
No rating
Anonymous

Primitive grass tent or RV campsite

Liked There are good views of the surrounding countryside. The toilets and showers are new and clean.

Disliked There are only three toilets and two showers. When the site is busy, there is in excess of 100+ people sharing these facilities, so there are long queues for the loo in the morning. Also, there are no washing up facilities. When we asked the owners about washing up facilities, we were told we could boil a kettle "to do your business' and that they hadn't had enough money to install them because they had spent all their money on the toilets. They plan to have some next year. Another problem is the very loud howling from dogs in a neighbouring kennel at various points during the night.

Recommend to friends Visit again

From the manager: Dear Anonymous User.

This is a disappointing review to wake up to, and while we are always open to receive constructive feedback, as we are striving to make improvements to our site all the time -
I feel it is important to clarify some of the points raised, as the account given here does not quite accurately reflect the conversation we had.

One of your group approached me as I was mid-clean of the facilities and was very rude to me. I did my best to navigate this, and explained as best I could that we are a new and developing campsite, and that our budget hasn’t stretched far enough to include a dedicated washing up station that is in keeping with the rest of our facilities. I assured her that it was next on the list and that I understood that it can be an inconvenience if unexpected. (It is clear on our description online that we are a ‘pop-up’ campsite and washing up facilities are not built yet)

However, I was huffed at in response and she walked away as I was talking.

It was therefore disappointing to subsequently see such a low score based, in part, on a misunderstanding of why the facilities are not currently available, and with the absence of acknowledging that one of your group was rude to someone who was trying to do their job during the hottest part of the day.

We absolutely accept that our site is still developing, and we are very open about that. We are a small, independent campsite, and my partner Bear and I work extremely hard to improve the site and provide our guests with clean, well-maintained facilities. We don't pretend that everything is perfect, but we do try …. And we care enormously about what we provide and genuinely listen to reasonable feedback.

We do feel that a review of this nature, particularly the tone and severity of the rating, is unnecessarily personal and does not fairly reflect either the facilities provided or the conversation that took place.

We would have welcomed a constructive conversation, but sadly that opportunity was not given to us. Instead, I finished cleaning and was very upset by the interaction, as it felt needless and very unkind.

Even so, we still wish you well, and thank you for the feedback.

We look forward to building a dedicated washing up area but we would like to politely request that you don’t return to use them.

We will continue doing what we do: working hard, improving the site and making it the best campsite we can.

Thank you,

Gylisa

Simple campsite with a noisy neighbour issue.

Overall

6 out of 10
Location
4
Value for money
8
Facilities / Activities
5
Customer service
7
Child friendliness
8
Cleanliness
10
Wifi
1

Primitive grass tent or RV campsite

Liked Staff, facilities and view of the Downs.

Disliked There is a kennel next door which has dogs barking all day from about 5am. The staff kindly offered ear plugs but it wasn't enough. Especially when it set off dogs on the campsite.

Recommend to friends Visit again

Fantastic no fuss camp site, great showers.

Overall

8 out of 10
Location
8
Value for money
9
Facilities / Activities
8
Customer service
10
Child friendliness
No rating
Cleanliness
10
Wifi
No rating

Primitive grass tent or RV campsite

Liked Easy to find, quiet location. Pup down the road. Fantastic facilities ie shower and toilets especially if you want a no fuss proper camp site.

Disliked N/A

Recommend to friends Visit again

Really lovely clean toilets and showers…

Overall

4 out of 10
Location
4
Value for money
2
Facilities / Activities
5
Customer service
4
Child friendliness
3
Cleanliness
7
Wifi
1
Anonymous

Primitive grass tent or RV campsite

Liked Really lovely clean toilets and showers

Disliked Large groups were allowed and one came back from the pub and played music and sang loudly until 2am.

Recommend to friends Visit again

From the manager: Hello,

I am so sorry your stay was disturbed by a noisy group, unfortunately the group in question slipped through the cracks by booking all individually - we didn’t know they would be a problem until they were just that.

We apologise completely as this is not a usual problem for us, we pride ourselves on being a peaceful site. We have since turned away any group larger than a ‘four’ to try and mitigate this happening again, but I know that doesn’t help improve your actual stay.

Thank you for the feedback anyway, we have taken it on board :)

Would recommend for location and price but not for peace!

Overall

8 out of 10
Location
8
Value for money
8
Facilities / Activities
10
Customer service
No rating
Child friendliness
No rating
Cleanliness
10
Wifi
No rating

Primitive grass tent or RV campsite

Liked Very clean and modern toilets and showers

Disliked There was a kennels or similar nearby - very loud dog barking from early hrs onwards. Very disruptive to sleep if you're in a tent.

Recommend to friends Visit again


Features

Leisure on park

Bar or club house Cycle hire Evening entertainment Fishing Fitness centre Indoor swimming pool Kids' club On-site restaurant/cafe Outdoor swimming pool Playground Recreation room/arcade TV room Takeout Tennis Watersports

Amenities on park

Bath available Composting toilet Dog park Drying room Free wifi Grocery store Ice pack freezing Internet access Laundromat Parent & baby washroom Payphone Pick-up from public transport Portable toilet Pub toilets Restrooms Shower available Washing-up area Wifi

Groups welcome

Family friendly Motorcycle friendly Single-sex groups welcome Student groups welcome

Rules

Barbecue grills allowed Barbecue provided Campfires allowed Commercial vehicles allowed Dogs allowed Dogs allowed all year

Themes

Hikers’ paradise

Utilities

Charging facilities Dump station Electric car charging point(s) Propane/gas cylinders available Recycling available Renewable energy

Nearby amenities

Bar nearby Dog walk nearby

Type

Large (51-200 sites) Pop-up campground

Accessibility

Accessible parking at site Level campground, no steep slopes

Location

Bear and Cedar Camping

Chamberlaines Lane

Ringmer

East Sussex

England

BN8 5NF

Directions

Timezone

Europe/London +0100 (GMT+01:00)

GPS

50.89394°N
0.07393°E

Nearest transport

Bus
4.8 mi Golden Cross Inn
4.8 mi Golden Cross Inn
5.3 mi Bus Station
Rail
2.4 mi Glynde Rail Station
3.2 mi Lewes Rail Station
3.7 mi Cooksbridge Rail Station
Ferry
7.2 mi Newhaven Harbour Ferry Terminal
Airport
16.5 mi Shoreham Brighton City Airport
20.9 mi London Gatwick Airport South Terminal
20.9 mi London Gatwick Airport

Please note: All distances on this page are calculated "as the crow flies" - please check actual distance depending on your mode of travel using the Get directions button above.

Local attractions

Attractions and activities nearby include: - East Sussex Gliding Club: five minutes’ drive - Malling Down Nature Reserve - Sussex Wildlife Trust: five minutes - Raystede Centre for Animal Welfare: five minutes - Blackberry Farm Park: 10 minutes - Knockhatch Adventure Park: 15 minutes - Drusillas Park: 20 minutes - Rathfinny Wine Estate: 25 minutes - Seven Sisters Country Park: half an hour - Eastbourne: half an hour - Cuckmere Haven: 35 minutes.

Water quality at nearby bathing waters

Name Distance Type 2020201920182017
Saltdean 8.3 mi Sea N/AExcellentExcellentExcellent
Seaford 8.5 mi Sea N/AExcellentExcellentExcellent
Brighton Kemptown 10.1 mi Sea N/AExcellentExcellentGood
Brighton Central 10.9 mi Sea N/AExcellentExcellentExcellent
Hove 11.6 mi Sea N/AExcellentExcellentExcellent

Data source: European Environment Agency

Must see

Drusillas Park 6.3 mi

Alfriston Clergy House 7 mi

Sheffield Park Garden 7.8 mi

Bluebell Railway 8 mi

Brighton Marina 9.5 mi

National Trust

Monk's House 4.6 mi

Alfriston Clergy House 7 mi

Sheffield Park Garden 7.8 mi

Wakehurst Place 13.8 mi

Bateman's 14.8 mi

Cycle routes

Find local routes on the National Cycle Network - over 12,000 miles of cycling routes.

Other

GLYNDE PLACE 1.9 mi

Anchor Inn - Barcombe Mills - Anchor Inn 2.4 mi

Lewes - Offham - Offham Hill - Lewes High Street 2.8 mi

Lewes Circular Walk 3.1 mi

FIRLE PLACE 3.3 mi

Local events

  • Glyndebourne Festival (Thursday, May 21, 2026 – Thursday, May 21, 2026)

    Lewes, England 1.2 mi

Please note: All distances on this page are calculated "as the crow flies" - please check actual distance depending on your mode of travel using the Get directions button above.

Want to know more about camping in East Sussex?

Frequently asked questions

  • Does Bear and Cedar Camping have a swimming pool? No View all features
  • Is Bear and Cedar Camping dog friendly? Yes View all features
  • What attractions are near Bear and Cedar Camping? Attractions and activities nearby include: - East Sussex Gliding Club: five minutes’ drive - Malling Down Nature Reserve - Sussex Wildlife Trust: five minutes - Raystede Centre for Animal Welfare: five minutes … Read more
  • When can I check in and check out of Bear and Cedar Camping?
    RV, travel trailer and tent sites
    Arrive:  3 p.m. –  7:30 p.m.
    Depart by:  11:30 a.m.
    Read more
  • How much does it cost to stay at Bear and Cedar Camping? From $40.82 (for 1 night, 2 adults) - prices may change depending on your dates and party.