Durston X Dome 1+ review

Creator Dan Durston has an impressive trail CV and that comes through in the product design and materials used on the Durston X Dome 1+, says David Lintern.

The Durston X Dome 1+ is a lightweight, spacious and weather worthy freestanding tent and relatively inexpensive given the feature set. It combines design elements from other well-known brands while avoiding the cost and weight penalties.

It’s a basic rectangle shape and pitches easily with a minimum of 4 pegs to the corners. It can be pitched inner and outer together, although the inner corners tend to unclip themselves, the body of the inner stays put. The carbon pole set is thin but has proved very robust. It’s a single, ‘spider’ design, which clips in at the cardinal points plus 2 in the roof – a fairly standard and familiar setup. The poles affix to the outside of the shelter, which has both advantages and disadvantages: extra guys can be wrapped around the poles for extra tension in high winds, but the fabric can blow in a little more than if the poles were on the inside of the fly. It can be pitched in the rain without wetting the inner, though – a clear plus in my book – as well as pitched inner only, without the fly. Stability in high winds is good and the exoskeleton very strong. I’d prefer it if Durston included extra guylines, and bungees at the foot of the fly, for poor weather – I’ve added 4 guys on larks feet, so I can move them around. There are two ‘hoop’ fixing points in the roof in addition to the corner guy points, and walking poles can be jammed into sleeves on the longer side walls to give more support, although these are held in by tension only and seams could be stronger.

There are two variants of inner: my sample is the ‘solid’ for cooler conditions, which comes with a large zipped, mesh door window. It has a bathtub floor of a decent depth, providing a practical amount of bog proofing. A footprint can be purchased as extra – I’ve not used my sample so far, as the inner floor seems robust enough. Living space is frankly enormous and a real selling point. There’s lots of room for kit inside, useful pockets and superb headroom, even when sitting on a mat. The porch is more than roomy enough for bag, boots and cooking. The doors can be opened up fully for views or closed down to a narrow ‘slit’ for more protection (using two extra pegs) and no rain ingress even while allowing steam to escape when cooking. The YKK zip is only 1 way, so this is a nice touch.

Having tested both the X mid Pro and the Dome designs for TGO, I prefer the latter. It’s easier to pitch and more weather worthy. The polyester fly sheds water quickly and it has proved versatile and comfortable throughout the summer and into autumn. The footprint is quite large for a single person shelter but then the living space is huge inside. I like Durston’s ethos – rather than ‘selling the dream’, their videos focus on technique as much as product features. Dan Durston has an impressive trail CV and that comes through in the product design and materials used.

A note of slight caution around quality control, which applies increasingly with global supply chains: I managed to pop a pole sleeve seam on first try, and a contributor for TGO snapped a pole connector on his first night. QC is a genuine challenge for all, but especially smaller brands. It’s one to watch, not a reason to avoid what is a really excellent tent for the money.

How we tested

David used the Durston X Dome 1+ exclusively for all of his solo camps from summer in autumn, mostly in the Cairngorms, from glen to mountains during mixed weather. This review was first published in the January 2026 issue of The Great Outdoors.