What’s on – previous courses

Woodland / Land-Owner ‘Bushcraft Business Diversification’

With over four decades of experience in bushcraft teaching, instructor / leader training and set-up/running of wilderness  / bushcraft schools we are now in a position to offer woodland / landowners a turnkey consultancy on extending or diversifying their rural agricultural, tourism or accommodation business to provide professionally run bushcraft experiences on their land.

We can provide an end-to-end solution or a pick-and-mix  / pay-as-you go set of options covering all aspects of setting up and running these experiences.

• Site selection & site survey (including ecology and environmental considerations)
• Risk assessment, health & safety (site, activities, participation)
• Legal, insurance and assurance framework
• Teaching theory & practice
• Group dynamics and management. Consideration for specific client needs and adjustments.
• Bushcraft basics: Fire, Water, Shelter
• Cutting and Cordage (including knife safety, types of knots etc)
• Greenwood working, carving and woodland crafts
• Foraging – plants & edibles, poisons
• Campcraft (including cooking by fire, types of firelay, safe axe use, felling, limbing and snedding with axes)
• Camp hygiene (food safety and toileting)
• Tracking and wildlife observation
• Forest Bathing & Wellbeing in the Woods
• Tertiary enrichment and team activities
• Equipment
• Instructor/Course Leader Job Description / Specification and optional shortlisting and interviewing for job applicants for running courses/experiences on site.
• Pricing experiences and cost considerations.
• Marketing & Comms

The Art of Tracking (intermediate/advanced) – Sept – Nov 2021

Tracking wildlife: the art of seeing & sensing in nature as a way of feeling and connecting with it. This is an advanced session delivered by experienced trackers and nature connection experts. The aim is to synthesize traditional indigenous hunter-tracker lore, modern wildlife observation techniques and an extreme development of nature awareness (and therefore connection). This is a mental, emotional, physical and spiritual experience. This will also coincide with the Deer Rut. Suitable for those wanting to take their nature connection to a higher level.

This course has been used for those interested in incorporating more advanced and deeper nature connection practice into existing activities and interventions and those who seek new approaches to engage with client groups targeting varying capacities in terms of cognition, mental health and neurodivergence. Sensory expansion, sensemaking, curiousity and enquiry, tracker-style (client preference matching), individual and team tracking, animal and avian behaviour. This course is a key expansion block into developing more advanced interventions.

Venues in Devon & Somerset

September 24-26, October 8-10 & November 5-7 (3 day intensives). FULLY BOOKED – please contact us to go on a cancellation/reserve list or to express an interest on going on a future session.

A Journey into Phytoncides – August & September 2021

Phytoncides are good for us. These volatile organic compounds are emitted by trees have obvious health benefits for the trees themselves but also create an atmosphere rich in these aerosols. There is an increasing body of robust, peer reviewed and clinical research that points to a range of benefits for those exposed to it. It is no coincidence that people who live in or near forests/trees and better health for longer. From immune system support and recovery, para-sympathetic nervous system rebalancing,  inflammatory disorder management, mood improvement, memory maintenance and cardiovascular health – there is an increasing body of evidence that ‘taking the forest airs’ (a rough translation of Shinrin-yoku) measurably improves wellbeing.

For those who are interested in incorporating the science of BVOCs into wellbeing practice. Sessions held by a small team with knowledge in biochemistry, botany, aromatherapy and immunology. These advanced sessions will take a look at the different BVOCs, the various plants and trees that emit these compounds, the research/evidence behind their health benefits, how, where and when they are emitted (and in what form) and the optimal ways for exposure. Visits to various woodland sites with different habitats and species with a look at key species with first-hand experience and feedback from participants on each site with the option for measurement of benefit.

Venues: Devon & Somerset.

21st, 28th August, & 4th September 2021 – Limited space still available – please contact us for any last minute cancellations or to express and interest in future sessions.

Forest Bathing Training Camp – Intensive (5 days) – April 2022

Intensive  – end-to-end beginners to intermediate training in Forest Bathing and how to design and deliver sessions incorporating its practice.

The outcomes of this course are as follows:

• To provide participants with a firm grounding in the fundamentals of Forest Bathing; including study and reflection in the key areas of Nature, Mindfulness and the Senses;
• Provide a practical framework and activities to delivery professional quality forest bathing sessions with groups and individuals with support to develop additional activities;
• Practical instruction on safety, risk management and comfort in the outdoor environment;
• To develop participants personal learning and reflection to enhance personal wellbeing.
  The course will also cover group management, forest bathing session and trail design, equipment, compliance and permission, ceremony and campcraft.

Venue: Devon/Dartmoor.

22nd-26th April 2021 FULLY BOOKED. Please contact to go on cancellation/reserve/waiting list.

Measuring success in nature connection & wellbeing – November 2021

This 1 day and 1 night course explored the different requirements, techniques, equipment and data collection that can be utilised in the field to gain evidence of improvements or impact in a participants exposure to nature. Why measure, what to measure, how to measure and when to measure. Course will involve use of collecting and measuring qualitative and quantitative data using various approaches including use of survey, journal, polling, focus group, BP, HR, HRV, Cortisol measurement.

Venue: Devon.

November 6-7 FULLY BOOKED – please contact for future dates.

Storytelling, Songlines and The Elders of Enquiry (October 2021)

A practical journey into the power of storytelling in nature/through nature and the use of the Elders of Enquiry in helping the development of curiosity and how to navigate and make sense of the landscape through this approach. Songlines will be discussed and participants given the opportunity to craft one across the landscape and deliver it to the group around the campfire.

This course is aimed at those looking at developing ways of engaging with their client groups and also to provide more immersive, interesting and alternative ways of connecting and developing connections with the natural world. The development of curiosity is a key tool in the connection and appreciation of nature. Speaking about nature through story is a key way of engaging and inspiring an audience or listener and Songlines are a fantastic tool not only to bring this together but also a different way of expressing, communicating and remembering the landscape and its meaning especially for those who are more challenged in these dimensions.

This is a 1 Night and 2 day course.

Venue Devon – Somerset border 

October 16-17 2021 – FULLY BOOKED – please contact us to go on waiting list or for future dates.

Fundamentally Wood (September 2021)

This is an immersive and experiential deep dive into wood. This is a one-to-many look at the tree, a tree, a its physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, cultural characteristics. From its ‘design’, its genome, its habitat, its growth, its historical, mythological and medicinal contexts right through to harvesting and using the wood in its physical form through crafting with it (carving, weaving) or consuming it (heating and eating with or from it). This course is over 3 days and 2 nights deep in our friendly woods and you will camp next to your chosen tree (you will be supported in locating this). You will come together for meals and sessions around a central camp-fire but will have the opportunity to spent time with your tree(s) and journal your experiences.

Venue: Devon

September 10-12 2021  – FULLY BOOKED – please contact us for future dates in 2022)

The Forest Fellas Project

Most of us know about Men In Sheds, well this is Fellas in the Forest.

Whilst we dislike gender separation as a general principle, we do make some exceptions, especially to encourage more men to focus on their mental health.

This project is aimed at bringing men of all ages (including young men) together to undertake woodland work and activities that strengthen the body and the mind.

Foraging for Wellbeing (6, 7, 8 August 2021)

This is a more developed experience of foraging. Like many foraging sessions this session will include detailed how, what, why of indigenous flora but beyond this the session is also designed to give a greater immersion in nature to improve wellbeing. Hosted by a professional forager, botanist, herbalist and nature connection/mindfulness practitioner.

If you are interesting in plants – from a cultural, historical, medicinal/herbal, food perspective then this is the course for you. Will include how to forage, what to forage and when. It will include safety, legal foraging and poisonous species and will include fungi aswell as flowering plants.

The course is designed around the five ways to wellbeing so clearly connects with improvement to wellbeing not only in the knowledge it imparts but the experience of foraging.

Useful for those wanting to forage aswell as those interesting in incorporating foraging into their practice/interventions.

All sessions fully booked for August – new dates to be released – Venues – Exmoor/Quantocks – Brendon Hills, Blackdown Hills and near Wellington. Future dates will include specific ones on highland/moorland, wayside & hedgerow, forest, riparian and coastal foraging. Please contact us for cancellations or future dates. 

All sessions are a full day from dawn until dusk.

Woods with Words – 13-15 August 2021

A 2-day woodland camp – fully catered for – in a wonderful, secluded forest valley with streams, clearings and various forest habitats full of wildlife. Hosted by an accomplished Haiku writer/artist we will spend each day in various inspirational activities, group ’round the campfire’ listening to and understanding exemplary Haiku and spending individual time in nature over the two days (and two nights) drawing inspiration from nature and developing the haiku craft. FULLY BOOKED.

Mindscapes

Our beautiful physical landscapes are also landscapes of the mind. We organise and host day and multi-day excursions that combine meditative and contemplative practice with the use of landscapes. We have run these for a couple of years and have proved very popular. The next one is ‘The Sacred Landscapes of Dartmoor’

Remember the Forest

We offer sessions with memory cafes to bring the forest to people who would otherwise not experience it. This is a forest immersion with the sensory elements of the forest brought to you, it includes visual prompts, native bird song, tactile elements from nature and forest tea to create an evocative environment.

We are currently working with the Woodland Trust to bring Nature to people attending Memory Cafes across Dartmoor, culminating in a visit to Fingle Woods.

Here is a link to the Fingle Woods blog article on the final event: click here

Talks and Articles

We are happy to talk at Conferences, Events and Festivals about reconnecting with nature to nurture and its importance for modern society. We are also happy to be asked to write about it too. Media enquiries are welcome.

Please contact us if you have an idea you want to commission us to provide something.