Courses
Primitive Survival One-Day taster course - (1 day)
If you are unsure about taking a longer course, if you want to find out whether Bushcraft is for you, if you have little time, or if you simply want to come outside with us in the woods for a day and learn an immense amount of vital survival skills, then this course is for you.
This course will be starting early in the morning and finish around 7 in the evening to provide us with as much time as possible to learn the most basic but important survival skills.
We will be learning how to light a fire by using friction, build shelters, search for edibles, carve traps, learn the basics of tracking animals and many other skills.
Contact us for further information
Full cost: £50
Deposit: £20
01/12/2007
10/02/08
22/03/08
10/05/08
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Basic Earth Living Program - (2 day)
This program is designed to make you feel comfortable in the wilderness as soon as possible without any society-manufactured tools such as knives, sleeping bags and matches. This course will give you the basics of bushcraft and primitive technology on which you can expand in later courses. We will be studying skills such as friction fire-lighting, tracking, trapping, shelter building and awareness. We will be making bowls, spoons, cord and a variety of other necessary survival items
For this course, we meet on our site on the evening before the start of the course.
(No previous experience needed)
Full cost: £100
Deposit: £20
12/01/08 - 13/01/08 (fully booked)
26/01/08 - 27/01/08 (Book with Carraig Dulra)
02/02/08 - 03/02/08 (Book with Carraig Dulra)
16/02/08 - 17/02/08 (Book with Share)
15/02/08 - 16/03/08 (Book with Share)
05/04/08 - 06/04/08 (Book with Share)
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Primitive Living 1 - (6 Days)
This course will start by learning all of the material taught in the Basic Earth-Living program (ie. The vital basics of primitive survival). Then, we will build on this knowledge with advanced skills such as pottery, weaving, bow-making and flintknapping. However, instead of just learning the skills as in the 2-day program, we will be encouraging you to use the skills learned on a day to day basis. Enabling us to bring you a lot deeper and learn many additional skills.
The aim of this course is to start in a “camping” fashion, but attempt to discard most of our equipment during the week. This means we will encourage you to move into your shelters and store away your sleeping bag. You will be lighting our fires by bow-drill only, and eat from bowls and cutlery you made yourselves. This course is by far our most popular course.
For this course, we meet on our site on the evening before the start of the course. So we can arrange the camp, get to know each other around the fire, and go through any health and safety policies that exist on site.
(No previous experience needed)
Full cost: £250
Deposit: £50
01/06/08 - 06/06/08
22/06/08 - 27/06/08
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Primitive Living 2 - (6 Days)
During this week, we will build on the previous course and start building more long-term shelters and prepare our camp for a more long-term survival. This is a very intensive course. We will only bring in clothing, and one item of your choice.
The aim of this course is to give participants the opportunity to live completely off the land in a safe and controlled manner. We aim to create a "tribal" atmosphere with every participant providing for the "tribe" according to their specialty of skill / experience. We will be living off the land in a sustainable nearly undetectable manner. Some things will be "provided" to enable very advanced studying of skills or to round off the earth-living experience, however, these materials will need to be "exchanged" by performing the appropriate primitive skill to "acquire" this material.
Not only is this course suitable for people wanting to deepen their level of bushcraft skill, this course also allows you to experience life as close to what it may have been for our Mesolithic ancestors.
(Because of the nature of this course, a prerequisite is Primitive Living 1, or a course from different schools which offers the same skills and experience as Primitive Living 1)
Full cost: £250
Deposit: £50
08/06/08 - 13/06/08
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Primitive Fire - (1 day)
This one-day course will teach you how to make a fire using the "bow-drill". The bow-drill refers to a method described as "fire-by-friction" fire lighting. We will study this principle deeply, and if time allows, learn additional fire-by-friction methods. You will learn where to get the best tinder, fire starters and firewood, which woods to use and which to avoid. We will spend a good part of the day learning how to build a good fire for different "around the camp" purposes such as cooking, warmth, light, etc… If time allows, we can also look at different methods of using a fire such as oil-lamps, torches and the like. We will teach you how to store your fire for the night and how to carry it around with you.
If you find lighting a fire with only one match a challenge, then this course is for you.
(No previous experience needed)
Full cost: £50
Deposit: £10
11/05/08
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Primitive Shelter - (1 day)
This day will be filled with building a shelter, which will keep you warm while using only your body-heat. Not only will we be delving deeply into the principles of shelter and the different techniques of building, we will also be delving into the leaves, so be sure you are dressed up in suitable clothes and bring leather gardening gloves to protect your hands.
We will be discussing more permanent shelters and build different structures such as a multi-functional design called the “stacked-debris wall” and explore the different options these designs cater for. If time allows, we can experiment with lean-to's and other shelters.
(No previous experience needed)
Full cost: £50
Deposit: £10
27/04/08
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Wild Edibles - (1 day)
This course is designed for people who want a deeper understanding of nature's larder. We will be foraging for many different vegetable foods, learn how to butcher and prepare game safely, and explore different types of cooking. Because of the all encompassing nature of this course, we will spend approximately half the day learning and gathering different foods, and the other half preparing and sampling these foods using different cooking methods. Please get in touch with us for more information regarding this course as we are currently reviewing this course so as to include sea-foods found in abundance around the Irish shoreline.
(No previous experience needed)
Full cost: £50
Deposit: £10
26/04/08
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Flintknapping - (1 day)
This day is all about learning how to work flint into arrowheads, scrapers and other sharp implements. You will be provided with all the tools and materials needed on the course. We will start by setting out what is needed to produce flint items, quarry the needed materials ourselves (If the weather allows), and then move on to the science behind knapping. This course is one of my favourite courses, as the participant will produce beautiful artifacts. You will be able to bring home all items made, as well as the flint knapping kit and some spare materials to work on at home. If the weather is nice then the entire course will be held in the area where Mesolithic and Neolithic man quarried their prime Irish flint. (We will be working on a site approved by archaeologists so as not to disturb or interfere with the archaeological record.)
(No previous experience needed)
Full cost: £50
Deposit: £10
17/11/07
19/01/08
20/01/08
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Stone Tools - (1 day)
Rather then work with flint, we will be working with Porcelanite and other local stones to produce stone hatchets and other sharp implements. We will be covering the whole process from gathering the right materials to knapping and grinding it into shape. Due to the limited local resources of prime porcelanite, I can only hold this course once a year.
(No previous experience needed)
Full cost: £50
Deposit: £10
20/01/08
19/04/08
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Brain Tanning - (3 day)
This course will teach you how to turn a deerskin into soft buckskin leather. We may have time to make some clothes or pouches out of the tanned hide too. The course is open to everyone.
(No previous experience needed)
Full cost: £120
Deposit: £40
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Survival Bow & Arrow Making - (3 days)
In this course, you will learn how to make a short-term primitive bow and survival arrows. We will get the chance to practice some primitive ways of using the bow. Because of the time-limit, this course will not be focusing on making stone arrowheads, which is covered in the flint knapping courses, and the bowyer’s course.
(No previous experience needed)
Full cost: £120
Deposit: £40
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Bowyer - (4 days)
In this course, you will be making a long-term bow from Osage Orange. This will be a bow that will last a life-time (If made properly) and be passed on to the next generation. We will be making a bow which is based upon the only bow found in the country in a bog in the south of Ireland and now kept in a Dublin museum. Due to the limited supply of good quality yew at the right length, Wild-Live have imported Osage Orange logs from the United States for these bows. We will also explore advanced techniques such as recurves and sinew-backing. We may also spend a certain amount of time learning the basics of flint-knapping, in order to make crude arrowheads if time permits
(No previous experience needed)
Full cost: £200, -
Deposit: £60, -
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The Scout Program
In this week, we will live as the Apache Scouts of old. We will learn to live "invisible". We will go into man-tracking and camouflage. We will learn techniques that were used to keep the tribe safe. (This is a very intense course, and Primitive Living 2 is a prerequisite. More information is only available by request)
Full cost: £280, -
Deposit: £80, -
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Long-term Shelter (2 days)
At some point during your survival stay, you may want to start thinking about improving your camp so you can start leading a more comfortable life in the wilderness. Modelled on the long-term buildings used by our ancestors, this course provides you with all the know-how to build a variety of shelters suiting different landscapes and climates. During this course, you will be building a large group long-term shelter, which is meant to be used in the future as a place to practise skills, camp or retreat from busy lives for all the participants.
(No previous experience needed)
Full cost: £100
Deposit: £20
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The Sweatlodge (1+ day)
For many peoples all over the world, the sweatlodge fulfilled a number of purposes. Although many societies used the sweatlodge as a place to find and practise spirituality, it also has a very practical use. When in the outdoors, the sweatlodge is one of the best ways to get thoroughly clean. There is also evidence regular use of a sweatlodge can help you to stay healthy. During this course, we will build a sweatlodge and learn how to use it. We will also be learning how to make the teas that are used to provide the steam. Because I want you to experience the lodge fully without having to rush home, the course will end on the morning after the sweat allowing you to relax around the fire at night, and camp under the stars.
Full cost: £60
Deposit: £20
15/12/2007
09/02/08
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Animal preparation / preservation (2 days)
A common way of "honouring" the animal as believed in many parts of the world, is to use every part of the animal as much as possible. During this course, we will be skinning an animal and preparing it's meat for food and storage. We will also delve into the non-edible parts of the animal, and discuss the various uses these parts may have. As time allows, we will try and prepare these other parts too for use or storage. If there is an interest by the group, we may agree to meet on a future date to tan the hide into soft leather.
Full cost: £100,-
Deposit: £20
08/12/07 - 09/12/07
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Specialty / Private courses, Full cost or Vouchers
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