Traditional skills experience is about learning outdoor crafts, sharing knowledge and stories, keeping alive specialised skills that give you a greater connection and understanding of nature. This is a bespoke experience for individuals, families, stag and hen dos, corporate groups and friends. I tailor this experience to the individual or group’s interest, with the chance for clients to learn a wide range of skills and crafts, going into detail and really spending the time learning a new skill. This experience varies from 1 day to 1 week. Cost and experience content vary according to the individual and group interests and group size.

With the Traditional Skills experience i use a fixed location near my home in the Cairngorms, but I also travel all over Scotland delivering this experience at private locations or working with other companies and hotels.

During this experience, your food will be included in the overall cost and will mainly consist of ingredients sourced from the wild and cooked over fire to create tasty meals.

The subject of traditional survival skills is vast, and it can take months, sometimes years, to learn a specific skill set. This makes the subject fascinating because, as an instructor, you are on a continuous journey of learning and sharing knowledge.

Below is a list of some of the skills you will learn during the traditional skills experience. If you are interested in learning one particular skill set, then we can focus on that. Equally, during the experience, we will touch on different skills to give you a greater understanding of how much there is to learn about the environment, and I will hopefully be seeing you again for my immersion in more skills.

Skills that you will be learning.

Foraging

Learning how to identify plants, trees and fungi that have culinary, medicinal and practical uses. You will learn different ways of preparing wild food and experience the importance of these living organisms.

Fire Craft
Learn different methods of fire lighting and fire craft, from friction to percussion. You will go on a journey into the past learning the importance of fire and the magic of tinders.

Fire Cooking

Learn how to cook in the forest using natural ovens, smokers, curing meat using natural methods, steamers and how different woods impact flavour and heat for cooking the perfect meal.

Shelter Building

Build your own one-person or group shelter, learn how to waterproof and insulate a shelter using the natural material around you. Experience sleeping out in your natural shelter, lean the art of thatching your own bedding for a comfortable night in the forest.

Skinning and Butchering

Learn how to properly prepare wild game and butcher the meat into specific cuts for roasting, mincing and making different cures such as haggis, black pudding, salamis, smoked jerky and biltong. There are many method's of butchery and each country has its own tradition of meat preservation. On this experience you’ll get to learn some of my favourites.

Tanning

Tan your own deer hide, sheep hide or fish skin. This process involves old techniques of turning a raw hide into high quality leather. This skill couldn’t be more sustainable - taking a waste product and making it into something you can wear or hold. For tanning you will be using tree bark or animal fat to preserve the hide and turn it into soft but strong leather.

Basketry and Bark Containers

Learn how to use natural materials for basketry. Use different barks to make containers for foraging or storing and transporting food.

Sweat lodge
Dive into the history of a sweat lodge. You will make your own forest sweat lodge out of natural material, and enjoy the benefits of detoxifying your body using an ancient method of heating specific rocks and splashing them with water inside your dome construction.

Carving

Learn about trees in a hands-on way, understanding grain, concentric rings, sapwood, heartwood and the different qualities of each tree species. Carve your own spoons, bowls, mugs, salt containers and other useful items using hand tools such as axes, carving knives and crook knives.

Duration: 1 full day to 1 week
Dates:  Courses run all year round

Please contact me to design your experience. Please contact me if you have a specific craft you'd like to learn that isn’t on the above list.