Last week, on a bright November day, I headed off to Mugdock Country Park, north of Glasgow, to practice making things with natural materials. On almost every visit to the outdoors, I'll end up making something. I'm always on the look out for different materials that I can bend and twist and weave and shape. …
Category: Bushcraft
Charring Punk Wood
The usefulness of punk wood for making fires, can't be understated. It is my go to material for sustaining an ember created from friction fire and it's a fantastic material to char and take a weak spark from a fire striker. Punk wood is rotten wood, wood that has become punky (soft and spongy) through …
Bushcraft Day at St Lucy’s Primary School
Friday was 'Bushcraft Day' at St Lucy's Primary School in Abronhill in Cumbernauld. We spent the day with around 45 P7 children for a special end of term, fun-packed day of outdoor learning. Arriving at the school first thing in the morning, the sun was shining. Our first activity of the day was learning how …
No Tools Friction Fire
How and when was fire made for the first time? As to how fire was made, there’s two likely methods: the percussive or ‘strike-a-light’ method where a hard rock like flint is struck against iron pyrite to create tiny sparks; and, friction-fire. Iron pyrite and flint strikers have been found in the archaeological record but …
Fire with Thistle and Heather
August is the season for collecting thistles seed heads to use as an excellent tinder for firemaking. The flowers die back and the seed heads burst out in warm weather then disburse in the wind. There are lots of types of thistle in Britain; like Marsh Thistle and Creeping Thistle but one of the best …
Bushcraft Week with Thornlie Primary
Definitely one of the highlights of 2018 for me will be Thornlie Primary's bushcraft week. Me, Kenny Noble and Jean Ewen spent three days last week running a range of bushcraft activities for the entire school, working with three classes a day. We had so much fun creating, building, cooking, learning, playing and sharing.... with …
Stone and Wool Pendant Necklace
I was up in Shetland last week guiding for About Argyll Walking Holidays and taking inspiration from all the beautiful shells, pebbles, driftwood and other natural materials you find whilst out hiking I decided to make a stone and wool pendant necklace. I am a bit of a magpie when it comes to pebbles and …
Making a Woven Coiled Basket
Last week I did a 4 day trek from Dunkeld to Blair Atholl, supervising a Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expedition group. On the way I set myself the challenge of making a woven coiled basket. This type of basket involves threading coils of plant material together in a spiral. It leads to a basket that …
Tree Bud Photo Guide
In March, trees in Scotland start to come back into leaf. Now's a good time to study tree buds as they get bigger and begin to open up. Hawthorn and elder are amongst the first and oak and ash among the last to come into leaf. All of these photos were taken in Mugdock Country …
Snowy Bushcraft Course
Arriving at Wiston Lodge on Saturday morning there was a lot of snow, about 40cm of deep, powdery, fluffy snow. This was snowshoe conditions! It was cold too, perfectly still and the sky cloudless. Me and Isaac had turned up early to set up for a bushcraft course for a family from Edinburgh, mum - …
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