This is a weekend course; the cost includes camping. Food is available at additional cost.
Camping facilities are basic; there is a fire pit/BBQ, compost toilet and cold drinking water (no showers).
Starting time: 9am sharp Saturday; finishing time 4pm Sunday.
Please bring a sharp knife (3-5 inch blade, non folding or lockable folding), rain gear, notebook and coloured pens, torch, leather gardening gloves, eating utensils, warm clothing, sleeping mat and sleeping bag & camping gear if you're camping with us. Also recommended is a pancho (for carrying leaves) & snack food/trail mix and a good sense of humour and fun!
If you require a knife, Anthonio can loan you one for the course (which you can optionally buy at the end of the weekend). He can also supply panchos.
We also offer an intensive week-long course in Primitive Living skills, Primitive Living 1.
This course can be scheduled for private groups of 6-10 people.
loz's experience - Bushcraft / Primitive Living Skills
We started the day with the meet, greet and intros, and then Anthonio gave the Health and Safety brief
followed by some knife handling and safe use of such. We then set to task in carving the required for Friction Firelighting ( bowdrill method ) .
Anthionio showed us the required elemtnes, the spindle, bow, hearth board, an bearing block, and direction on carving, and best woods selection.
We then set to work.
When most had completed we then got a very detailed demo of positioning the spindle,
and securing the same between hearth and bearing, to get perfect motion from the bow,
while we started to drill into our boards.
We then were show how to measure and cut the perfect notch for ember development.
Most of the group had success down to Anthonios direction and advice.
Following this we moved to an area where some traps had been setup, figure 4 deadfall and figure 4 with toggle string deadfall.
Both explained in great details, along with explanations of bait, concealment, masking of scent, and location of setting,
and we setoff in groups to replicate with varying success.
Anthoinio later gathered up the course, along with other site attendees ( many other courses were being run ) ,
for a hunt for tinder and other fire materials, then the "firemakers" under no pressure were set to start the fire.
I was delighted to provide the lit tinder bundle for the campfire round which the night party started !
Day 2 started with awareness, with teqniques and excercises for observation, which would be usefull for what followed, tracking.
We spent a lot of time on track, and I personally learnt a lot,
being shown how to read tracks to determine, species, direction, pace, size, dominant side and even the sex of some animals.
We also were shown to see other signs of life, as we investigated several rabbit holes,
such as scratches, depression, caught animal hair, and location, and patterns of excrement.
We then moved on to shelter, and were guided in the building of a semicircular debris shelter.
this we a lot more demanding on time and energy that i expected,
and something that would be in my mind should i ever need to recreate.
The fat we were in a quite artificial Stickta Spuce forest, rather than a nice Deciduous forest meant that
available debris was scarce making the build quite deifficult. However we persevered,
and completed a quite nice area, and when test proved to be oth warm and quite rain proof.
We finished up with cordage, collecting spruce root and prepping for use by heating and removing the bark.
We also were shown and tried for ourselves methods for rolling fibres to create twisted cordage.
An excellent 2 days in all. Anthnio is my opinion ( im not being paid to say ) is an excellent instructor,
with creat explanation, and demonstrations, great patience and humor,
and i would recommend highly anyone to attend his courses. I shall be doing more myself.
The site we were on as explained above was also hosting some other courses,
including samba drummiong, and wood carving ( relief ).
The owners of the land Mike and Suzie were very generous and excellent hosts to the
attendees camped over the area. Great organic foods, and constant tea and coffee
were provided by some lovely Canadian volunteers, and the warmth and humor of
everyone made each nights fireside great fun.
Thanks for reading !
Loz
Some self promotional, I can do fire !! see pics
graham pope's experience - Bushcraft / Primitive Living Skills
graham pope's experience - Bushcraft / Primitive Living Skills
Just attended the Bushcraft/ Primitive Living Skills last week in Carraig Dulra with my girlfriend and wanted to write some sort of quick review in so that potential participants can know what they are getting themselves in for.
My girlfriend and I tried to get there as imaginatively as possible, as suggested by the website. However, the bus timetable was not favourable and I was not up to the cycle from Dublin with a tent in tow. Sadly, this left us with my car as the only option. I do suggest that you try and carpool if you can (*Mike will have some info in this regard) So we arrived on Saturday morning and met up with some of the other more adventurous participants who had already made camp the previous night.
Mike had prepared the breakfast which catered for all tastes. After a few ground rules by Antonio, the instructor, we are whittling away on our bow-drills with the hope of making fire by friction. Then a delicious soup was served by Mike: no roughing it on this weekend;-) Back to our fire-making, which proved pretty difficult with the wind. After collecting enough wood for the intended fire, Antonio demonstrated the figure-4 trap and stick throwing in case we needed it in a survival situation.
Mike, the host with the most, cooked fantastic organic burgers and vegetable kebabs over the pit fire. After dinner, it grew a bit cold, so we all huddled about the fire playing camp-fire games, snacking on cholcolate and swigging on a bottle of brandy.
That night was cold in tent, but we shivered our way asleep.
8am next morning, Mike had breakfast ready for a somewhat sleep-deprived bunch of campers. Antonio demonstrated how to broaden our scope of vision and sound while walking barefoot along the trails. After that, we were ready to start learning to track animals. Soup was then ready back at the Yurt. Sweetcorn chowder. Magnifique. Then we went to the woods to make a debris shelter. Although this was smaller than would be suitable for any of us, it took us nearly two hours of intensive work. Antonio demonstrated another type of trap on the way back to camp.
Although it was only a two day course, I think that everyone learned a lot about primitive living skills and also the permaculture that is being introduced to Carraig Dulra. I hope to go on another of Antonio's course in the future. Next time, I will try to get on a seven day course.
I would recommend the course to anyone who has any interest in outdoor living, regardless of physical fitness and ability. It is hard work at times, but Antonio does not push you past your ability.
I will post photos of the weekend on the site in the next few days.
