Permaculture Design Certificate course (PDC)
UPDATE 25/4/25: the PDC is now fully booked. Thank you everyone for your interest!
After 12 years of PDC’s in Carraig Dúlra, and 3 years in Roscommon, we are embarking on something fresh and new this year. In branching out and putting the best of both courses and locations, along with new partner Common Knowledge, together in 2025, we are offering an even more diverse multi venue PDC programme!
The highlights
- This course will run over 3 months, May - August
- It will be based out of 3 main locations:
An immersive 5 day back to back component at Carraig Dulra farm in Wicklow,
2 x weekends at Earthcare farm in Roscommon.
1 x weekend at Common Knowledge in Co Clare - A diverse tutor team from across the Island
- Additional site visits to other Permaculture projects integrated into the programme
- Live online course component, together with an online platform full of curated resources
- Exploratory activities assigned for you to do in your own locality in between sessions
- Permaculture Design Certificate awarded on completion, accredited by PAB
- Sliding scale fees
- Opportunity to part-sponsor someone on a lower income than you and those unable to access other funding.
- Funding available for participants in receipt of social welfare via the Training Support Grant (TSG). Contact us for more information.
- Active, engaged, diverse, integrated!
The logistics
Dates
May - August, see table below for specifics
Locations & Travel
- Mole’s farm, Strokestown, Roscommon and site visits in the locality
- Carraig Dulra, Glenealy, Wicklow and site visits in the locality
- Common Knowledge, Co Clare
- There are limited public transport options to within a short distance of venues. This may involve arriving on a Friday evening for a Saturday morning start as it is difficult to find connections that early in rural Ireland!
- Lift sharing is encouraged and we will help to facilitate this as bookings come in and we see where participants are travelling from.
Fees (payable in installments)
- Full course fee: €1450
- Fairshare fee: €1650.
If you can afford to pay this, it will help us to top up payments from those in receipt of the TSG and those without access to funding. - Unemployment concession: €1200.
If you are in receipt of a social welfare payment, you can apply to the Department of Social Protection for a Training Support Grant (TSG) of up to €1000, leaving you with a balance of €200 to pay as your deposit and to secure a place on the course. Contact us for more information. - Fees can be paid in installments running from March to July 2025. **Please get in touch to organise this and set up a direct debit.**
Booking
- Booking requires a deposit of €200 (€100 for Social Welfare recipients)
- Your deposit is refundable (less admin costs of €25) up until one month before the first course session
- Full balance of fees to be paid by 8th April (unless you are on a payment plan).
- Payments can be made through the website, by card, bank transfer, Revolut or Paypal
- Early booking advised as we have already had lots of interest in the course this year!
More details
Course content
- We focus on practical and community skills development alongside design skills & techniques.
- We facilitate hands-on experience in:
- Local site visits - Experience Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share in action!
- Design Practice
- Organic Growing & Seed saving - Compost systems - Forest Gardening -
- Ecology - Soil - Water - Biodiversity
- Natural Building & Crafts - Upcycling and DIY skills
- Working with Water
- Trees Agroforestry & Woodland Skills
- Foraging and Making Natural Products
- Local & Seasonal food
- Social Permaculture - Community development - Personal resilience
- & More depending on the group!
- Local site visits - Experience Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share in action!
We visit, case study and engage with other local projects at differing stages of their design and implementation. These experiences of applied Permaculture design in various contexts support your understanding of the core concepts from many angles. Exposure to these techniques, information, and styles of Permaculture will provide you with a rich toolkit for your own future projects.
Tutors
Lead tutors on this course are Hannah Mole and Suzie Cahn, both certified educators with PAB and both seasoned Permaculture designers and practitioners who have worked independently and together on Permaculture projects across the country since 2011! See bios below for more info.
Guest tutors - We work with over 15 other guest tutors in person on the course, along with others remotely during our live online sessions and yet others via pre recorded resources. Each of our guest tutors bring their own wealth of experiences and expertise and we are incredibly grateful to have them contributing to this programme.
Community
You will be immersed in a supportive and nurturing environment centred around community (people care) and ‘earth-care’ living and we encourage a ‘participants not passengers’ approach where we can experience shared community living, learning, and laughing!
PDC Schedule 2025
|
Dates |
Location |
Camping option included* |
Food included, supported via community abundance gathering ingredients |
|
15th May 7-9 pm |
Intro Live online session | -- | -- |
|
24th & 25th May 9.30 am -5pm |
Moles farm, Strokestown and site visits | Yes | Tea, coffee etc & Lunches |
|
12th June 7-9pm |
Live online session 1 |
-- |
-- |
|
21st & 22nd June 9.30 am -5pm |
Moles farm, Strokestown and site visits |
Yes |
Tea, coffee etc & Lunches |
|
4th July 7-9pm |
Live online session 2 7-9pm |
-- | -- |
|
17-21st July 9.30 am -5pm |
Carraig Dúlra, Wicklow and site visits |
Yes |
Yes - all meals |
|
31st July 7-9pm |
Live online session 3 7-9pm |
-- | -- |
|
9-10th August 9.30 am -5pm |
Common Knowledge, Co Clare |
tbd |
Yes - all meals |
*Other local accommodation options such as B&B’S can be recommended on request.
More info about refunds, transferring your booking, etc. on our Course Booking Details page.
Read what previous participants have said about this course
FAQ available here
*** If you already have a PDC and would like to teach, check out our Transformative Holistic Teacher training course ***
Suzie Cahn
Suzie Cahn runs a Garden and Permaculture Design business and is also a Director of Carraig Dulra teaching farm.
She says that she is one of the lucky people, in an increasingly urban world, who have been able to develop a deep connection with nature through a frequently unstructured natural childhood by the sea and in the Irish countryside. She was exposed to a Steiner based community living through a strong family connection with the Camphill movement. (Her Grandmother was a founding parent of Camphill in Ireland) Without knowing it at the time, throughout her teens she was got to experience to bio-dynamic agriculture, eco-building and intentional communities and working with the natural landscape. She is a mother, Permaculture Designer and Educators, and an Artist and a Art Therapist working with nature, evolving into an Eco Psychologist.
Suzie says her passion is reconnecting adults, young people, families and children to the learning, healing and creativity found in both nature and art.
She has grown produce for her family since she had her first tiny plot on which to do so and has brought an organic and wildlife community garden and teaching programs to schools and community gardens. She gives workshops and lectures on many topics and in many settings: Hospice Foundation, art therapy training programs and others. She set up a local group called Wicklow Community Gardening Group in 2006 which carried out its aim of developing community gardens throughout county Wicklow. She has served on several boards: CREATE, community rep Wicklow County Partnership, and currently GIY.
She loved the family's six months WWOOFing on the road in Europe in her beloved 1971 VW camper in 2005 "Living inside other peoples lifestyles was amazing and so helpful in choosing what to do ourselves after what I called our 'mid-life crisis gap year.' After twenty years trying to live an ethical, eco life and to spread that ideal, we needed to recharge. It was becoming harder not to give in to hopelessness in the face of massive global environmental crisis' such as GMO, loss of bio diversity, global warming, and unimagionable levels of pollution from everything we do, even from our attempts at healing ourselves through medicine, not to mention running out of oil! " In 2014 the family went off again, this time driving a van (to be donated to the Mongolia Charity GoHelp) across England, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan to Mongolia. She says "this time the trip was about reminding ourselves of our easy lives in Ireland even in "austerity" and contributing what we could to permaculture and education projects and a children's charity along the way."
Suzie hopes that her work and that of Carraig Dúlra continues to inspire and support people and communities developing personal and local resilience under the permaculture umbrella ethics of earth care, people care and fair share.
Suzie's blogs can be found at:
http://meitheal.net/6plusWwoofVanClan/
Contact: info@dulra.org
Hannah Mole
I bring a unique skillset to my design and teaching work as I draw on:
- 10 + years of applied Permaculture design practice across Ireland, working on public and private land and community based projects, both solo and in collaboration with other organisations.
- 20 + years of practical experience that comes with co-managing her family farm in Roscommon, including the development of multi-functional woodlands, permaculture-designed food production systems, various animals, my tiny home and lots more.... plus 2 years volunteering at an established Permaculture farm in France.
- Additional learnings from skill-specific trainings such as Regenerative Agriculture, Forest Gardening, Organic Market Gardening and Commercial Organic Seed Production to name but afew.
I offer a Permaculture design consultancy service, my Permaculture design experience so far encompasses household, garden (-staple crop food production, edible landscapes, community gardens), small-medium scale farming (human scale, animals, vegetable crops, woodlands) personal (using permaculture to guide personal focus, reflection, efficiency, business/livelihood), community network building, and appropriate scale shelter (low impact, low cost, high efficiency).
I'm currently expanding my work from a self employed sole trader towards a locally based community of practise which can scale up the quantity and breadth of Permaculture design work we can offer together while also providing live learning opportunities and potential pathways to regenerative livelihoods for others.
I have been teaching Permaculture in Ireland since 2010, in that time I have been working with community groups, land owners & individuals, facilitating workshops with those who want to learn how to use permaculture to improve the eco-efficiency of their landscapes, work & lifestyles.
I love the richness of collaboration and my courses bring together tutors, practitioners and various folk who together weave a diverse web of learning for participants as well as forging new connections and nurturing local resilience and relationships.
I use a creative teaching style, exploring Permaculture through interactive action learning, challenges, hands on practical projects, investigation, reflections & games.
I am also a tutor for people doing a Permaculture Diploma via the UK Permaculture Association.
Community is important to me, I'm involved in local community initiatives such as a seed saving collective, transition towns group and an ecological gardening group. I'm also involved in the national informal and grassroots Permaculture network in Ireland and I've been privileged to host the annual All Ireland Permaculture Gathering at our farm as well as being active in the core organising team.
I did my first PDC in the U.K with Designed Visions in 2009, while living and working on a permaculture farm in France. I later did an advanced design course with D.V. too, and in 2010 I returned again to successfully completed a 'Training of Permaculture Teachers' course following which I did some apprentice teaching on Permaculture Design Courses in the UK.
I was awarded a Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design from the UK Permaculture association in summer 2015.
My website is www.earthcare.ie
Instagram and Facebook: earthcare_permaculture_ireland
