Survival Weekend

Price and dates in Scotland
Price and dates in Sussex

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Take a step closer to real survival with our Survival Weekend course. This course is suitable for adventurous beginners and those with some bushcraft experience. *It is more challenging than our Bushcraft Weekend (see our FAQ for a comparison of the courses) in that you have only basic provisions (flour, oil), game (for example rabbit, pigeons, fish carcasses may be provided depending on availability) and wild plants to sustain you. You will sleep in natural shelters, purify the water that you drink and cook the food you forage using bushcraft cooking methods.

In addition, the course covers knife and saw use, primitive firelighting methods such as sparking and fire by friction. We will also demonstrate trapping methods.

Please note, you will not be thrown in the deep end and left to survive - you will be given guidance, support and instruction in all the methods throughout.

Duration: 2 full days: starts 19.00 on Friday night and ends 16:00 Sunday afternoon.
Main lessons will be from 19.00 to 21.00 on Friday, 07:00 - 19:00 on Saturday and 08:00-16:00 on Sunday

Overnight stay: Required - sleeping in natural shelters only - unless you need additional food for health reasons you are requested not to bring any.

Learning outcomes:

• Game preparation - gutting and skinning rabbits, pigeons and/or fish (depending on availability)
• Cooking methods - direct cooking on fire (e.g. spit cooking, grilling)
• Flat bread cooking (bannocks)
• Cord using natural materials
• Knife and saw use and carving project (e.g. making a spoon)
• Fire making using friction and sparks and fire construction and uses
• Foraging for plant foods - including tree, herb and fungi id and uses
• Water collection and preparation
• Natural shelter building
• Trapping methods - theory practice, legal issues and demonstration of traps
• Wildlife Tracking especially with reference to trapping and recognision of target and non-target species.

Client quotes:
"I feel like I have learnt a lot about the native species of trees and plants and how you can utilise them in a survival situation. I really enjoyed the whole experience. I have learnt so much about what nature can provide, though I do wish I could remember all the little details better, and I have had an amazing weekend adventure. I could have done it for longer! I have wanted to do one of these weekends since I was a child and it did not disappoint in the slightest." - D. Helsdon

"A super couple of days providing a real insight to the bushcraft and survival activities - something of an eye opener to the world of nature around us" - A. Kelly

"Excellent all round, really nice approachable tutors, covered loads and had a good chance of trying everything hands on" - R. Hazeldean

"Leon was very welcoming on our arrival. He put students at ease with his delightful manner and was always friendly, patient and available to students through out the course. He gave due consideration to all abilities/experience of the students. All information was delivered in a way that was professional and clear. All subjects were covered in the appropriate depth, topics were fully explained and backed up with an obvious wealth of knowledge and experience. I loved the game preparation, fire lighting technique sessions and the fact that we were given time to practice some of the skills we had learnt in useful way. I would thoroughly recommend this course to anyone who wants to learn basic skills of bushcraft. It has certainly given me an appetite to learn more and to try and hone skills learnt during the weekend. I had one of the most inspiring and enjoyable weekends of my life" - D.Stewart

"Leon was very patient (!), clear, knowledgeable and an excellent teacher. He was always ready to answer questions or give extra support when it was needed! He was great at adapting his teaching style depending on the skills (or lack of them) in the people he was teaching content. I thoroughly enjoyed it and wasn't bored for a second (which is quite a feat when spending a whole weekend in a cold,damp woodland in Feb!). The programme was full enough for there always to be something new to do, whilst giving you enough time on each task to really get a feel for it. Leon's laid back approach and flexible attitude meant you cold easily spend more time on a task if you were particularly interested in something (e.g. spoon carving!). I thoroughly enjoyed it - a great experience which I'm so glad I did. It was fantastic on a freezing weekend in Feb, so it must be totally amazing the rest of the year! The bannoch was a revelation, so delicious (or were we just starving?!). The spoon carving, fire lighting, foraging for water, were all great experiences. The rabbit skinning was good but quite gruesome (but if you're on a survival weekend, what can you expect?!). A fantastic way to spend a weekend, you'll come back exhausted, and probably ravenously, but feeling like you've been away for a month, are completely relaxed and have forgotten all about your day-to-day worries. I couldn't recommend it more." - S. Campbell

"Great weekend! I found this course very interesting due to Leon's vast knowledge on all aspects of the outdoors. If you like life's comforts then this may not be the course for you! but if you want to be exposed to the reality of surviving without life's comforts, then this is a great place to start. excelent location, highly skilled tutors and "real" living of the land, brilliant.... oh and i picked up some great skills along the way. skills that i will never forget" - S. Joslin.

"Wide range of items covered and each item could easily take up a day or more to learn, but Leon manages to show the basics on each. Almost a sampler so you could fine tune a particular item on another of the courses" - L. Joslin

Thank you letter from a previous student

You may also be interested in our Survival Day if you want an easier introduction to some of these skills.

* price includes food