What’s it about?
This 5 day bushcraft course is our most exhaustive course in terms of both breadth and depth of learning. However, you don’t need any previous experience to attend as we start from the basics and progress throughout the 5 days.
Your 5 day bushcraft course is focused on 4 key skills of bushcraft and woodland living – fire, shelter, food and water. But as with all of our bushcraft courses, the skills you’ll learn are transferable and are useful to campers, canoeists, hikers, those that enjoy wild camping and many other outdoor activities.
On top of this you’ll also get to work on other aspects of bushcraft, including craft and foraging, season depending.
This 5 day bushcraft course is definitely one of our favourites as it allows you to immerse yourself fully in the woodland and really become a part of it. The emphasis is on ensuring that you have plenty of opportunity to practice the skills that we show you so that as you progress through the 5 days you become more proficient and independent. It also gives you time to really get to know us and your fellow students. We’ve had previous participants tell us that the course is life affirming and even life changing, just check out all the reviews below.
What will I do on a 5 day bushcraft course?
On our 5 day bushcraft course you’ll be shown a wide range of skills followed by ample opportunity to practice them. And that’s the key, you need to be able to do these things yourself and the only way for that to happen is for you to do them!
You will:
- Use a knife, folding saw and bow saw to make a wedge, cut a log from standing dead wood, split the log and make feather sticks,
- Spend plenty of time creating a flame using chemical, solar, compression and electrical means,
- Work as part of a team to create fire by friction,
- Make char cloth, create an ember with it and blow the ember into flame,
- Identify, gather and prepare tinders from outer barks, inner barks, fungi and downy flower heads,
- Make your own fire from materials sourced locally using a fire steel,
- Understand various fire lays and their uses,
- Prune trees so as they can ‘heal’ afterwards,
- Carve simple implements such as a spatula, honey spreader and spoon,
- Put up a hammock and tarp using 3 simple knots that can be tied and untied wearing gloves (if you’d like to sleep in a hammock, you can),
- Adapt a tarp to different configurations to meet different conditions and environments,
- Know when, where and how to build a debris shelter,
- Identify and locate water supplies,
- Make your own improvised water filter,
- Make a pot hanger to boil water and cook over,
- Make a simple bow from hazel,
- Use bark to make a container,
- Sharpen your knife so that it will easily slice through a sheet of paper,
- Make cordage from nettles, brambles and chestnut bark, depending on the time of year,
- Forage for wild foods and make wild herb bannock,
- Learn a variety of back country cooking techniques using a pit oven, dutch oven, grills and embers,
- Try various woodland teas from plants and herbs you collect,
- Finish it all off by collecting materials to light a fire without using matches, lighters or a fire steel and boil water using your pot hanger.
You can see our complete course schedule here.
More information about our 5 day bushcraft course
Location: Westwell, Kent
Duration: 5 days
Start: 9am Wednesday
End: 4pm Sunday
Course size: Maximum of 8
Catering: Fully catered
Note: There’s a short walk from the meeting point to the camp. We’ll transport your bags in our 4×4.
What happens next?
Once you’ve made your booking you’ll receive an automated booking confirmation from Ecwid, our e-commerce platform provider.
We’ll send you a comprehensive joining pack 6 to 8 weeks prior to the start of your 5 day bushcraft course. T
his includes the location of the meeting point and what to bring.
Please read the joining pack when you receive it as it contains essential information about attending our 5 day bushcraft course!!
FAQs
If you have any questions, take a look at our Frequently Asked Questions page. If you still have a question, feel free to email us at info@jackravenbushcraft.co.uk
Please note that as we work predominantly in the woods, it’s not easy for us to be in contact 24/7. We can be contacted by phone at any time, although during teaching sessions it’s kept on silent. Email is checked as soon as we get back from the woods.
Our blog
There are loads of posts on our blog related to our 5 day bushcraft course, including axe use, natural tinders, water purification, shelter building, so feel free to take a look.
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What our customers say about our 5 day bushcraft course
We also have reviews on our Facebook page and our Google Business page so you can check out those as well.
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As always a full and enjoyable course with lots of well tutored and practical subjects. Gary is a very knowledgelable and exceptional instructor. He successfully and gently guided us through a large number of subjects with lots of hands-on practice (see course details). We learned many fire making techniques, knife and axe safety, carving techniques, sharpening etc. We all made acceptable spoons and made fire by flint and by friction. We made nettle cordage, wooden camp tools; the list goes on.
Nichola, as usual, provided us with exceptional and memorable food which had a huge positive effect on our enjoyment.
The camp setting; kitchen, dining area, work areas, sleeping area, workshops, etc. is well arranged and a joy to be in.
The course is a must for anyone wanting to start bush-crafting, add to their skill set or just enjoy bushcraft with like minded people.
The 5 day Bushcraft course was everything you could want, whether you are new to Bushcraft or experienced. Gary's knowledge is seemingly endless and his style of teaching is adaptive to the group and easy to follow meaning everyone succeeded in all the activities. I've done a few courses but every day was a learning day and so much fun. The food was outstanding and would have made the courses by itself. The days just flew by and it was all over too quickly. The company was awesome and we all had a blast. I can't recommend it enough and I can't wait for the next one.
Highly recommend this company and the five-day bushcraft course that I attended recently. I learnt so many skills from Gary and the team, and the teaching of those skills was delivered in an easy-to-understand manner. The days were packed with different skills but at no point did any day/learning feel rushed. This allowed skills to be absorbed, meaning they will live long in the memory. Skills taught included numerous ways of starting a fire, gathering of materials for fire-making, tree and plant identification, wood carving, water purification, shelter-building, making a pot hanger from natural materials and tarp techniques. The food cooked on-site by Nicola was outstanding as well: venison, partridge, pigeon and numerous other superb items. I will definitely be coming back to do more courses here.
I recently completed a bushcraft course, and it exceeded my expectations. The instructor was knowledgeable, patient, and truly passionate about bushcraft. We covered essential skills like fire-starting, tarp building, navigation, and foraging all hands-on and practical. The environment was well-chosen for learning. Highly recommended for anyone interested in wilderness skills or simply wanting to reconnect with nature.
Best course I ever did the 5 day Bushcraft course
Hoping to book the IOL course for next year
Would highly recommend this group to everyone
