About Us

Bushcraft is all about adventure, exploration, discovery and education. We are here to facilitate the experience, helping you to gain the skills and knowledge necessary to live outdoors comfortably in whatever conditions you may encounter. We do not call ourselves a survival school, but should you ever find yourself in need of survival skills, be assured that the lessons that you will have learnt on one of our courses will help you not only to survive but to live well too.

Living outdoors means revisiting skills from our past, and combining them with more modern techniques and equipment. On some of our basic courses, you will find yourself catered for in style, to enable you to learn skills and knowledge. Yet on more advanced courses, you may find yourselves having to find food, make shelters and purify water with the instructors acting as guides rather than teachers.

Our head instructor, Paul, has several years experience of implementing Health and Safety Policies at Outdoor Activity Centres and Colleges, and brings to Yellow Wood Bushcraft an ethos of safety.

Paul was brought up on the edge of Delamere Forest in Cheshire and in the mountains of mid-Wales. Walking in these areas as a young lad, he developed a keen awareness of Natural History and became a Friend of the Earth at age 13. He walked over Wales, the Peak District and the Lake District, and hiked in the Canadian Rockies alone upon leaving school. He then decided to study Environmental Studies for a degree. He has been teaching conservation work, outdoor activities, and tree surgery for the last 20 years. He is a qualified teacher,and has led groups on mountaineering expeditions, qualifying as an International Mountain Leader in 2001. He has hiked in Europe, Canada, America, Nepal, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand, living outdoors and working on farms for keep. In recent years, he has attended many courses with reputable bushcraft schools, and now brings his unique blend of Outdoor Instructor, Forester, Tree Surgeon, Farm Hand, Gardener and Bush Man to Yellow Wood Bushcraft. Just don't get him talking about trees if you want an early getaway!

Belinda is our office and catering manager. She will be your main point of contact when booking courses, and food is her speciality. She endeavours to provide local, organic produce whenever this is available.

Our courses cater for everybody! Our Family Bushcraft courses are available to those who would like to 'connect' with their kids as well as the natural world. Our Forest School activites are available to teach kids independence and interdependence, on each other and their surroundings. Then there are the usual bushcraft courses where individuals come from all over the country to learn skills that will aid them in everyday life as well as outdoors 'in the bush' or 'on the trail'.

Paul is available on a freelance basis, teaching for other bushcraft schools and outdoor activities.

We offer a service to Schools whereby we will come to your School, or meet you and your pupils at a pre-arranged destination. Bespoke lessons in primitive technology, for example, will cover a range of skills and knowledge applicable to the National Curriculum, including design technology, history, geography and basic skills.

Our activities are ideally suited to team building situations. Feel free to contact us if you feel your organisation will benefit from working, living and playing outdoors.