WHO ARE WE?

The Authoritative voice in Award Winning Wilderness Bushcraft & Survival Courses

We are first and foremost a leading bushcraft company employing a small close knit and highly experienced team of individuals. Together we hope to bring you the very best in Bushcraft & Survival Courses both in the UK and overseas bushcraft training courses and experiences. Over the years since Woodland Ways' inception we have become widely recognised for the diversity of courses we operate and the utmost attention to detail and professionalism imparted on those courses. Our delivery of activities on courses has safety, enjoyment and learning at the forefront of everything we do.

By an appropriate blend of explanation, demonstration and participation you will be encouraged to gain as much hands on experience of bushcraft as possible. We operate courses the year round in a range of outdoor arenas from our own diverse British woodlands, to the far flung reaches of the African bush and the wilder places of Europe. The natural environment supports us, inspires us and is fundamental to our businesses success. As such we have a very strong message of environmental sustainability and sensitivity. Woodland management and respect of flora and fauna feature throughout all of our courses.

Our ethos is designed to show you how to have a minimum reliance on modern materials and equipment and instead to really work with nature and her seasonal variability for your comfort and needs out of doors.
It is important for us to clearly state we do not promote heavy handed boot camp approaches to our activities and neither do we rely on a more spiritual ethos (although we respect both traditions) rather we see ourselves as non-romantic, practical woods people. We want you to leave our bushcraft courses with a new skill set and great memories.

WHAT WE DO

UK and Global Bushcraft & Survival Course provision from a family run, highly skilled team that cares

Our main drive is providing safe, educational adult based bushcraft and wilderness skills training courses and programmes as well as overseas expeditions.

Alongside our success in course provision we have built a very strong reputation in the retail sector in providing bushcraft and outdoor bushcraft equipment. In our online shop, we aim only to recommend what we have ourselves thoroughly field tested and come to rely on.

If you'd like to get a little more hands-on with the range of equipment we sell, you can visit our World of Bushcraft in Bakewell, Derbyshire. The shop brings an extensive range of quality bushcraft and outdoor equipment to the heart of the Peak District and is staffed by experts who will be more than happy to offer impartial advice on our products and talk through our comprehensive range of bushcraft courses and overseas expeditions. Why not come and swing an axe or test a fire steel before purchase and get the insight of people who use and reply on the equipment we sell. In a similar vein to getting to grips with exactly what your course training requirements are our retail of equipment is driven by the desire to understand exactly what your needs are and then make informed recommendations. It has been known for our staff to talk people out of purchases where more satisfactory or reliable equipment can be made or secured elsewhere!

Why book courses and expeditions with us?

Your experiences on our training courses will be guided by individuals who not only understand their subject but engage with it on a daily basis as a life style choice. Training with a team of professionals who have tested, critiqued and relied on the subject matter they are imparting will give you the confidence that you are learning accurate and effective skills. One of our core beliefs is investment in people to achieve their full potential. This begins with the training and mentoring of our core instructing team - this is both comprehensive and on-going. You can read more about our team here.

With our team continually developing their technical and teaching abilities we are then ready to invest in you, our customers. It is our guiding ambition to provide you with exactly what you are looking for in a bushcraft experience.
We have developed a huge range of bushcraft courses to cater for the ever growing interest and popularity of our subject and should this not meet your needs we are happy to discuss bespoke bookings and tailor made experiences.

Our final investment into people is through our charity the Woodland Ways Bushcraft Foundation where we work with tribal peoples from around the world to help preserve the skills, traditions and cultures that inspire every one of us to do what we do.
As with our ancestors our immediate natural environment is crucial to our well-being and Woodland Ways is committed to conserving and enhancing the natural environment. We work very closely with our landowners to ensure that our activities are designed in a way that can help to improve the quality of the local environment and we actively promote the countryside code. We have provided safe, engaging and sometimes life changing experiences for many years now but why not read it from our customers themselves, you can find some of their testimonials here.

Where are we? Most days you can find us in the woods!

We operate in a number of woodlands throughout the UK with our main bushcraft and survival camps located in Oxfordshireor South Derbyshire on the edge of the Peak District. In Scotland we are based in East Lothian. Bookings regularly take our team across the country for private courses, delivering to schools, colleges, outdoor centres and other private organisations. Each year our dedicated core staff deliver a diverse range of overseas expeditions in some very testing environments.

When we're not in the woods, you can find us five days a week in our World of Bushcraft shop in Bakewell, Derbyshire where you can browse an immense range of quality bushcraft and outdoor equipment. The kettle is always on and there's usually an instructor about to talk you through our range of bushcraft and survival courses.

Woodland Ways and the media

We provide logistical support behind camera as well as featuring on camera to Television and Media in a Woodland Ways partnership with Wild Earth Productions Ltd. We have featured in many mainstream media arenas from high profile television projects such as the Bear Gryll's Born Survivor series, to national and international newspapers and radio.

We have won numerous awards over the years twice winning the Best Bushcraft Course Provider in the UK and twice winning the Best Bushcraft course with our Woodland Ways Weekend as voted for by readers of Bushcraft & Survival Skills Magazine. Our director and chief instructor Jason Ingamells has historically been voted as the UK's Best Instructor in these awards although we are very grateful for the votes we would be the first to stress there are a lot of very good instructors out there! Additionally we have been voted in at number 18 in FHM's top 100 adventures and have featured in The Country file top 10 foraging courses. Our instructors are continually in high demand for input into relevant media subjects.

And finally for your peace of mind...

All of our instructors are first aid trained, DBS checked and come from a variety of different backgrounds including conservation, outdoor education and military. They each draw on many years of experience both in the UK and abroad. We hold £10 million public liability insurance, £10 million employer's liability and £100,000 errors and omissions insurance. Each and every one of our activities are fully risk assessed and regularly reviewed and updated to adhere to current best practices within our industry. For our overseas expeditions we adhere to BS 8848, this is the British Standard for organising and managing visits, fieldwork, expeditions, and adventurous activities outside of the UK and we benefit from very good working relationships with in country representatives and subject experts.

Finally if you have any questions regarding any of the above we would love to hear from you and you can contact us any time. Thank you for reading and now you know who we are, we are looking forwards to meeting you and giving you the best that bushcraft and our outdoor places have to offer, The Woodland Ways team.

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