Woodland Ways operates multi award winning bushcraft course and Survival School in the UK. Join the UK's leading Expert of Bushcraft courses, survival courses, wilderness weekend, foraging courses, family bushcraft weekends, bushcraft equipment and outdoor survival skills training course.

Jason has gained the Professional Tracker in South Africa under the Cyber Tracker scheme, and is currently studying in the UK to achieve the same after achieving his level 3 in 2020. He also holds DSC 1, (certificate comprising assessments on Deer Biology and Ecology, the law relating to deer, stalking techniques, deer identification, safety and shooting as well as trained hunter, enabling Jason to assess Deer Carcass for human consumption). DSC 2, and the BDS Deer Management Qualification.

In 2020 Jason begun studying at Masters Level Outdoor Experiential Learning (Bushcraft), the first qualification at this level to study the history and principles of Bushcraft in the world.

He is also Landrover trained in 4x4 off road driving.

Due to his extensive outdoor knowledge and practical applied experience in a number of wilderness environments in 2016 Jason was appointed a Brand Ambassador for Keela International.

In 2015 Jason was honoured to have been nominated and awarded as a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society for his work on the African continent supporting Tribal communities.

Jason is also contracted to write for the Bushcraft & Survival Skills Magazine, and has been invited to comment on issues in Scouting Magazine and numerous other publications. Jason has also appeared in many mainstream red tops and broad sheets including The Times, The Daily Star, The Mail and more.

Looking back over Jasons career you will see in December 2011 out of 63 of his peers Jason was voted as the UK's Best Bushcraft Instructor by readers of Bushcraft & Survival Skills Magazine in the Best in Bushcraft Awards. He was very proud to be presented with his award in June 2012 by his life long inspiration and the author of the best selling book the SAS Survival Handbook, the survival legend that is Lofty Wiseman.

Jason's interest in Survival was sparked as a child when he went on his first survival course, rushing straight out afterwards to buy Lofty Wiseman's SAS survival guide and all the kit he could purchase! However as he developed an understanding of what nature could provide he soon understood that it was the knowledge he held in his head and not the gear in his pack that was all the essential kit he needed.

As a teenager growing up deep in the heart of the Lincolnshire Fens, Jason spent every minute of his spare time on the banks of the River Well and and in the estuaries of the Wash, building shelters, learning the art of fire lighting and tracking the vast wildlife of the Marshes, and he has been learning ever since.

Over the years Jason developed a passion for the British Countryside, and so formalised his bushcraft skills by undertaking other courses and ultimatly passing his Survival Instructors training course and began teaching with other Bushcraft Schools.

From here Jason decided to set up Woodland Ways & Desert Ways to showcase the huge bredth and depth of skills that come under the term of "Bushcraft". A highly respected Instructor within the top tier of the Bushcraft Industry Jason was instrumental along with his other leading peers in setting up the Institute for Outdoor Learnings Foundational Bushcraft Competency Award, and sat on the Executive Committee for 3 years before standing down in 2011. He was re-elected back on to the board in 2019 to assist in the development of new safety standards. He stills provides help and support to assist steering safety and quality standards within the industry and holds the award himself.

Jason also leads our Instructors Apprenticeship scheme, setting the highest possible standards of skills and safety to all our instructors to ensure that you have the most knowledgeable experience when you join us. Each member of the team goes through a minimum 2.5 year training programme, from the UK to overseas environments, before being awarded the Woodland Ways Instructors Shirt and running courses. From this point they are then continually assessed by Jason and his senior team.

Jason's knowledge of bushcraft skills is immense, and has been gleaned through extensive personal applied experience, practicing and developing these skills for real, in real circumstances. He is also a very very experienced expedition leader, have led groups regularly Canoeing in Sweden, Navigating the Yukon River, Tracking in South Africa, and working with the Maasai in Kenya, plus many many more countries beside. These extensive overseas experiences all feed back into the skills that are taught in the UK.

Jason still teaches on many of the Woodland Ways bushcraft courses and here it is about you, and not him. It is not unknown for Jason to spend hours upon hours of extended 121 tuition with someone if they have the desire to learn, because he has a passion for passing on these skills. Everyone here at Woodland Ways wishes to show that learning the skills of our ancestors can not only be a wonderful and enlightening experience for the individual, but it can also be beneficial to the environment.

Further background skills are provided by being an experienced hill walker and a qualified Walking Group Leader, recognised through the British Mountaineering Council and Mountain Leader Training UK.

He has spent a lot of time wild camping in the Scottish Highlands, the ranges of Snowdonia, the Black Mountains, and walking in the Peak District, although his favoured environment is our good old British Woodland. He has trekked widely throughout Europe learning from different cultures on the way, and also developed his desert survival skills in the Sahara and the deserts of the Middle East. Jason also considers himself to be most fortunate as having trekked in the very remote jungles of Borneo, aswell as climbing the three highest peaks on the island in just 9 days! Jason can also draw on his experience of being invited to live within a Massai Village Community, where upon on his visit in 2012 he was presented by the elders of the village with a very powerful symbol of leadership, and then repeated visits through the years to 2015 has led to him leading the charitable side of our work through the Woodland Ways Bushcraft Foundation.

Jason has now taught many hundreds of people from all walks of life the different skills it takes to survive in the wild and invites you to come and join us for an amazing adventure.

Show less

After gaining a degree in Outdoor studies Adam went on to achieve his Mountain Leader qualification whilst working as a full time Outdoor instructor. He taught regularly on bushcraft and survival courses as an independent freelance instructor as well as attending various bushcraft training courses across the UK and overseas.

I have had the privilege of learning from some of the best and have attended many courses with some of the country's finest training providers - Adam

Adam's impressive dirt time in the woods found a well receiving home at Woodland Ways where he has been a full time and permanent member of the instructor team since early 2012. After joining Woodland Ways on our Desert Survival Training Programme Adam decided to join the Woodland Ways Apprenticeship scheme. This detailed training further bolstered his instructional skills and Adam was delighted to attain the now much coveted Woodland Ways instructors shirt before going on to help coach other trainee instructors on the scheme. In 2016 Adam was awarded Senior Instructor Status, a hard won merit reflecting an exceptionally high skill set and dedication to his own learning.

I will always consider myself an apprentice where wilderness living skills are concerned but I am very proud to be operating within the Woodland Ways family where the skill sets themselves are held up in the highest regards.

Adam has since been mentored by the senior staff to learn the ropes of delivering overseas expeditions in Africa, and Europe where he has most recently Co led a Saharan Desert trip and designed/ delivered a Canoeing trip to Sweden.

Adam teaches regularly on our advanced courses, leading on bow making where he has a particular fascination. He regularly delivers modules of The Woodland Wayer and The Bushcraft Year which he helped to design drawing on his fascination of natural materials and what can be crafted from them.

Woodland Ways has provided Adam a unique opportunity to share a lifelong passion for wilderness skills in a realistic training format that holds true to the essence of the subject he feels most content whilst in the woods using handmade clothing and equipment leading activities alongside our students the year through and in all weathers!

But Adam is not just at home in the Woods, he is also BCU Level 3 Open Canoe Qualified.

Show less

He joined us as an apprentice instructor, developing his bushcraft skills and honing his delivery of instruction with lots of dirt time. It wasn't long before he joined the team as a permanent staff member, instructing on courses and working in the World of Bushcraft.

He expanded his desert training, firstly in Kenya embarking on his own personally moving journey with the Maasai. He continued by joining us on the Desert Survival Course in the Sahara where his team navigation skills shone through. Captivated by Africa he soon embarked on our Bushveld Game Ranger Experience in South Africa, Patrolling with a rhino anti-poaching program.

He will take you on a journey as he teaches the skills he has learnt over the years. Always enquiring and always trying new things his enthusiasm is contagious, he acknowledges that he is a student of the subject and will be for the rest of his life... and that makes him an excellent instructor. He has a very calm, collective way about him and will inspire you to achieve.

Show less

Through school and college where evenings and weekends would be spent camping out or on trips with pals up in the Lakeland fells and forests. New books became his guide such as the SAS survival handbook and Raymond (as he was known then) Mears Outdoor Survival Handbook were always close to hand.

Ian attended survival courses and bushcraft skill courses with companies throughout the UK and has been a writer and contributor for Bushcraft & Survival Skills magazine since issue 5 - he is now the longest standing writer for the magazine, currently with his Bushcraft on a Budget articles. It was whilst working at an outdoor show for Bushcraft & Survival Skills Magazine Ian was introduced to Jason Ingamells. Ian saw in Jason a depth of knowledge and skill he wanted to attain. Jason saw the passion Ian had for the subject and his desire to learn, a bond was formed that later enabled Ian to join the Woodland Ways team. Ian joined on the apprentice scheme and learned from the team and worked alongside the people he had come to admire so much.

Sacrificing time off work and holidays to attend as many courses as possible Ian began to learn many of the skills that had eluded him in his previous trials. Absorbing the information being taught and getting hands on dirt time made a massive improvement to Ian's skill set. Not only learning in UK woodlands, but traveling on the Sahara desert expedition broadened Ian's skills and knowledge. Whilst in the Sahara Ian achieved a goal of fire using a hand drill made with local resources under the excellent tuition of Adam Logan. Since this time he has also travelled several times to the stunning wilderness of Sweden on our canoe expedition as both a customer and an instructor. Also to Croatia's Rjisnak Forest with the team, tracking European Brown Bear and Wolf. Ian also assisted on our Mojave Road expedition traveling in the deserts of California & Nevada following the Mojave Road Trail. Not only has Ian enjoyed desert travel, he also has been on winter trips to Sweden, snow shoeing over the frozen lakes and landscape pulling all the equipment needed on homemade sleds, wearing mainly homemade clothing and equipment. In 2019 Ian fulfilled a lifetime ambition when he was able to travel to Canada and be a support medic on our Yukon River expedition, canoeing 484 miles on the mighty Yukon River from Whitehorse to Dawson City.

Ian was awarded his Woodland Ways Instructors shirt in 2015, following over 3 years of formal training meaning that as well as continuing on his own learning journey he passes on his highly regarded skills to our clients.

Ian has a high level of first aid training, being initially First aid at work trained for many years, then progressing on to a REC 2 (Remote Emergency Care) qualification and then attending Glenmore Lodge to attain the WMT (Wilderness Medical Training) Far From Help and Advanced Medicine course. Enabling him to be a support medic on some of the above mentioned expeditions.

Ian still understands the need for continuous training and personal development and as such he has used his holidays and time in between work to undertake more training and instruction from some of the industry's leading figures, not just here in the UK but abroad too. Including a stay at the home of Cody Lundin of Aboriginal Living Skills in Arizona USA. He has completed the IOL Bushcraft Competency Certificate. He also undertook a personal mission to dispel some of the myths around friction fire lighting and through study, learning and hours of practice has regularly managed to get embers with many combinations that are said "not" to work, be it hand or bow drill, Ian will usually be able to get an ember. His passion for friction fire has allowed him to succeed with many techniques including bow drill, hand drill, fire plough, fire saw, strap drill, pump drill and more.

Among Ian's passions are wood carving and he is able to produce some beautiful items including a hand carved canoe paddle that is on display at The Eden project. He is a very hands on person and will turn his hand to many craft based items be these from wood, bark, natural cordage, leather or buckskin. He is quite a tailor too, making many of his own items of clothing and footwear which he is proud to say are used to their full potential in some harsh environments including the cold of -23C in Sweden where these items kept him warm and dry.

Ian's passion and enthusiasm for all things bushcraft and wilderness travel are even stronger now than they have ever been and he loves to pass on that passion and knowledge.Show less

Davie closed his existing business and threw himself into the Woodland Ways Apprenticeship to train up further in order to run courses for us on a unique site in Scotland, supported by our team. Our Apprenticeship scheme is the hardest scheme to get through in the UK, most do not make it - Davie's skill set and communication skills in delivering high quality Bushcraft instruction meant that he had no problem in gaining that instructors shirt. Davie joined us for well over 2 years and in 2017 was assessed to become a full Instructor Shirt owner as well as returning to Sweden as an instructor he has developed and leads the Northern Forest Year course.

Davie has a passion for all things bushcraft however particularly the boreal forest - it's trees, fauna, indigenous skills etc, as well as in depth knowledge of indigenous craft work, and hide working.

His level of skill and style of delivery you are getting an instructor who really walks the walk; for him Bushcraft is a way of life, one that he wants to share with as wide an audience as possible.

Show less

Now the family have all grown and flown the nest he decided to pick up the passion for an outdoors life and first explored woodland management by spending time with renowned woodsman and timber frame house builder Ben Law to qualify in sustainable woodland management. Next up was a return to fitness after years of sedentary work and the challenge of completing the London Marathon in 2010 but something didn't feel right so he researched a different approach and took up barefoot running to connect fully with nature and appreciate the way our ancestors would have moved. This sparked a whole new outlook on life for Barry and a search for a simpler approach to everything in his life but a framework was required to do it sensibly. Permaculture was the answer - in its simplest form it is a design tool with its roots in food production but ultimately can be applied to anything in life. The new life design led him to achieving the Superhome energy efficiency status for his house and a change to working in the charitable sector where he drew on his marketing background to raise money through trust applications for a regional autism charity before switching roles to work directly with children affected by autism.

During this time Barry was approached by a small charity that uses Bushcraft as a means of engaging with adults with mental health issues and main stream schools to help individuals boost their self-esteem, well-being and confidence. The proposal was for him to use his educational experience to help deliver structured sessions to over 2,000 clients in a 6 month period. With challenge accepted he proceeded to boost his knowledge of the natural world and explore new skills. It was via this search that Barry came to courses and qualifications in Forest School teaching; Adult Education Sector teaching; flint knapping and bronze casting (with Will Lord); knife making (with Dave Budd); and ultimately to Woodland Ways via a fantastic trip to the Sahara Desert in 2014.

Barry was so impressed with the desert survival experience, the ethos and professionalism of Woodland Ways that he signed up to the 2 year Woodland Wayer course on his return. This journey gave him a firm foundation of knowledge which also enabled him to gain his IOL Bushcraft Competency qualification and ultimately led to the hard-earned Instructors shirt. Since then he has seen the beauty of Sweden from a canoe, lived with the Maasai in Kenya, witnessed the wildlife and mountains of Croatia and seen the impact our modernlives have on the wildlife of South Africa and gained his CyberTracker Level 2 qualification. He continues to look for more adventures and skills to add to his repertoire so that he can inspire others. To read more about Barry's journey to a simple life read his blog post which gives an insight into what was involved - https://www.woodland-ways.co.uk/blog/inspiration/oh-for-a-simple-life/

Show less

Having completed a Masters in woodland and experimental archaeology at Exeter University, she is particularly interested in human uses of woodlands, from the Mesolithic to the present day. These aspects of her research are influenced by and in turn impact upon her bushcraft.

Show less

After nearly 10 years serving in the military, he joined the Scottish Bushcraft Group where he met Davie Mccrae. Stuart was asked to join Stonewood Survival and Bushcraft where he worked as assistant instructor under Davie.

In February 2015 he started out on the Woodland Wayer gaining expert knowledge from the excellent instructors. In November of that year he was invited to join the Apprentice program at Woodland Ways and has been working hard to gain his instructors shirt since then.Stuart has found a great love of nature and tracking and is looking to specialise in this subject. Having learned from Colin Patrick in South Africa and Jason Ingamells in the UK, he is well on the way to instructor status..

Show less

It was this keen interest in the outdoors that led Jo to join us on the Apprenticeship Scheme and develop her Bushcraft Knowledge, and the skills required to teach this knowledge. You will often find Jo on her belly on the woodland floor watching deer.

In 2009 Jo was lucky enough to assist us with an expedition to the Sahara Desert and the Atlas Mountains, where she stayed with the Berbers and began her desert survival training. Jo also manages the retail aspect of our business.

Show less