bushcraft skills wilderness courses

More about us

Click here for Course Testimonials

Click here for Our Instructors

 

The ethos of the school is one of teaching carefully and patiently, ensuring the highest possible chances of success for students studying the many bushcraft skills we teach. A unique part of studying with The British Bushcraft School is the free aftercare. Once you have attended a bushcraft course with us we offer free advice and follow up instruction either via email, phone or in person relating to anything you have learnt with us for 6 months after.

This gives the peace of mind knowing that if you have developed a few problems with a specific technique or have forgotten some essential knowledge then you can contact the school for help and if you’re in the area and one of the instructors are available you can pop in for some free help! This is of course within reason.

Our method of teaching is founded on one of fostering a friendly atmosphere… everyone who has attended our courses says that the relaxed, yet deliberate way in which the outdoor skills are taught is second to none.

The school is based in the Midlands where students attending the bushcraft courses are taught in 220 acres of ancient coppiced woodland, surrounded by wildlife. The bushcraft training camp is within the centre of the woodland with easy access to parking.

Dale has a strong following on youtube where he shares some of the bushcraft knowledge and skills that are taught on the bushcraft courses listed on this site.

Click on http://www.youtube.com/user/LearnBushcraft for his homepage and videos. Dale is regarded as one of the UK’s top experts in fire by friction, with a high level of skill especially in the hand drill. He currently has a world record attempt application in with Guinness for using a sub 3inch drill to create fire by using the advanced floating technique.Bushcraft campWild food

Bushcraft instructorLatest news:

 

News 11th May 2016: New dates listed for our most popular 4 day and 2 day courses.

Also in regards to our Bow and Hand Drill fire by friction courses, now wishing to give a high instructor to client ratio, the number of people on this course is limited to only two at any time. This allows us to really concentrate a lot of focussed, high quality instruction.

In short; we are running these courses, not to make large amounts of money, but simply because we love teaching them and enjoy seeing clients succeed in aquiring these ancient and essential outdoor firelighting skills.

5th May 2014

New Payonline systme now in place for budget course. Weekend course soon to follow.

5th April 2014

2 DAY BUSHCRAFT TASTER COURSE ONLY £110 (Here)

NEW DATES NOW LISTED FOR OUR 4 DAY FULL SYLLABUS £210 COURSE (Here) As frequently heard on BBC Radio (click here) and seen in Bushcraft and Survival Skills Magazine

Click here or on the menu bar above to see all the courses we provide.

30th March

New dates listed for our 4 day £210 course 31st Jan Testamonial from famous explorer Ed Stafford.

 

 

2013

10th September New dates listed for the budget course!

28th May Our new 'bushcraft on a budget course' now listed click here for more.

28th May we are on Twitter follow us by searching 'British Bushcraft'

2012

28th Feb 2012 Another article out in Bushcraft and Survival Skills magazine, this time the focus is on string types that can be used with the Bow Drill.

20th Feb 2012 Dale on BBC national radio again see the BBC's webpage for more details http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17094310

2011

7th Nov Dales first video tutorials are now live on videojug,com, just search British Bushcraft School to find them. Dale has been asked to provide more tutorials so more videos will be up and running soon.

1st Nov Dale's latest article is out in Bushcraft and Survival Skills magazine. This time he shows how to make a Lester fishing spear.

12th October, new dates listed for our bushcraft courses in 2012.

4th August, next years course dates to be listed very soon!

1st August Another article from Dale in Bushcraft and Survival Skills magazine, this time he talks about trapping and how to ethically practice this without causing any harm or distress to animals.

1st May Another of Dale's articles is out in bushcraft magazine.. this time is how to dry a wet fire by friction kit.

1st March Dale's latest artcile on the Rattan fire thong now out in Bushcraft and Survival skills magazine. Click here to go to our about us/links page and find a list of bamboo, rattan and balsa suppliers.

24th Feb Dale latest article on the Rattan Fire Thong will be out in Bushcraft and Survival skills magazine at the start of March.

24th Feb Spring feels very close now with many wild plants growing well above the ground in Worcestershire.

28th Jan The British Bushcraft School will be at the NEC outdoors show on Saturday 26th Feb 2011 demonstrating the hand drill and bow drill.

10th Jan Dale will be at the outdoors show in London on the 15th Jan to demonstrate the hand drill.

3rd Jan 2011 Dales latest article on the fire plough now out in Bushcraft and Survival Skills Magazine.

1st Jan 2011 HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2010

11th Nov: big price reductions on many bushcraft courses, £100 off our week long course and essential fire course. Big reductions on many other courses. Check out the bushcraft courses page here: coursesfire by friction course

10 Nov: Dale now has an article on the handrill in the latest issue of bushcraft and survival skills magazine; the UK's biggest selling bushcraft publication.

9th Oct: New 3 day Essential Fire Craft Course listed. Our most thorough fire craft course ever. Follow the link here

26th Sept: New 3 day fire craft course to be listed shortly. This course will cover almost every possible method of lighting fires and will give key instructuion in fire management and use.

26th Sept: 2011 course dates listed, more to follow shortly.

20th - 22nd of August the British Bushcraft School will be at the wilderness gathering to demonstrate skills, sell fire by friction hand drill and bow drill kits. We will also be advertising courses and can answer any questions you may have.. Follow the link to the gathering from this page here

17th June: new crook knife making video uploaded go to the video by clicking here. Go to our knife making course here.

10th June: More course dates listed for 2010. Click here to go to the bushcraft course pages.

9th June: Making a crook knife 2 part video uploaded to youtube. Follow these links to watch the videos :

Making a crook knife part 1

Making a crook knife part 2knife making course

Making a crook knife part 3

Making a crook knife part 4

Or watch them all on this bushcraft website by clicking here

 

 

 

Testimonials

 

 

"A really great few days out in the wood, learned alot and somehow ended up feeling a bit fitter too"

A.Kent 4 day £210 course

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"Thankyou for such a brilliant 4 days, I learned so much and the way you taught it helped me a lot"

G.Warren 4 day £210 course

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"The best weekend of my life" B.Cross Taster Course.

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"What a fantastic weekend mate.  I had such a good time.  Just like with the knife making course, I didn't really know what to expect so it was ace.  I think the weather really made it and it was a good small group.  I'm already looking forward to my next outing with you". C.Capon Taster Course and Knife Making Course

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"The couple of days spent with you was definitely the highlight my trip to England. Thanks for being such a friendly and helpful host and I got alot from the experience". Ian Barnes (New Zealand) Two day personally tailored bushcraft course.

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"Such an amazing weekend full of useful infornation and skills and so much of it not taught in books! Well taught and thoroughly enjoyed" Dan Scott - Bushcraft Taster Course.

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"Thanks for a fantastic day. Can't tell you how much I enjoyed it" James Harvey - Hand Drill Course.

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"Many thanks for the excellent course.  I found the finer details particularly useful and had never come across the tapping idea before.  I'm going to wait a while to let my hands heal (!) but will be drilling again as soon as possible whilst all is fresh in my mind" R Tofts- Hand Drill Course

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"Thanks SO much for the advice and the help (and the blisters...) and if I can't get the floating method I'll definitely be back out with you again" C Sherwood - Hand Drill Course.

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"Great two days of fire by friction with lots of guidance and advice.. even managed a spruce root bow drill" Dan Scott -Bow Drill Course and Hand Drill Course.

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"Just a quick email really to say thankyou for such a great course yesterday! Not only did I learn alot of new plants, but I can now positively ID the ones I was looking for in my area and not finding. Also the variety of ways we ate and prepared all of the different varieties was superb, from the gorgeous warm salad, to the beautifully simple cat tail's methods. I defiantly feel alot more confident to try the foods and methods out after this course than after some other 'wild food walks' that I have attended (just showing lots of plants and tends to overload oneself), I put this down to your method of always reinforcing and double checking at every available chance. To boot the extra tuition with the hand drill was brilliant, as was the other additions like the nettle root cordage. All in all Dale a real corker of a day!! " Mark Jackson - Spring Wild Edibles Course.

bushcraft skills burl bowl

Our Instructors

 

 

Dale Collett

bushcraft instructor

 

Born on a farm and brought up in the rural Midlands Dale was lucky enough to have woodland and open countryside as his playground. This fostered an early interest in the outdoors and his main interest in bushcraft; something he has pursued ever since building a vast and expert knowledge of wilderness living and survival skills.

In the last few years he has taught bushcraft courses to members of the public from all over the uk, becoming renowned as one of the uk's top experts in many fire by friction skills. He is called on to work for other buscraft schools, teaches bushcraft for local and national charities. He also teaches bushcraft to school children and has performed many open day displays through the London Wildlife Trust and City of London parks including Hamstead heath.

Dale's own bushcraft training comes from attending bushcraft courses run and taught by experts like Ray Mears, Juha Raikanen and John Lord, the UK's top flint-knapper.

But he learnt most of his skills the hard way; through self teaching, dedication, practice, experimentation and of course making mistakes; hence he is able to pass on skills whilst understanding the pitfalls and more importantly the best guidance to teach techniques and refine ability.

Dale Collett

Dale currently has an application in with Guinness for a world record; where he used a sub 3 inch hand drill to make fire by friction. He also invented a new way of lighting fire by friction by using the legs instead of the arms to provide the power. He also has a wide range of wild edibles knowledge, is a skilled knife maker, wood carver and bowyer and has a wide range of bushcraft instructing experience from teaching children and adults alike.

Dale is a qualified school teacher and is very experienced in teaching in an effective and confidence building manner. He is also a qualified mountain leader, outdoor education instructor and an ex police officer. His outdoor experience stretches far beyond survival skills; he has spent a vast amount of time mountain walking, wildeness camping, canoeing, sailing and climbing. He has a witty and friendly manner and heads up the team at the British Bushcraft School.

 

 

Bryce Tangvald

 

Hailing from Washington state in North America, Bryce has a strong outdoors background from working as a Wilderness Ranger, through to forestry bushcraft instructorwork with the US forestry service, and of course pursuing the outdoors life of the vast and wild northwest Pacific coast. Both back in the States and here in the UK Bryce fills his free time with mountain walking, kayaking and follwing one of his favourite pursuits, bushcraft. Bryce trained with Earthwalk northwest where he completed a primative living skills apprenticeship, thus gaining a vast knowledge of bushcraft and primative survival skills. To add to this Bryce is also a competant forestry worker, wood carver, cook and is also an ex wilderness first responder and an emergency medical technician.

Bryce is skilled in many bushcraft areas from wild edibles, fire by friction, wood carving, nature observation through to bow making and navigation. He is very well travelled, has a great calm manner and is great to listen to whilst he instructs in a careful and concise way, weaving in many funny and amazing stories from his life experience to date.

 

Alexi Lamoon

 

An acomplished bowyer, fletcher and archery coach. Alexi is a valuable member of the team. He has a good knowledge of camp craft and is very archery instructorskilled at carving and is not a bad cook! He has a good grounding in firercraft and is hot on the heals of Dale in the floating handrill, bowdrill and fire plough stakes. Alexi is currently studying tree surgery at Capel Manor college in London and has a first class knowledge of trees and their uses to the survivalist. He also has a good knowledge of history and prehistory and can often be seen romping around in the background of a historical hollywood movie. His latest appearance being in Ridley Scott's Robin Hood. Alexi's claim to fame being that 'he was told off by Ridley Scott for walking around like he needed the loo' this allegedly cost £600 in re-takes! Alexi's excuse was - "the armour was very heavy so I couldn't walk properly"! But at least Alexi is a very good shot with a bow! And very skilled at teaching the skills needed to become a very competant archer. In the photo he is the scary looking one on the right.

Ben Clark

 

Ben is our resident Ornithologist and wildlife expert. His knowlegde of birds and animals is utterly amazing. He is very skilled in nature observation and photography, a keen outdoorsman being blessed with a photographic wilderness instructormemory and the eyes of a vulture. He can spot a waxwing at 200m! Ben is currently studying with us to enable him to help instruct a wider range of the bushcraft syllabus, thus he is becoming very proficient in carving, camp craft, cordage making and fire craft. He is also a gifted fisherman, outdoors navigator and tracker and is always taking every oppourtunity to improve his skills. He is very well travelled from wilderness trips in Sweden through to sailing in the Carribean. He is a competant hill walker, kayaker and canoer. he is also rather oddly unbeaten in the wrist bending game of peanuts.

 

 

Links

Click on the links below for bushcraft related sites and sites of outdoor interest and active pursuits.

Two great websites for outdoor gear and military equipment, with all the leading brands (e.g. 5.11 tactical, Jetboil, Karrimor, Jack Pike, Sealskinz and Snugpak) all at competative prices. The outdoor fusion site is aimed more at civilian campers/travellers and the nightgear website is for more tactical, military style equipment. Both have a good amount of kit for bushcrafters.

 http://nightgear.co.uk/

http://www.OutdoorFusion.co.uk

 

A top rate martial arts club run by Dave Taylor, one of the UK's top authorities on Wing Chun Kung Fu and the only recognised instructor outside of China for Chen Jin Iron Shirt and Golden Bell 21. These are martial arts that actually work and are supurb for self defence arts for everyone! Great for building strength stamina and confidence and useful in dealing with the modern day ailments of anxiety, stress and depression.

http://wingchundynamics.org/

 

Britian's top selling bushcraft and survival magazine and an excellent bi monthly read for all lovers of nature, crafts and the countryside.

www.BushcraftMagazine.com

 

A top bushcraft show from the publishers of Bushcraft and Survival Skills magazine.

www.thebushcraftshow.co.uk

 

A great site dedicated to all types of outdoors mechandise

http://www.bronzemoonoutdoors.co.uk/links

 

A top place for forest adventures for schools and children! Run by Jason Hardwick, a very experienced and dynamic instructor who has an ability to engage students of all ages! Excellent for team building and broadening the horizons of any child or adult.

www.theforestschoolcompany.co.uk

 

Fantastic fire pistons and a wealth of other bushcraft resources from Dustin James! Well worth a look and I can fully recommend the fire pistons.. small handy and very effective!

www.bushcrafttools.com

 

Rathbones of Keswick for a wide choice of good outdoors gear from a friendly family run company. Stockist of Paramo.
www.rathbonesofkeswick.co.uk

 

Bushcraft courses in the south east of England.
www.natural-pathways.co.uk

 

Bushcraft website from the USA.
www.stoneageskills.com

 

Good knife resources websites.

http://www.berniegarlandknives.com
http://www.ukbladesforum.co.uk/

 

Great resources website for knifemaking products.. and awesome service from Jean Turner

http://www.knifescales.co.uk/

 

Bushcraft and nature on the gorgeous islands off the west coast of Scotland

http://www.islaybushcraft.co.uk/