Weekend events
We've been running glorious events since 2017, starting with the Great Scottish Spoon Hoolie and now extending to a whole host of opportunities to explore traditional crafts and learn new skills. These events are small-but-perfectly formed intimate affairs, where participants get to take part in a range of activities, eat locally-sourced food cooked over the fire using our own charcoal, and have loads of fun. We also invite the best trainers from wherever we can find them to share their craft.
Whether you’re an expert or a complete beginner, you'll learn new skills, hone existing ones, or gain the techniques you need to move on in your crafting journey.
For regular workshops, click here.
Events for 2025
We’re busy planning our events for 2025, based on your feedback about how we can improve what we do. If you’d like to share your views, please complete our survey here.
We’re hoping to have our 2025 events published before the end of 2024, so check back here and on social media for updates.
The Great Scottish Spoon Hoolie
Our flagship spoon carving event! Join us for a weekend and learn everything you need to know about spoon carving - whether you're a complete beginner or wanting to hone your expert skills. Your weekend ticket includes access to 4 workshops with guest trainers, free camping, free tea and coffee, and access to all social activities. This year, we've focused on bringing the best female trainers to Scotland, to showcase the wonderful work women are doing in spoon world.
Meet our wonderful guest trainers
Rachel Bainton
Anna Barker
Mike Craig
Jane Gray-Wallis
Carolina Smoorenburg
Find out more about our trainers here.
We offer a fully-catered ticket, with locally-sourced ingredients cooked over the fire, using charcoal that we make on site. You can also camp for free on our site, boasting composting toilets and a wood-fired shower.
We’re committed to pay people for the time that’s needed to organise, set-up, and run the events. That means we don’t rely on volunteers for any part of the events, and we aim to pay everyone fairly for their contributions. We also need the events to contribute towards our running costs as a social enterprise, so we can continue to deliver our social aims.
The Great Scottish Spoon Hoolie: Pre-fest
Our guest trainers are offering opportunities to work with them in a more focused way.
The Great Scottish Coppice Gathering
Coppicing is one of the oldest methods of woodland management, practised in the UK for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. However, in the last century or so, estimates are that actively managed coppice woodland area has fallen by nearly 95%. But we're trying to change that by gathering together with people who want to make a difference.
For those camping, the weekend kicks off with Friday night social on our site on the Cardross Estate from 7pm. Otherwise, we start on Saturday morning at 10am, when we'll meet at Kirkton Wood near Aberfoyle, have a tour of the hazel coupes and then do some cutting. It's back to our site on Saturday evening for a meal and discussion. On Sunday, we'll have coppice-based crafts throughout the day for you to try your hand at. We'll also have discussions across the weekend.