Happy new year!
The festive fortnight went by in a flash - we hope you all had a restful break. We thought we'd kick off our newsletters this year with a look back on 2025, picking out our favourite moments, as well as quick look ahead to what's coming up. Last year was a busy one - and this year is looking to be even busier. We can't wait!
Our 2025 Highlights
Kirkton Wood: A Celebration of Coppicing and Charcoal
We started the year in style with a celebration of hazel coppicing at Kirkton Wood. Welcoming around 60 school kids and around 50 volunteers over the course of two days, we explored the woods, cut sticks, listened to stories, and took Matilda - our Exeter charcoal retort - for her first trip out to make some charcoal. We even had a video made, which you can access online here.
2. Scottish Charcoal: a step up in production
We've made charcoal for years now, but getting Matilda in late 2024 really helped us step up to a new level in 2025. Not only did we make our first pallet delivery, around half a tonne of our charcoal also featured at Glasgow's BBQ festival, Meatopia. We're hoping to keep this up in 2026!
3. New craft workshops
We struggled a bit in 2024 to fill our workshops, so it was great developing a new programme last year, including some old gems and some new crafts. New on the programme - many to be repeated this year - were bowl carving, hazel hurdles, charcoal making, basket weaving, festive crafts, and a follow-on blacksmithing course. We started running multiple workshops on one day, which makes for a great atmosphere on site, and gives people the chance to share what they've learned around the campfire. Workshops bookings are open for 2026, with some already sold out, so make sure you book your places soon!
4. The Great Scottish Craft Hoolie
Well, we went for it big time with the Craft Hoolie in 2025! August saw us welcome guest trainers from across the UK to our site to teach everything from lino printing to end-grain cup turning, with some jewellery, blacksmithing, wood carving, pottery, weaving, and even some spoons thrown in for good measure. It was a full 10 days of fun and really brought our site to life. It also helped us see the real value of the Hoolie - bringing people together to learn and share their passion for traditional crafts. The 2026 Hoolie will bring a similarly-diverse range of crafts together over 3 days. Tickets on sale soon!
5. Wee Skelfs and Teenage Dirtbags
We've had a great year working with the next generation of wood botherers and nature lovers, both through Wee Skelfs and our new volunteer programme for young people, Teenage Dirtbags. Our Wee Skelfs continue to amaze us with their imaginations, their ability to eat marshmallows and their appetite for the mud pit, while the Teenage Dirtbags have been amazing at coming out into the woods on cold winter days and getting stuck in with a whole load of jobs. We can't wait to see how both pan out over the next year!
6. Getting out and about
We made a commitment to ourselves that 2025 would be a year of getting off site and out to different events and activities, and it didn't disappoint. We've been to St Andrews to talk about charcoal, to the home of the Horn Dance in Abbots Bromley to do some hewing, to new sites for workshop delivery across Central Scotland, and to shows in Peebles, Edinburgh, Drymen, Helensburgh, and Glasgow. It's been great meeting so many interesting people, so we're planning on even more trips out in 2026.
7. Christmas Crafting
Although we know crafts aren't just for the festive period, it has become one of our busy seasons, making games, decorations and other gifts to share with loved ones. This year was our busiest yet, with products selling fast through Made in Stirling and on our stalls at craft fares. We added some new products this year -the shrinkpot dice shaker and unicorn craft kits both went down a storm. You can always buy lots of our products online and we're also on the look out for new stockists, so feel free to send us your ideas!
Thank you!
We couldn't do any of this without the amazing people around us - volunteers, workshop participants, trainers, customers, supporters. This was hammered home after the break-in on our site in the summer, when so many of you stepped forward to help. Your generosity was incredible and really showed us how important it is for us to carry on. Thank you all so much!
Dates for your 2026 diary
We already have a lot planned for this coming year, so get these dates in your diaries!
Teenage Dirtbags: next sessions are 17 January; 31 January; 14 Feburary; 21 Feburary and then will continue monthly after that. Find more details online here.
Community Coppicing day: to celebrate the end of this first block of Teenage Dirtbags, and to help us cut some hazel sticks, we’re having a community coppicing day on 21 February at Kirkton Wood. Details on our FB page.
Volunteering: coppicing and site volunteering sessions are running now! Check out our volunteering page for information. We have a new weekly volunteering programme - Nature Nurture - launching on 5 March.
Coppice Craft Day: a free family day out on our site on 28 March to see coppice crafts in action. We'll have more details online soon.
Workshops start in early April and we have dates for workshops through to September. Find out more online here.
Wee Skelfs: running through Easter, the summer and the October break. Bookings are open now.
The Great Scottish Basket Cases - our first ever basket weaving weekend - is taking place on our site 16-17 May. Tickets on sale now!
The Great Scottish Craft Hoolie: a 3-day event (workshops running all 3 days) from Friday 14 to Sunday 16 August, with prefest workshops happening from 11 August. Details to follow.