Taking Your Skills Further

27th September - 3rd October 2026

The Woodlore Journeyman course is an extraordinary opportunity to further your knowledge of bushcraft and put your skills to the test in a challenging environment. A progression from the Fundamental Bushcraft course, it prepares you to journey with a deeper understanding of the natural, its opportunities, its trials and how you respond to them. This is not a test of toughness or resilience to hardship, but an opportunity to banish any hardship and thrive by combining the gifts of Mother Nature with your own ability.

The Fundamental Bushcraft course will have given you a solid grounding in essential skills and a taste of the possibilities open to you. The Journeyman will now take you deeper into your understanding of both yourself and the natural world. No longer one of the uninitiated, you will be treated as skilled and competent as more specialist knowledge is imparted and techniques demonstrated.

You will spend the first two days learning more advanced techniques from the Woodlore team and are very privileged to be able to welcome various specialists to teach during this phase. Learn how to identify, collect tasty wild mushrooms from a mycologist with over fifty years of experience. Watch and listen to the estate’s Ghillie, a skilled hunter and trapper, as he demonstrates how to trap, and shows you the fascinating process of making a freshly killed large mammal ready for the table. These unique lessons will prepare you for the next stage of the course.

For the following three days, you will move to a new location as a small group with the aim of putting all that you've learnt into practice. Imagine pushing through the physical effects of food deprivation and walking into the forest equipped only with the most basic equipment essential for survival. Imagine then, using nothing but your skill, knowledge and determination to make fire, build a shelter, forage for wild mushrooms and plants and hunt or fish for game. Imagine being successful in all of these things and feeling the exhilaration of becoming a journeyman.

This course starts at 18:00 on Sunday and will finish at 14:30 on Saturday.

Catering

Meals will be provided for the first two days, after which you will forage for food and live off the land, therefore if you have special dietary requirements, please let us know on your consent form or contact the office.

Course site

The Journeyman course will take place at an expedition style camp in Scotland. The camp is situated in beautiful private woodland with no public access with lots of wildlife including deer, owls, badgers, fox and butterflies. We do not have shower/toilet blocks at our sites; therefore all aspects of the course will have a fantastic wilderness feel.

We have a car park at the course site where you your car will be kept during the course (if you bring one).

Other Details

You must have attended and passed a Woodlore Fundamental Bushcraft course to book this course.

You must also be able to swim at least 200m.

Joining instructions will be sent to participants of the course 9 weeks before it is due to start, giving details of where to meet, at what time, and what to bring with you.

Pre Course Information

View Information Here

Scotland

Full joining instructions, kit list and consent form will be sent to you 9 weeks before the commencement of this course. Kit lists and consent forms are available to download from the website.

The best way to understand the Journeyman Course with Ray Mears is to think of it as preparation for authentic wilderness experiences. Rooted in the principles of journeyman bushcraft, the weeks programme prepares you to take on adversity in a calm and structured manner.

Journeyman bushcraft means change. It’s the transition between foundational knowledge and skills testing and refining. This challenging experiences plants you in positions that require resilience and careful problem-solving.

The setting for this course is a wild Lochside landscape where you’ll learn to set up camp and make a home in the wild. You’ll understand that utilising your bushcraft skills carefully will allow you to live outdoors for an extended period and be self-reliant.

Your time spent by the loch motives you to observe changes in the weather and landscape which helps to inform your decisions when taking on journeyman bushcraft. The process doesn’t just result in a successful trip but builds on knowing when to apply your skills in the best way to tackle the situation.

The biggest task you’ll take on is living from the land. Under expert guidance, you’ll spend time sourcing fungi and foraging for your own food. It’s all about identifying and preparing your harvest. Fishing on the loch provides added opportunity to engage with your environment directly. As part of the process, you’ll craft a tarpaulin dinghy to access the water safely and work with others, all essentials to journeyman bushcraft.

You’ll go on internal journey as you move through the course. Journeyman bushcraft brings together attitude and skill. It demands effort and focus, whilst you quietly reflect by the fire or water’s edge. Get an understanding of your inner abilities. The Journeyman Course with Ray Mears is a major step in a bushcraft learning journey.