High quality Bushcraft articles written by professional wilderness bushcraft instructor, Paul Kirtley.
Over the past few years I have created a number of tutorial articles and videos on fire techniques relevant to the north woods or northern forest in winter. Here I pull together all of these threads into one coherent resource along with some new material and answers to FAQs…
This is an anthropological documentary about a band of Cree hunters from Mistassini, Quebec who travel to live and hunt on their traditional hunting grounds. It’s a sympathetic film made during a time when these people’s traditional lands were under threat from hydro-electric development and the associated infrastructure. It puts across the Cree point of view about their traditional way of life and philosophy. For the student of northern forest bushcraft, this is a treasure-trove of techniques, skills and knowledge. In almost every scene there is…
Winter is a time when many people semi-hibernate, spending much less time outdoors than in the summer. I’m not sure why, as I love experiencing all the seasons. I know many readers of this blog feel the same way. There’s nothing quite like a walk in the woods or across the fields on a…
Mastery is a strong concept. Yet, many times I’ve heard people use mastery in a sloppy fashion to mean something along the lines of “I’ve pretty much got the hang of the basics”. Getting something right once or twice doesn’t mean you’ve mastered it, particularly when it comes to bushcraft. Nature presents many different…
“You never stop learning”, is a phrase you may well have heard in relation to bushcraft. In fact, it’s become a little bit of a cliché. To me it’s unfortunate that this phrase runs off people’s tongues a little too easily; because wrapped up inside it, is a real nodule of truth that we…
To me, the attraction of going further afield boils down to the differences that other geographies offer that the UK might not. On the face of it, this is an obvious statement. But before you just stick a pin the map at random, I think it’s important to be clear…
We were sitting high up in a mountain valley overlooking trees and surrounded by peaks. We’d set up our tents on a small, relatively flat, grassy area. The nearby stream provided us with water and we had collected up some firewood. As our small campfire became established, it didn’t seem particularly important. It had been a hot day, we had sweated our way up and out of the main valley in the afternoon sun and in the evening it was still pleasantly warm…
I’m often asked about bushcraft skills and camp set ups for heading into the woods for a weekend. Quite a few readers of this blog – and viewers of my YouTube channel – have asked for articles/videos regarding skills to help with getting out into the woods overnight – sometimes for the first time. It’s great so many are keen to get out amongst nature…
Wilderness cabins, huts, hytte, cottages, bothies – whatever your name for these footholds in the wilds – are intriguing places. They tell you something of their owners and users. They can also inform you about the environment in which they are placed. In the north woods, a well outfitted cabin indicates how cold it gets in winter and what skills are important for survival there. We came across one such cabin on the Bloodvein River. It was called the Stagger Inn and was one of only two cabins we passed on 225km (140 mi) of river journey.
People are always interested in other people’s gear. It’s certainly an area I’m asked a lot of questions about. As I get older, I’m less and less interested in outdoor clothing and equipment for any reason other than function and reliability. That said, I understand it can be instructive to compare and contrast…. so here goes…