Bring your
Youth Group
Youth Groups
We'll design day sessions or overnight camps to suit the needs of your group.
Find out more
Duke of Edinburgh's Award
Duke of Edinburgh Award
Our site is an ideal base for Bronze level expeditions.
We'll help you plan an unforgettable and successful adventure.
Find out more
Are you new to the outdoors?
New to the outdoors?
Never been camping before? We'll support and advise you to ensure your group is prepared and knows what to expect.
Find out more
Our
Guided Walks
Guided Walks
We can adapt our walks to suit all abilities and ages - including fully accessible routes.
Find out more.
Bushcraft
sessions
Bushcraft Sessions
From 2 hour ' taster' sessions to full days 'in the wild', we'll provide an unforgettable outdoor experience.
Find out more
Come Camping
Here
Come Camping Here
We can host 28 overnight camps here per year.
Find out more
Hire Our Yurt
Hire Our Yurt
Exclusive use of our very own yurt - The Barrow Den - for your family or team away day
Find out more
Book a session
We run regular After School Clubs and holiday sessions for local young people. We also run events and camps for families, and even some sessions just for free-range grown ups! All current available sessions are shown below. Select a session to join our tribe
As a social enterprise
We exist to help more young people to discover, explore and enjoy being outdoors.
Birkheads Wild is a Community Interest Company (CIC), this means any surplus we make is reinvested to help more young people experience (almost) wild camping and the outdoors.
Check out this video of what we achieved on our Gift of the Wild programme in 2018/19 in collaboration with Stomping Grounds Forest School.
What our visitors say...
"Jack has talked of nothing else since he got home, thanks to all the grown ups for an unforgettable adventure today!"
Joanne O'Leary (Jack's Mum)
“I have had fantastic feedback from all of the families who were lucky enough to be nominated for 'Gift of the Wild' programme. Parents were anxious about six week holiday activities and the associated costs. Several children were reluctant to engage in out of schools activities. These children have talked about the friendships formed during the day and the amazing array of activities they took part it. Thank you so much".
Family Support Worker, Gateshead
"Great place for a DofE Bronze practice or qualifier. Walks straight from the camp site and plenty of footpaths. Fiona is so enthusiastic and helpful you couldn't be in better hands. The place is tranquil and you wouldn't realise that you are just outside the hustle and bustle of the major conurbations of the north east"
Steve Southern, Operations Officer for Newcastle, Gateshead & Hartlepool, DofE North
"Lovely atmosphere and a great place for DofE!"
Leah & Chloe, Y10
"Amazing people and amazing place"
Megan, 15
"Cute campsite with a very welcoming feeling"
Oxclose Community Academy, Washington, Y9
"Your site is awesome and you helped me start a fire and gave me some helpful tips that I will use again"
James, Y10
"We are now in our fourth year of running DofE Awards. Our students work really hard at getting the same national award as everyone else - and do this through volunteering, physical activities, undertaking an expedition and learning new skills. This year they're learning bushcraft skills at a great little spot - Birkheads Wild!"
Cambian Dilston College, Northumberland
" Your camp site is beautiful and DofE is good! Thank you so much."
Cassie, (15) BCT Aspire, Bronze Duke of Edniburgh's Expedition
"I love this place you can build dens and its lots of fun, you can also explore!!!"
Daisy (9), Kibblesworth Academy, Gateshead
"We work with young women with complex needs (eg on child protection plans due to neglect, babies and unborn babies of young women on CP plans, young women with fairly severe mental health problems including selective mutism, eating distress anxiety, depression, those at risk of sexual exploitation, young women who go missing, excluded from school due to behaviour, home educated, ADHD, autistic spectrum disorder, drug and alcohol use, in abusive relationships, socially isolated, bereavement or displaying early sexual behaviour). We also work with young parents, including fathers.
Working with Birkheads Wild over the past year has been a unique experience that has taken the young people out of their comfort zone and challenged them, building confidence and the ability to transfer this confidence into everyday life.
Undoubtably being at Birkheads Wild and out of their normal environment is beneficial to their mental health. It is an opportunity that they would not otherwise have had to forget their worries for a while in the beautiful countryside. They also learnt new skills and tried out new activities. I noticed our young people behaving differently in a new environment, talking about nature and linking this to positive memories. They also did more physical activity producing endorphins, which is something they may not otherwise do as part of their day.
Our young parents reported benefits to themselves and their babies in that it gave them the knowledge and confidence that they can do things in the outdoors which make them feel good that don't not cost anything, and can be done in similar environments close to their own homes, for example walking, climbing, making things from nature and having interesting, knowledgeable conversations about nature and the environment.
The overnight camp gave young people more opportunity to form relationships, both with peers and staff. It was also empowering for young parents who live at home and have not had the opportunity to be away with their children without the presence of grandparents/parents/foster carers. "
Julie Stott, Project Director, Gateshead Young Women's Outreach Project
BOOKINGS NOW OPEN: HALF TERM FOREST SCHOOL Tues 1st & Weds 2nd June 9.30am-3.30pm - 2 Day Block.
Join us for 2 full days of Holiday Club for 5-14 year olds without their grown ups. We know how important being outdoors is for all aspects of young people's mental and physical health and well being and that we all want to be playing outdoors. Activities include; den building, firelighting, knife and tool work, outdoor crafts, games, mud cafe, pottery, goat and hen petting and loads of wild play.
To book visit our website or www.bookwhen.com/birkheadswild
#forestschool #holidayclub #outdoorsfun #outdooradventures #community #socialenterprise #wildplay #freerangehumans
A massive thankyou to all who who supported our Community Open Day today. I didn't have chance to get many pictures but it was lovely to see smiles and meet new people (despite the rain) and open up Birkheads Wild and welcome everyone in. Our Young Leaders raised a whopping £422 towards trips/camps/events on their craft stall, and through selling marshmallow toasting kits and raffle for the Co-Op hamper kindly donated by the Manager of Sunniside Co-Op ! Incredible sales and fundraising skills, what a fantastic team giving up their Sunday to run the stall - thanks to all the young people involved. Thanks to #northeastfalconry for letting us meet the incredible birds of prey. Thanks to @delphicbeing for once again helping many, many small hands to make crystal pouches. Thanks to @ashfordguitars and @banaszak.ilona for monitoring the fire pit throughout the day. Thanks to @blossom._.butch for helping families paint stones for our rainbow welcome art work. Thanks to Mark Tash Man, Granny Collins and Grandma O Leary for all the knits and crafts for the stall. And finally thanks to the members of Sunniside Co-Op where we are a local cause for funding the event today. We are planning another for the summer where we hope that visitors will actually be able to sit on the grass in the sunshine and enjoy picnics without getting soaked ! #community #communitygarden #Communityopenday #localcause #socialenterprise #welcome #youngleaders #campfire #owls #falconry #CoopCommunity #gateshead
*sound on* All the smiles re-watching the video clips from yesterday's raftbuilding session with our Young Leaders. The first 4 clips show the results of 45 mins of immense concentration, focus and teamwork from Kevin and Thomas. Kevin had the idea for this design in his head and despite English being his second language he found ways to communicate his idea to Thomas to get this "war-ship" as he called it, built once the rest of the group had given up on theirs and were just playing in the water. They should be really proud of themselves for this. The other clips just show the fun, the previous models, the mistakes and the dramatic sinks the 2 teams had during the session. It was hilarious and heart warming to watch. Thanks to @alexanderadventures_uk for guiding us, and #ebchesterboatclub for hosting us. Thanks to Mark, Katie and Clare for giving up their afternoons to help out and to @cftynewearnland Tyne and Wear #highsheriffaward @sarah.stewart29 for funding this unforgettable leadership development experience for our Youth Board #youngleaders #youthboard #youngvolunteer #leadershipdevelopment #raftbuilding #outdooradventures #riverderwent #ebchester #community #socialpurpose #socialenterprise
Only just sitting down to be able to post about the amazing time our Young Leaders had yesterday on their final leadership development session for the Youth Board. Our Tyne and Wear #highsheriffaward funded them to spend the afternoon learning new skills, working as a team and having great fun raft building and sailing at #ebchesterboatclub with @alexanderadventures_uk thanks so much to Paul and to Iain from the Boat Club. Its poignant that when Paul asked at the start whether anyone had done this activity before, half the group (the Y7s) said: "we were supposed to - on our Y6 residential last year which got cancelled due to COVID" .11-14 year olds have missed out on so much fun over the last year, and there appears to be a very cautious approach or no return to school trips this summer either. That will be 2 summers of no trips! Just think of all the fun, life skills and development they have missed out on. It's up to smaller Youth and community groups like ours to do our best to make sure young people get these experiences in 2021. *Success and hilarious sinking videos to follow* #youngleaders #youngvolunteer #youthboard #leadership development #outdoorskills #outdoorsadventures #raftbuilding #teambuilding #riverderwent #ebchester #makingmemories
As part of our 1:1 alternative provision session, I got T inspired by the land art of #andygoldsworthy back in March. When I showed T this image, he said he wanted to create something similar on site. We ve worked on it on and off , little by little over the past 2 months, moving piles and piles of stones. He shifted and adapted his concept slightly as we experiemented and today 'Mossy Volcano' is finished and ready for public viewing. This has been a long term project which could not have been achieved as a one off, quick intervention. As we built the cairn-like mound it was a great opportunity to chat about everything with our hands and eyes focused on a task #alternativeprovision #alternativeeducation #longtermbenefits #forestschool #landart #AndyGoldsworthyInspired #stonesculpture #artwork #communitygarden
Error: API requests are being delayed for this account. New posts will not be retrieved.
Log in as an administrator and view the Instagram Feed settings page for more details.
ANY QUESTIONS?
If you want to learn more please get in touch...