Ancient Fire-Lighting Techniques 3rd or 4th October 2026

Join our expert tutor Rupert Loch of Feral Science for a 2.5 hour experience of Ancient Fire-lighting Techniques. 

How did early humans light fires? 

This workshop will explore the main methods of fire-lighting working backwards into history offering the opportunity to attempt each method and understand the challenges and the context for each approach to fire. 

This includes - 

- Fire by Friction - Using a fire bow to generate enough friction to create a spark!

- Flint and steel - Using metal and stone to create a spark to make a fire.

- PLUS how to transport fire from one place to another, how our Ancestors used the plants around them to do so!

This workshop is suitable for children aged 8 upwards. All child tickets must be purchased with a FREE accompanying adult ticket. No unaccompanied children please. 

Participants will be handling ignition sources and fire so should wear non-flammable clothing made from natural materials; wool or cotton (Please avoid polycotton blends as these are especially flammable).

Fire has shaped humans into what we are today; without the control and use of fire our teeth and digestive systems would be entirely different and without the use of fire for heating we would not have been able to survive in cooler climates. Recent discoveries have proved hominids were able to kindle fires to 400,000 years ago, when Neanderthals lived in the UK, 200,000 years before modern humans left Africa.

Rupert Loch is a former head of science, a bushcraft instructor, an outdoor enthusiast and has just completed a MSc in Experimental Archaeology. He has been a regular presenter at the NTC and also presents at the IOL Bushcraft conference and later this year will be presenting an outdoor learning research paper, co-written with one of his schools, at the IOERC in Oslo. His company, Feral Science, is a science education provider that takes traditional curriculum science topics and delivers them in the outdoors with a hands-on, experiential twist. It’s about learning by doing, ditching desks and getting students actively involved in the natural world. Feral Science also create plans, resources, kits and CPD training to support teaching outdoors in this way; reworking established curricula to take advantage of the opportunities offered by being outdoors.