Heritage Farm & Craft Experiences

Scheduled dates can be booked here, alternatively to book your own personalised group experience, call on 07857 579710, or email willowandlore@outlook.com.

Get hands on with the traditional Celtic farming calendar throughout the year. Roll up your sleeves for an authentic farming experience capturing the old Irish way of life with hands on traditional farming activities such as threshing corn and butter making or learn a traditional craft working with natural materials like willow, flax and wood. Surrounded by the tranquility of the open countryside, your experience will be enhanced with tales of lore and family anecdotes enriched with stories of generations past.

Starting with a traditional Irish country welcome, a hot drink and a light bite, you will get an introduction to the farm, the activity or craft and its place in our heritage and if relevant, a visit to the corresponding area of the farm

You will then get hands on with the farm activity or craft, starting with the raw materials, for example milking our dummy cow or pulling some flax in the field. You will get to work through each stage using all the genuine vintage equipment involved in the process and where appropriate you will produce some samples or craft items to take home with you.

The hands on heritage farm experience or craft available on each date will vary depending on the celtic farming calendar and seasons. Check the calendar below to find out what we will be doing and on what date and scroll on down for more details on each experience. When making your booking please ensure you select the relevant date from the options.

• Sat 6th June 10am to 12pm - Vintage hand tool carpentry workshop
• Sat 13th June 10am to 12pm - Butter making
• Sat 20th June 10am to 12pm - Skill of the Still
• Sat 27th June 10am to 12pm - Flax to linen
• Sat 4th July 10am to 12pm - Vintage hand tool carpentry workshop
• Sat 11th July 10am to 12pm - Butter making
• Sat 18th July 10am to 12pm - Skill of the Still
• Sun 2nd August 10am to 3pm - Vintage hand tool carpentry workshop - ** August Craft Month workshop
• Sat 8th August 10am to 12pm - Flax to linen
• Sun 16th August 2pm to 4pm - Flax to linen
• Sat 22nd August 10am to 12pm - Corn harvest time
• Sat 29th August 10am to 12pm - Corn harvest time
• Sat 5th September 10am to 12pm - Corn harvest time
• Sat 12th September 2pm to 4pm - Potatoes plot to pot
• Sun 13th September 2pm to 4pm - Corn harvest time
• Sat 19th September 10am to 12pm - Potatoes plot to pot

Vintage Hand Tool Carpentry Workshop - Get hands on and connect through the well worn handles of tools used by generations of carpenters. Using vintage planes, chisels, augers, drills, gauges and saws learn to feel, hear and see the tools working the wood and appreciate the mastery that has been lost to machines. Learn to read the wood and uncover the techniques needed to craft your own small traditional carpenters or cabin stool

** August craft month workshop Sunday 2nd August - select 'Vintage Hand Tool Workshop: Carpenters Stool Making - 2nd August' option when booking

Butter Making - Get an introduction to the entire process of making butter, from cow to table. Get to grips with the equipment used by our ancestors from the pale, stool and plunge churn that endured for centuries to the milking clusters and barrel churns of recent generations. Follow the processes for a cottage scale, one family supply through to large scale farm enterprises. Then get churning! Working with cream supplied by local dairy farm Rowandale, make your own butter, and taste the difference.

Skill of the Still - Discover the story of poitin in the glen . . . we can neither confirm or deny the presence of a still nor the availability of samples!!

Flax to Linen - Get an introduction to the entire process of creating linen yarn, from field to fibre. Take a short tour around our flax field and hear about the planting growing and harvesting. Learn about retting the harvested flax and the challenges that process posed. Using cottage industry tools, break, scutch and hackle some flax into flaxen hair fibre. Try your hand at drop spinning and make some linen yarn to take home. Learn also about natural dying techniques you can try at home.

Potatoes Plot to Pot - The humble potato has been a staple in Ireland for 400 years. Following a traditional Irish country welcome, you will get a tour around some of the tools and equipment that have been used to grow, harvest and process potatoes for centuries. Witness the evolution from hand to horse to tractor power. Get hands on at the sorting rack and take on our challenge to beat the scales (with a sack of spuds. . .no diet required). . . and speaking of diet, you will get to sample some homemade potato bread cooked on the griddle over the open fire in our traditional cottage.

Corn Harvest Time - Take a tour around some of the tools and equipment that have been used to grow, harvest and process corn for centuries. Witness the evolution from hand to horse to tractor power. Get hands on sowing seed with a fiddle, harvesting with a scythe, threshing with a flail and winnowing the chaff. Experience the effort, determination and dedication that went into saving the crop and learn about meitheal, the original farm community spirit.