Hazel Hill Wood

Author: admin

  • Mindfulness in Nature Retreat

    Tuesday 8th September to Wednesday 9th September

    This is retreat run by one our partner organisations, Wildlife and Wellbeing.

    When was the last time you sat without holding space for anyone else?

    This retreat is for experienced practitioners and teachers who feel the quiet drift away from their own practice.

    Take some time for yourself, immerse yourself in nature and reconnect with your personal mindfulness practice in a private ancient woodland near Salisbury. This is an opportunity for you to take care of yourself, rejuvenate your energy and resilience levels, and receive rather than give.

    During this nourishing midweek retreat, we’ll combine guided mindfulness practices with periods of silence in nature to deepen your awareness of yourself and your environment.  This retreat features a balance of indoor and outdoor time, with options to do more of either – whatever feels right for you. There will be the opportunity to go on a night walk, chat around a campfire and time to do your own thing. 

    We provide colourful, nutritious and delicious vegetarian/vegan food made with love. 

    Accommodation is in off-grid timber buildings nestled in the wood, featuring wood-burning stoves and compost toilets. See the video and weblinks below for more information on the facilities.

    Our aim is for you to leave feeling nourished, connected to yourself and nature, and embodying mindfulness. 

    This retreat counts as Continuing Professional Development (CPD). 

    This retreat is suitable for:

    • Mindfulness teachers
    • Coaches and therapists
    • Yoga and meditation instructors
    • Anyone with an established mindfulness practice

    This retreat is not an introduction to mindfulness for beginners.

    The retreat runs from 10am on Tue 8 Sep to 4pm on Wed 9 Sep. There is an option to add a second, self-guided night for £100, covering accommodation and food, leaving at 10am on Thu 10 Sep.

    What previous participants said…

    “A relaxing and mindful experience, with fun activities and opportunity to connect with heart warming people.” 

    “A beautiful space and nourishing activities and food.”

    “Weave nature, community spirit, yoga and good food with a forest setting.”

    “This was a beautiful weekend! Lovely balance of chat and quiet, activity and stillness.”

    Watch a video created by Seb Drewett at our Spring 2024 retreat here.

    Meet your facilitators

    Nick Mabey is a qualified coach and facilitator, and has been coming to Hazel Hill in various capacities since 2011. He loves to use nature as a teacher in his work, and also as a way of revitalising mentally, physically and spiritually. Nick was taught mindfulness meditation in 2008 and started facilitating workshops a couple of years later. He incorporates mindfulness within his coaching practice, even writing about this for his masters dissertation, and also offers practice training.

    Charley Miller started working at Hazel Hill Wood in 2018, managing the wood for wildlife and people. She loves introducing new people to the wood and its wildlife. Charley set up Wildlife and Wellbeing as a community interest company in 2024, running nature connection events in and around Salisbury. She trained as a mindfulness teacher in 2025 and specialises in mindfulness in nature. 

    Tickets

    OPTIONAL – Additional night’s accommodation and food – £100 per person

    Sole occupancy Hideaway room – £270 per person

    Shared Oak House room – £220 per person

    To book a place visit Wildlife and Wellbeing’s booking page.

    Book here

  • Bioblitz Wildlife Weekend 2026

    Friday 26th to Sunday 28th June 2026.

    Each year at Hazel Hill, we pause to pay attention.

    Our annual BioBlitz is a midsummer gathering where naturalists, volunteers, visitors and curious beginners come together to explore the woodland slowly and carefully — listening, noticing and discovering what is living and thriving here.

    Part ecological survey, part learning experience and part community ritual, the BioBlitz helps us deepen our relationship with the living system at Hazel Hill.

    Pricing and booking

    For 24 hours, we record as many species as we can across the woodland, meadow and ponds. But for us, the BioBlitz is about much more than counting species. It is about learning how to see.

    One of my BioBlitz highlights was a slow walk across the meadow with a grasses expert. Over the course of an hour, we identified dozens of species I had previously walked past without noticing. Since then, the meadow has never looked the same again.

    The BioBlitz changes how people experience Hazel Hill because once you begin to recognise the richness of life around you, your relationship with place starts to shift.

    The information gathered during the weekend also forms part of our ongoing stewardship of Hazel Hill as a thriving woodland. It is one of the ways we listen back to the wood and learn how it is changing over time.

    The weekend begins on Friday evening, with time to arrive, settle in and gather around the fire together.

    At midday on Saturday, the BioBlitz officially begins.

    Across the next 24 hours, we will head out into the meadow, woodland and ponds alongside expert guides and enthusiastic amateurs alike. Activities across the weekend are likely to include:

    • slow meadow walks exploring wildflowers, bugs and butterflies
    • pond dipping and aquatic species surveys
    • moth trapping and early morning release
    • bat and glow worm walks at dusk
    • bird watching and dawn chorus walks
    • small mammal monitoring
    • opportunities to learn species identification from visiting specialists.

    Some people choose to stay for the whole weekend, experiencing the dusk walks, moth trapping and dawn chorus. Others simply join us for part of the BioBlitz during the day. Both are warmly welcome.

    Day visitors can attend free of charge, although donations are warmly encouraged to support the ongoing care of Hazel Hill Wood.

    Residential places for the full weekend are paid, with income directly supporting our work caring for the woodland, buildings and wider Hazel Hill community.

    Whether you are an experienced ecologist or someone who simply wants to spend time paying closer attention to the living world, you are warmly invited to join us.

    You can read more about what your donations support here.

    Pricing and booking
  • Hazel Hill Wood’s Wood Chop Challenge 2026

    Hazel Hill Wood’s Wood Chop Challenge 2026

    (FULL) Saturday 14th March 2026 – 9am to 5pm.

    young girl chopping wood

    Our third year of the Wood Chop Challenge – open to all volunteers 

    How it works and when

    We hold four volunteer residentials throughout the year at Hazel Hill Wood. This is our Spring residential and a challenge to kick-start the rest of the year!

    For those who want to wake up in the wood, ready to go, we’ll gather for an evening meal on Friday 13th March. Wake for a shared breakfast, then gather together with the arrival of volunteers at 9am on Saturday morning. 

    The main activities are, unsurprisingly, chopping and stacking wood. However, for those who would like something a little lighter to do, we have plenty of ways to contribute, including lopping, making kindling bundles, as well as learning how to make sustainable firelighters. 

    Families with children are welcome. Each child must be supervised by an adult 1:1 at all times. There will be age appropriate tasks, such as those lighter tasks mentioned above. These will be in a designated area which you must stay within. If you’re interested in joining, we’d love to hear from you!

    For those who wish to stay overnight, we offer rooms and hot, shared meals, on Friday and Saturday night. Accommodation will mostly be shared rooms, as there will be lots of us in the wood. If you’re interested in joining the cooking team, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!

    How the Wood Chop Challenge started (and why)

    We started the Wood Chop Challenge to achieve two objectives: to fill a funding gap during a challenging year and to revitalise our regenerative wood harvesting, chopping, splitting and seasoning practices to keep our guests warm.

    We discovered that many of our wonderful volunteers absolutely loved chopping wood! Following feedback, we’ve decided not to ask volunteers to raise sponsorship this year, as they’re already doing so much to support us just by being involved, whether that’s chopping wood, sorting, stacking or the vital task of keeping everybody going with meals, snacks and hot drinks!

    However, we hope that this event can continue to sustain itself, as we offer accommodation and meals at no charge in exchange for the amazing work our volunteers do during this high-intensity weekend. If you’re able to help us fund this activity, please get in touch, or consider donating here.

    This is one of four weekends we offer for our volunteers throughout the year, and a lovely opportunity for staff and volunteers to gather around a shared aim in the wood. This is the only event where we decided to introduce a challenge element! 

    Want to volunteer with us? Schedule a chat with the team

    Sustainable, regenerative, collaborative 

    Surely we love trees – why chop them down? We do love trees! We also understand that effective woodland management sometimes involves thinning trees to give all members of the ecosystem a chance to thrive.

    Being off-grid and surrounded by numerous trees means our most sustainable way of keeping guests warm and comfortable is to utilise wood-burning stoves and biomass boilers. Actually, it’s beyond sustainable – it’s regenerative.

    Gathering round the fire for warmth, community, connection, and sharing food and stories is a profoundly human urge and one of the favourite parts of so many people’s experience here.

    At the same time, following a cycle of tree thinning and rotational clearing creates a range of habitats that supports maximum species diversity. That helps the remaining trees to grow healthily with more light and space. 

    Register as a volunteer and join us by signing up via email.

  • Autumn Conservation Weekend 2026

    Conservation and connection, supporting our beautiful ancient woodland

    Our Autumn Conservation Weekend, now in its 17th year, is our third volunteer residential weekend of the year, open to all volunteers at the wood

    A woodland workout and a chance to learn about the trees, plants and creatures of the wood, while making a valuable contribution to support their ecosystem for the following year. Over two days and two nights at Hazel Hill, you will get the chance to try your hand at a range of conservation activities to help maintain this woodland as a resilient environment for the future.

    Ask participants of this weekend, “What was your favourite part?” and the answers are many and varied. Some point to the satisfaction of achieving helpful tasks outside while getting exercise and fresh air. Others talk about the surprise and delight of discovering Hazel Hill’s amazing and diverse species of moths, as well as a dizzying range of fantastic fungi. An almost universal answer is the enjoyment of spending time in community, gathering round the campfire, and the delicious meals cooked by the team.

    Become a volunteer and get involved!

    What to expect

    Led by our experienced conservation team, you’ll choose from a diverse range of activities, learning about woodland management, conservation and wildlife along the way. We may selectively clear small trees with loppers and bow saws, to create better growing conditions for other trees (e.g. clearing birch to allow oak to thrive). Or we may spend some time focusing on the Tree Nursery. We will also maintain butterfly habitats by scything and raking. 

    You’ll also have the opportunity to learn from some of our fascinating and knowledgeable survey volunteers who may drop by. At this time of year, you’re most likely to meet experts in fungi and moths.

    There’s always downtime to enjoy together, or solo if you prefer, and plenty of ways to relax in the wood. In the evenings, we’ll gather around the campfire, sing songs (if you want to!) and share delicious food. 

    For those who don’t fancy a sing-along around the campfire, there’s the option to relax in our wood-fired sauna on Saturday evening as a reward for all your physical efforts. Or you can do both!

    A full schedule and booking link will be released close to the event. In the meantime, contact Lauren to become a volunteer and be added to our volunteer mailing list if you’re not already! That’s the best way to receive updates on these events.

    Autumn Conservation Weekends through the years

    We shape the Autumn Conservation Weekend around what the wood needs each year. We strive to keep it free, but occasionally need to charge to cover food and other resources, ensuring we can continue to support these events. If you can contribute to help us keep these activities free, we would be very grateful. Please donate here.

    Here’s a taste of previous years, along with just a few of the activities you might expect!

    Planting acorns

    2025 was a “mast year” for acorns, meaning an incredible number of them in all the woods of the UK! We took the opportunity to plant 150 acorns in our tree nursery, using nutrient-rich compost made from our kitchen food waste.

    Learning how to split and weave hazel

    In 2024, we were fortunate to have the opportunity to learn hazel-woven fencing techniques from the amazing Alistair Hayhurst. We’re very pleased with the results, and we’ll happily share what we learned from this craftsman of these traditional and “endangered” techniques that we’re so pleased to see being supported and kept alive.

    Hedgelaying techniques

    That same year, an enthusiastic group of volunteers helped us replace old fencing with a living barrier using traditional hedgelaying techniques.

    Scything and other habitat-friendly traditional skills

    Scything is another ancient technique that we teach at the wood. Every year, we scythe and rake the “rides” (wide pathways originally created to travel on horseback) and glades to encourage wildflower regeneration and enrich butterfly habitats.

    Find fascinating fungi & meet marvellous moths

    If we’re really lucky, we’ll be joined by some of our knowledgeable surveyors, who will survey the amazing range of fungi in the wood and check in on our thriving moth population. Our fungi surveys are not about foraging; we’re simply observing.

    While we aim to keep this event free or by donation, booking is essential. A booking link will be published closer to the time. In the meantime, contact Lauren to join our volunteer programme and receive updates on all things volunteering. We understand that some people who want to help are further away and less able to regularly volunteer. Please chat with Lauren about your needs and how much you’re able to commit.

    Read 16 years of Conservation Weekend memories from our Chair of Trustees

  • A Den Building Special with Polly Whyte

    A Den Building Special with Polly Whyte

    Wed 18 Feb 2026, 10 am – 12 pm

    A perfect way to get everyone back in the wood and moving! Polly is back in the wood helping families find their wild sides.

    Join us for a morning building dens in a beautiful ancient woodland. A morning session for families with children aged between 3 and 12 years*. 

    We will start by learning a couple of useful knots before splitting into groups to build dens. You can choose whether to build your den with sticks, tarpaulins or ropes or a mixture of all three! There’s lots of lovely wood to choose from around you on the woodland floor, so it’s a perfect excuse to explore, too.

    At the end of the session we will gather around a campfire to cook marshmallows.

  • Facilitator’s Retreat — 3rd – 5th June ’26

    Facilitator’s Retreat — 3rd – 5th June ’26

    Weds 3rd June (5:00 pm) – Friday 5th June (12:00 pm)

    Bella Mehta and Brian Watts invite fellow facilitators to join them and make purposeful space to reset, refresh, and reconnect with themselves and with others.

    This event will be a meeting of minds and hearts for those who focus on facilitation in their work and can find themselves needing a rest to recharge, without a goal above self-care and renewal.

    This is an opportunity to gather in community and respite. A loose structure will allow solitude, walking and talking, and lightly facilitated group activity, including bodywork, imagework, and other creative forms of expression.

    This retreat offers a restorative pause from the demands of facilitation work.

    “As group facilitators, we face the repeating demands that our work with groups and teams place upon us. At times, we can feel a little ‘bent out of shape’ and intuitively long for a little respite and an opportunity to reset and refresh. We don’t need to attend another course, we don’t need coaching, we just need some purposeful space.”

    If this sounds familiar, why not join this short retreat in the enriching woodlands of Hazel Hill Wood.

    Our secluded and nurturing place allows the time to do the work you need to do, working at your own pace. Often that will be deep and gentle, insightful and restorative, attending to yourself in a holistic way.

    “We retreat in order to advance, and anticipate our facilitation (and our souls) will be refreshed and enriched as a result of being with ourselves… with others… in the forest.”

    Full details and booking
  • Midweek Reset Day — Wed 15th April ’26

    Midweek Reset Day — Wed 15th April ’26

    Spring Chaffinch by Jon Lee

    Feel good in the wood with Charley and Nick

    Book your ticket

    Part of a new initiative to encourage everyone out into the woods for wellbeing and woodland skills, our “Feel Good in the Wood” sessions focus on both the practical and the mindful to help you find your best way to reset. Wherever you are with your week’s To Do list, this is a day to focus on looking after you.

    Pause, re-focus & recharge

    We’ll start the day with hot drinks and a mindful woodland wander with Charley. These events are led by the season, so each one is unique!

    Nick will then lead a Mindfulness activity designed to give you techniques that you can take home as part of your daily toolkit to pause and reset, wherever you are in your working week, and whatever that work looks like for you.

    A hearty and healthy vegetarian lunch will be provided. Let us know about any dietary requirements on booking and we’ll do our best to provide for you.

    Gathering around the campfire

    In the afternoon, we’ll teach you how to light a fire without matches, then spend some time gathered around a campfire. We’ll let you decide if this is time to chat, or if you would like to practice meditating through gazing at the flames.

    We’ll finish up the day with some gentle mindful movement. The aim is for you to leave feeling relaxed and rejuvenated!

    Photos by Jon Lee

  • The Growth Experience Welcome Retreat — 20th to 22nd March ’26

    The Growth Experience Welcome Retreat — 20th to 22nd March ’26

    Friday 20th to Sunday 22nd March 2026.

    We’re delighted that Jannine Barron has chosen Hazel Hill Wood for the welcoming retreat for those who choose one of the in-person paths of her Growth Experience offering for personal and regenerative business growth. A regenerative business model that unites wisdom with action for small businesses.

    The ‘quiet beginning’ to a transformative nine-month journey with Jannine and a community of others sharing the experience, this retreat sets the foundation for everything to come. “Rooting your leadership in nature, presence and purpose”.

    “There is a quiet power in beginnings.
    A hush before the first step.
    A breath in the dark.”

    Full details, tiers, and the opportunity to sign up for updates and to apply are all here.

    Accommodation will be in our Oak House and Hideaway buildings, while the 70-acre woodland will act as “guide, teacher, and mirror, offering deep wisdom, ancient rhythms, and the quiet intelligence that helps us find our way.”

    We love that Jannine sees the wood as the additional facilitator and core member of the community that it is, and we hope this is the beginning of a wonderful journey for this 2026 Cohort.

    In Jannine’s words
    “Hazel Hill isn’t just where we gather. It’s our co-facilitator, our guide. Our grounding.

    At the woodland’s heart stands the Oak House, which will be our soulful, off-grid base. Hand-built from timber grown on-site, it invites us into a slower rhythm of living: grounded, communal, and nourishingly simple.

    You’ll sleep surrounded by forest. Wake with birdsong. Cook, eat, and reflect alongside others walking this shared path.

    Hazel Hill isn’t curated. It’s not polished.

    It’s an ecosystem where emergence and intuition guide the way.

    Not a venue, but a sanctuary.

    A living classroom for our deepest work.”

  • Woodcraft for Wellbeing – Bread and Baskets — Thu 19th Mar ’26

    Woodcraft for Wellbeing – Bread and Baskets — Thu 19th Mar ’26

    In this session, you’ll be learning how to weave spiral baskets from willow. You’ll also learn how to make damper bread, cooking on the campfire together in our beautiful ancient woodland. This is Polly’s second adult workshop of the year, designed to support wellbeing through nature connection and the opportunity to learn a new skill or craft.

    Full details and pricing

    If the weather is wet, the workshop will take place in the shelter of a roundhouse in the woods, or indoors in our woodland classroom.

  • Woodcraft for Wellbeing – Mindful Whittling – Sun 22nd Feb ’26

    Woodcraft for Wellbeing – Mindful Whittling – Sun 22nd Feb ’26

    Join Polly for a wellbeing-centred event for adults. Learn a new skill while connecting with nature in the peaceful surroundings of our ancient woodland. In this session, you’ll learn how to carve greenwood with a knife, and try your hand at making pegs, butter knives and mushrooms.

    Full details and booking