Hazel Hill Wood

Category: Past Events

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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