Experience Weeks are a week-long immersion into afforestation, woodland creation and maintenance. Join us to learn about and connect with nature. Help to restore biodiversity, regenerate the land, and in doing so, improve your wellbeing and engagement with the natural world.
Experience Week is a cumulation of planting, managing, learning, connecting and living. Trees and living together are the focus of the week. It is a pretty hard-core week of living and working outside.
After this week you will walk away with skills in native Irish tree identification from seed to sapling to mature tree, ability to propagate native tree seeds, learn the appropriate species for different environments, and so much more. Through education and the promotion of greater awareness, we look to provide a fresh perspective on nature conservation and restoration in Ireland, inspiring a more meaningful connection to our natural environment.
The week includes ancient woodland walk, a guided walk through Hometree’s Illaun continuous cover forestry restoration and demonstration site, horticultural classes and seed workshops, Deep Adaptation workshop, and so much more.
A national study on nature connection found that “if you have a deep connection with a particular place, it is more likely that you might feel moved to do something if it is under threat.” The study highlighted that a sense of connectedness to nature was enhanced by participating in community-based environmental education and citizen science initiatives. By deepening connection to our natural world in an engaged, active or immersive way through direct learning experiences, Hometree, enhances awareness, empathy, environmental concern, and supports sustainable actions. We encourage people to act locally and think globally. Hometree’s educational programmes build on emerging research in Ireland and seek to improve the health and wellbeing of the people of Ireland.
Our next experience week is Autumn Experience Week, 16 - 20th September, 2024, Ennistymon, Co. Clare.
Testimonials
“The Hometree Autumn Experience was a wonderful and practical immersion into nature restoration. We were a lovely group of like-minded people passionate about the environment and hungry to learn more. The week is balanced between volunteer work and field visits/classroom sessions. The Hometree team is so open and welcoming. Within a day we were already feeling part of a special family. More importantly, the experience was very inspiring and, in our case, helped my wife, Aideen and I, in our own plans for restoring woodlands. I can’t recommend it enough. The value of the education and new friendships made far exceeded the cost of taking part.”
Fred, Nadur Nua, Autumn Experience Week, 2023
“I whole heartedly recommend doing Hometree's Experience Week to anyone who is considering it.
The Hometree team will give you a really warm welcome and support you throughout the week. The wonderful mix of talks, site visits and practical work provides for a really rich, interesting and educational experience. Spending the week with a group of people, from all walks of life, with a shared love of nature in the beautiful Burren was a great pleasure. It was a truly rejuvenating and inspiring experience.”
Aoifa, Autumn Experience Week, 2023
“The entire Experience Week at Hometree felt like a slice of magic. I never could have expected what a special experience it would turn out to be! It was a week of sharing chats over morning coffees (and the best porridge of my life!) with a bunch of people I felt instantly connected to, spending the morning outside on the land learning from Mitch, doing jobs that felt purposeful and busy in the best way, lunch-times spent eating delicious food prepared by Caolann. Afternoons were for learning, exploring, discussing and reconnecting with nature with Ray, Matt, Lia & Baiba. I've been describing it as "the week I didn't know I needed" and I am so grateful for this magical little spot in the hills of Ennistymon & the people I met there!”
Sarah, Autumn Experience Week, 2022
