Wild Week at Heligan
Should you happen to be down Cornwall way this May bank holiday, head to The Lost Gardens of Heligan where you and the kids, aka Heligan Wild Things, can help build a huge insect hotel and work on your outdoor survival skills
From May 29 - 6 June 2021, The Lost Gardens of Heligan is hosting lots of fun events focusing on the need to protect the natural world.
Heligan is poised to take on the challenge to create an enormous, World Record-breaking, insect hotel. Insects are crucial to life and Cornish bugs need a new hotel to provide them with a safe place to shelter and hibernate. The current World Record stands at 81.26m³ (2869.66 ft³), so the team will need help from as many Heligan Wild Things as they can.
Elsewhere, visitors can discover their survival skills. Canoe Cornwall will be teaching how to throw an axe like a woodsman (..presumably from a canoe??), and to take aim and fire with target practice lessons (open to all ages). Bushcraft skills such as fire striking and rope making will also be being taught and children can make their own Wild Thing wrist band too.
On the wild outdoor assault course adventurers will be tested on their wild animal instincts - can they fly like an owl through the trees, scramble through a fox’s den, or hop like a frog? Or indeed balance over the large outdoor play space like a beautiful butterfly?
The Wild feasting tent will be open for wild food tasting sessions – which includes insect custard and crunchy critters, as well as BBQ specials and other garden delights. Heligan chefs will be on hand to surprise and delight the curious (and fearless) and to discuss the wonders of foraging, wild game, and sustainable food sources of the future.
Heligan will be open daily - 11am to 5pm - throughout Wild Week* (29 May – 6 June) with visitors invited to begin their by exploring the Giants Head play trail, following the route to East Lawn where face painting will be taking place, before setting out on their day of wild activities.
*Pre booking is essential
