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ancient technology centre Craft courses and workshops 2025
Our Mission
At the Ancient Technology Centre we work hard to provide a range of heritage craft courses from a number of skilled tutors.
Our 2024 season included Medieval Illuminations, willow basketry, Prehistoric pottery, Celtic woodcarving, Bronze Age basketry, Stone-Age Amber jewellery, Roman Knife Making, Viking Deer Butchery, Sprang and Cooking Like A Viking.
Our 2025 season includes our regular heritage crafters and some extra-special whole-weekend crafting events.
Deer Butchery, Cookery & Bark Tanning Course (18+ only )
3 day Deer Butchey, Cooking & Sheepskin Tanning Course
Fri, 3 Apr 2026 - Mon, 6 Apr 2026
Experts Hamish from Pictavia Leather and Craig the Saxon Forager will tutor you for a three day Viking age Butchery, cooking and hide tanning course at The Ancient Technology Centre, Dorset. Overnight stay in the Longhouse is included - Just bring your own mattress and bedding.
Food will be a mixture of historical and modern, all cooked over an open fire with tutorage from Craig aka The Saxon Forager.
You will be expected to help prepare food and wash up in between hide tanning.
Your course includes:
- deer butchery and skinning
- cooking and eating like a Viking!
-learning ancient tanning methods practiced in early medieval Europe
-learning about which barks to harvest for tanning
-producing beautifully tanned hides which you can use to make rugs or bedrolls for historical re-enactment
-evenings around the fire in the longhouse
For more details click below to see their Eventbrite
Heritage skills weekend 11th & 12th April 2026
courses on offer 11th & 12th April
Join Ancient Technology Centre expert guest tutor for a weekend of heritage skills courses.
Vanessa Bunton - PUKU B -
Saturday 11th April - Prehistoric Amber Jewellery
Sunday 12th April - Coiled basketry workshop
Heritage Textiles Weekend 30th & 31st May 2026
Join our Castle Hill Heritage Skills CIC expert tutors who will teach you four heritage textile crafts over the course of the weekend.
Sally Pointer - Sally Pointer Heritage Education
Vanessa Bunton -Puku B Historic Experiences
Jalea Ward - Slightly Warped Looms
Nicole DeRushie - Grounded History
You will have 4 sessions over the mornings and afternoons of both Saturday 30th May and Sunday 31st May 2026
These will all be in a heritage textile skill such as:
- Net Making
- Back Strap weaving
- Wet Felting Techniques
- Making whorls and Drop Spinning
Tickets are £215.00 for the weekend tutoring and evening activity (TBC).
The ticket price includes a unique bag full of all the supplies needed for the workshops, a collection of resources unavailable as a package anywhere else. You will have around 2 and a half hours with each textile skill and tutor to learn the history and have a go yourself.
On the Saturday evening we will gather for a communal meal (additional fee TBC). And you can buy a ticket to stay overnight in the Longhouse (additional fee TBC).
Tickets available through Castle Hill Heritage Skills CIC Ticket Tailor page, on sale from 1st December 2025.
Events which may run in 2026 - watch this space!
Stone Age Ancestral Skills October 2026
Join Castle Hill Heritage Skills expert tutors for whole weekend of Deer butchery and using the whole animal using prehistoric tools and methods.
Learn to make tools and cook the Stone Age way!
Our experts are:
- Sarah Day and associates: Memma the Cave Woman and Prehistoric Experiences Stone Age school visits.
You will have 4 sessions over the mornings and afternoons of both Saturday and Sunday. These will involve using Stone Age tools and methods to butcher a deer. You will tan skins and use parts of the animal for cordage and tools. You will also cook and preserve parts of the deer in Stone Age methods and recipes.
Weekend structure:
- Skinning and butchery. You will work on a deer to learn how to butcher for meat, skins and tools.
- Basic tanning. Using skins in various stages of the tanning process you will learn how to preserve a skin and turn it into leathers.
- Bones and antlers and tendons. Using parts of the animal to create tools and cordage.
- Stone Age cooking. Using a fire pit over and some foraged plants you will create a range of dishes to enjoy with your fellow attendees.
Tickets are £215.00 for the weekend tutoring and evening talk. You will have around 2 and a half hours with each skill and tutor to learn the history and have a go yourself.
Stay in the Viking Longhouse for an additional fee (TBC)
our heritage skills partners
Castle Hill Heritage Skills CIC
Our partners at Castle Hill Heritage Skills CIC hire the Ancient Technology Centre site to run heritage experiences.
As a not-for-profit company all profit from Castle Hill Heritage Skills CIC events goes straight into the ongoing maintenance and reconstruction of buildings at the Ancient Technology Centre. This is such a special and unique site we hope to help preserve it for future generations to visit.