Description
I’ll be joining the team at Cashel Native Forest Centre on the side of Loch Lomond for their autumn celebration of our amazing native Scottish woodland.
The Cashel Bash will celebrate our native forest and the communities (both human and non-human!) around it with a big autumn party! It will include foraging, craft stalls, nature table talks, glow worm info and activities , Wildlife Wanders, Scottish reptile information and loads of traditional games with prizes!
Contributors include the RSPB, Scottish Badgers, Galloway Wild Foods, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, and Glow Worms UK, Plus live folk music including a bonus gig from folk sensation, PlaidSong at 06:30pm.
We will pay homage to Cashel Forest’s e ‘champion’ crab apple tree of UK and Ireland, which measure a magnificent 4.1 metres circumfrence!
I will be there to talk about foraging and the deep nature connection that it brings. From 1.30 pm I’ll have a big display of autumn wild foods, including some remarkable fungi. Come and say hi, chat foraging, and explore the ethnobotany of Scotland’s native woodlands.
I’ll also be running a fungi ID clinic, so do bring along good samples of that mushroom you have been puzzling over, and i’ll try to identify it for you. (If you just bring photos, please read this first!)
I’ll also be offering a short 1hr foraging walk that is free but requires booking as places are limited – contact Cashel Forest to book. The time of the walk is not yet confirmed, but some time between 3pm and 5pm. I’m also hanging around to do a full foraging walk on Sunday – see here for details and booking.
Bring along your fungi and I will attempt to identify them
Cashel is situated 10 minutes drive north of Balmaha on the road to Rowardennan, under 1 hour’s drive from Glasgow or Stirling.
Admission for the day is £5 – please follow the link to book with Cashel Forest.
Booking for this event is ONLY via Cashel Forest Centre, please do not contact Galloway Wild Foods, as I will only send you to there!
More information about the centre and its work, plus links to ticket purchasing and further information can be found here.
Beautiful views across Loch Lomond from Cashel Forest
Please read the following information before booking a Galloway Wild Foods event.
EVENT LOCATION
The general event location is provided in the event description, and in your booking confirmation. This location is usually an approximate location (eg. “Within 30 minutes drive of XXX”), so that you can consider and plan the area you need to get to prior to booking.
For general information on visiting Galloway for events, including recommended accommodation, see here.
Detailed event information, including exact meeting place, will be sent to the email address you provide on booking in the week prior to the event. This allows me to account for the often fickle nature of wild plants and fungi and select the optimum location for our walk – which can be especially important for fungi forays.
It is important that you add mark@gallowaywildfoods.com and markleewilliams@googlemail.com to your email contacts/whitelist or the information email may get caught in your spam filters. This is extremely important if you have a .hotmail email account as they are notorious for having very sensitive spam filters.
The detailed event information email will be sent in the week before the event – sometimes as little as 3 days prior to the event. There is no need to badger me for it – I will send it! If you haven’t received it by within 3 days of the event, check your spam folders. If it isn’t there drop me an email – mark@gallowaywildfoods.com.
CANCELLATION POLICY
Any cancellation must be sent by email to mark@gallowaywildfoods.com, quoting the event title, date and order number (viewable on your booking confirmation.
Galloway Wild Foods is under no obligation to refund, rebook or reinstate vouchers for no-shows or cancellations within 14 days of the event. If I can refill the place at short notice, I will pay a full refund less 10% to cover admin & PayPal fees, or send a voucher to the full value of the tickets. Please state your preference in your cancellation email.
If you cancel or amend a booking giving 14 days or more notice, you will receive a full refund less 5% to cover Paypal fees, or a Gift Voucher to the full value of your booking.Please state your preference in your cancellation email. Information on using gift vouchers is here.
In the unlikely event that an event is cancelled by GWF you will receive full refund, exchange or voucher.
Galloway Wild Foods is not liable for any travel, accommodation or other costs you might incur if an event has to be cancelled. We recommend that you take out travel insurance if your financial commitment to travel/accommodation is substantial.
The only weather that causes events to be cancelled is dangerous wind. In these instances you will be notified as early as possible.
INFORMATION YOU PROVIDE ON BOOKING
Please provide the following information for all members of your party in the “Additional Information” box on the payment page :
- Relevant medical conditions
- Mobility issues
- Eating restrictions – differentiating between preferences (e.g. vegetarian), intolerances (e.g. gluten intolerance) and serious allergies (e.g. peanut allergy), and clearly stating if an allergy is potentially life-threatening. All requirements can usually be catered for, but these differentiations are required for risk assessments.
It is your responsibility to provide accurate information about all members of your party. If you write “None” in the additional information box, I will assume all attendees are omnivorous and have no relevant medical conditions or mobility issues.
All information is kept private, securely, and in line with GDPR – more information on this here.
WHAT TO BRING ON A WALK
Please ensure that all members of your party come suitably dressed for the weather, season and event.
On all walks, for your comfort and safety, walking boots/wellies, waterproofs and spare clothes are necessary. I always recommend wellies for coastal foraging events – you are likely to get wet feet if you don’t have them!
Please bring your own drinking water.
Your learning and enjoyment may also benefit from bringing a camera, notebook, field guide, small basket/cloth bag. Feel free to bring along any of your own wild food preparations to share and talk about.
DOGS
Most GWF events are suitable for one dog on a lead.
Even on walks that are suitable for dogs on leads, because we tend to move very slowly as we learn and forage, dogs often get bored/agitated/cold by the slow pace. One thing we absolutely can’t have is an unhappy noisy dog on an event.
Where events are suitable for dogs, I restrict it to one per event as there is no way of knowing whether dogs will get on with one another. Dog places are offered on a first-come-first-served basis.
With all this in mind, if you would like to bring a dog, please note this on the booking form in the “Additional Information” box (along with human dietary, mobility, medical info) and I will get contact you to let you know suitability and availability.
If being able to bring your dog is a deal-breaker for you, please email me before you book.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Further information on Galloway Wild Foods Terms and Conditions can be found here.
If you have specific questions that are not answered here, please contact mark on mark@gallowaywildfoods.com, or if you are running late on the day.
