"Paleoquest offers a real insight and you can take the challenge as far as you can.  I've always wanted to create fire from rubbing wood and we also built some really effective shelters which we tested!  My kids enjoy the adventure and it gives them a unique experience with responsibility.   We also like the warrior school, enjoying the martial art for exercise and sport."

Ian Murgatroyd and gang

Thank you so much for providing a fantastic experience. Everyone’s still talking about it!

You definitely have something great to offer young people.

Sharon McClellan: Head Teacher

Totally, totally brilliant. It was like my first real time in the country and I now can do stuff that hardly anyone can. Again!

Yasmin: Newcastle

There’s just got to be a way to merge the way Hunter-Gatherers live with our way of life, it would make everything so much easier to handle and simpler. We wouldn’t have to work so hard for so much stuff that we don’t need that falls apart just after the warranty expires anyway – so you have to work more to replace it. It’s mad isn’t it!

Jack Lane, Youth Group Leader

Now I feel naked and unprepared without a spear – even when I’m shopping. How can a stick be so amazingly useful? I laughed at the instructor – she had a spear in one hand and her mobile in the other. She’s probably got it right though.

Angie F, Galashiels

“A superb, easy to follow and comprehensive course.  Since starting my training, I can't walk anywhere without checking walls, verges and trees for possible sources of food, materials and medicines.”

R. Wilkins: Survival Student.

Slowly it dawned on me that the countryside was just as they’d told me: a supermarket, a pharmacy and a hardware shop. It’s hard to describe the way everything changes.

Ian 38

Hi Everyone

I hope you have recovered from a brilliant job running the camp.

We had a wonderful time - the mileage of which has stretched from the anticipation of sleeping outside, to the fun of being there, the thrill of seeing it on TV. The boys got three badges at cubs from what they had learned.

Anthea Summers: Group Leader

“The sense of responsibility instilled in participants as they gather wood for the fire that will heat them - and the shelter to protect them from the elements - through a November night is invaluable. The Palaeoquest experience encourages team work through essential, practical activities in a unique way. "

“I have rarely seen a group bond so quickly, young people use their initiative so readily and so enthusiastically adapt to the demands made of them. Transferable skills by the gourd-full!"

Jim Gordon: Teacher: Dumfries High Shool

Since we were Hunter-Gatherers the world has changed faster than we have. No wonder life seems confusing. Going to Palaeoquest is like being a fish put back into water.

‘Jock’  56

We really had to work hard to protect each other. Some of us were being hungry wolves. It was really fun but we had to try lots of times to get it right. The instructor told us we needed to work out a system so we did and we took turns to make it work better.

G Mackenzie. Castle Douglas

Each of us younger people took a turn with an instructor to keep the fire going in the night. There were animals moving about and owls and beautiful luminous fungus. I keep thinking about that time, I want to do it again.

Pete English 9 and Dad: Survival students

This would be brilliant for a whole gap year, who’ll fund it for me? I’d do it for TV, anything!

Carla Morrison, 19

"It wasn't experiencing the Stone-Age that came as a shock - it was going back to modern life."

Aiden Aston: Student

In school I am tense and find it hard, it’s easier to learn stuff when you are outdoors and it’s fun, you feel great.

Liam 14

I was astonished at how few things you actually need for life in comparison to how much we are told we need.

Morag 18

II was amazed, all you need is a knife and they are easy to make. From that first tool springs everything you need.

Ceris at 16 (now an Instructor)

I think it would be nice to live for a whole year like this, I’d really love to.

Tina P: 15

I thought it would be hard to do or cold and uncomfortable. I can’t remember if it was, I was having too much fun to notice.

Ali 17 Dumfries

I learned a lot about living in the wilderness, but I learned more about me.

James Lee, Student

Experiencing Hunter-Gatherer life is like being let out of a cage for the first time. You know you’ve got to return to your ordinary life – but now my cage door will always remain open!

Hilary 43 Carlisle

At Palaeoquest I worked out why I’d done badly at school – even though I knew I was clever.

P Wilson 22

We made traps and put chocolate in them and dared each other to get the chocolate. I was caught twice but it was worth it!

Mick Yale and Family

At first I thought my world was being turned upside-down. Actually it was being turned the right way up. I can’t believe all the things we did and how easy it was.

Michael P: Glasgow

When we were doing the hunting training I really tried to do it well. I began to see what it was really like for them

Josh ‘The Spear’ 13

Then the group chose me to be their Warrior – the one they would choose to protect them from animals. It was one of the best moments of my life, it meant they trusted me.

Amy: Wigtown

Then you realise that you are not just in the country but you’ve become a part of the wildlife. Then you see that we still are – but don’t realise it.

Matt McD: Carlisle

I’ve done tons of bush-craft stuff and courses but Palaeoquest goes way further.

Liz: Lockerbie

… a boy in our class that I usually avoid, he was suddenly full of fun and even helping people. He picked things up so fast! It was weird. He was showing me how to do things. He never does anything in class but just then he was the best.

Sarah; Newton Stewart

The instructor made some extraordinary claims. I did some research to find out more. It confirmed that, given the right environment, humans are naturally supportive, caring, co-operative and non-violent. Seeing the amount of greed, loneliness, mistrust, prejudice, and violence in us and our society you can see just how twisted our ‘civilisation’ has made us. But the skills the instructors teach really do work and you can make changes.

M Sloan: Glasgow

The games, we couldn’t stop playing, adults and children - until sheer exhaustion made us drop out.

C Mackie

To live in a world where you can get all you want, make and mend everything, know how everything works. We can’t even imagine a life like that, we don’t even have a word in our language for it. I can’t make or fix cars, plumbing or even the kid’s toys. Does anyone really understand how a computer chip works and can always get one to do what they want? It’s such a relief to know that you don’t actually need any of that stuff and there’s a world (outdoors) where I’m not out of my depth.

Pete Wilson: Glasgow

It’s like archaeology with a real time machine.

Aleigh McDonald: 14

It’s like knowing that if civilisation ends you’ll be OK, even better off in some ways.

Julie Townsend, Survival Student

It was all so easy to understand and interesting, there was nothing complicated. Thanks, we’re coming back for the seashore part of the course.

Jim Ellis and family

We go for more walks together and discuss all the things we find and gather. We sometimes carry things home and experiment with them. It makes a difference when you know what you are looking at. The way we look at things now is really very different.

Terry Holland and Family

It’s all so interesting, never boring. There’s always something new to do or make or eat.

Sally & Paul Lane, Edinburgh

It was learning to make a bow that really did it for me. It’s hard enough to do it, I try to imagine the genius that went into inventing them. I can’t stop making them! Turning a stick into a spring is both relaxing and exciting at the same time.

R Graham, Survival Student

Then I realised that I had been just staring at the clouds for ages – I don’t do that in my ordinary life – there isn’t time.

S Stewart, Lanark.

We had a great time, learnt a lot and really enjoyed ourselves.  I have enough inspiration to try some camps in the remote hill forests.

  Ian Murgatroyd and Family