What's On
What's on At Birkhill House...
We offer a fully funded programme of opportunities to get involved with our animals, crafting workshops and gardens. Scroll further down this page for more information.
Additionally, we offer creative workshops for children and adults as well as a bespoke Crafting Directory. We also offer wellbeing sessions incorporating animal assisted activities and creative pursuits. Click on one of the four button below for more information.
Crafting Directory
Animal Experiences
Fully Funded Weekly Workshops
Volunteering
Mondays 9am-1pm
Our aim is to provide clear benefit to the volunteers who help with our animal care, crafting preparations, gardening and general smallholding upkeep. Being outside, communing with the animals, lending creative flair in support of the programme here, helping to keep spaces clean, coming up with storage solutions and repairing tools and equipment are all ways to engage and take away a sense of pride and accomplishment.
Find out more about our Volunteering programme and download an application form here:
Woolly Tuesdays
Free, no booking necessary - just drop in!
Tuesdays 11am-1pm
We were absolutely delighted to manage the raw fleece market at Tangled Galashiels Fibre Festival 2025 for a second year running.
Our Lottery-funded community sessions focus on fibre prep and sharing traditional skills and techniques. We have revamped the format and changed the day & time to accommodate participants' schedules.
We will focus on incoming breeds each week. This will entail sorting, skirting, washing and preparing little bits of fibre for experimenting. We will go over picking, carding and combing fibres, too.
Knitting, crochet, weaving, spinning and other, finer work may factor in as well.
Open Crafting Sessions for Adults
Free, no booking necessary - just drop in!
Tuesday open session: 6-8pm
These sessions are hosted weekly.
Friday open session: 10am-12noon
These sessions are hosted weekly.
The open sessions are for members of our community who would like to bring along a crafting project to work on, share a laugh & a cuppa and generally soak up the creative vibe here At Birkhill House. We encourage attendees to breathe life back into neglected projects or take the plunge and start something new.
Makers Group
Free, block booking necessary (see below)
Wednesdays 10am-12:30pm
Thursdays 10am-12:30pm
The Makers Group was created in response to a need identified for opportunities to learn new skills whilst also helping to support our not-for-profit community interest company.
What we noticed about some visiting groups throughout 2022 and 2023 is that the social aspect of creating around the table and the skills developed during that process seem almost to outshine the finished products themselves. Visitors were keen to soak up the relaxed atmosphere, share experiences and learn together. And everyone was delighted when they felt that work they had done here could also somehow benefit our project by generating revenue that will go back into supporting the programme here.
So we have introduced six-to-eight-week blocks in which participants can learn two or three new techniques/skills together, create items that will end up on the shop shelves here and hopefully make new connections with like-minded folk. Tea/coffee and lunch are included and there is also a small bursary to help with travel expenses.
The next blocks run from:
Wednesdays 17th & 24th September and 1st & 8th October 2025
Wednesdays 22nd & 29th October and 5th, 12th & 19th November 2025
Wednesdays 3rd, 10th & 17th December 2025
Thursdays 18th & 25th September and 2nd & 9th October 2025
Thursdays 23rd & 30th October and 6th, 13th & 20th November 2025
Thursdays 4th, 11th & 18th December 2025
Check back soon for details on future blocks.
Garden Project
Free, block booking necessary (see below)
Please note: No sessions Wednesday 2nd & 9th July
Wednesdays 1:30-4pm
If you have ever been curious about our natural dye garden and some of the other horticultural opportunities here at Birkhill then this is the group for you!
Even in the depths of winter, there are plenty of garden jobs to sort. Harvest inventory and decisions about what to use and what to save, lists of seeds to catalogue and buy, schedules for preparing beds and the polytunnel, planting schematics, etc all need some thinking time. And there are also some outdoor tidying jobs that need doing too, like cleaning up the polytunnel and cutting back scraggly plants.
Find out more about our gardens here.
Come share your expertise or learn from our staff, volunteers and other Garden Project participants. Booking necessary.
Art & Animal Sessions
Fridays 3-5pm
Come join us At Birkhill House for a block of sessions of creativity and animal care. Sessions last two hours and will start with some arty fun and then move on to meeting some of the resident animals that help make Birkhill so special. Snack included. Fully funded through the National Lottery. Each block will will offer different creative activities so there will be no duplication for young people wishing to sign up for multiple blocks.
These sessions are made possible by a generous grant from the National Lottery Community Fund.
Next blocks:
Block 11: Fridays 18th & 25th July, 1st & 8th August 2025
Block 12: Fridays 29th August, 5th, 12th, 19th & 26th September 2025
Block 13: Fridays 10th, 17th, 24th, 31st October 2025
Block 14: Fridays 14th, 21st, 28th November, 5th & 12th December 2025
FREE, ages 11+, 10 spaces max, booking necessary
Spinning Group
Sundays, monthly 12noon-4pm
Join us for a monthly gathering for experienced spinners to bring their projects and spin in company.
The group is drop-in but we do ask a donation (pay-what-you-can). Bring your own wheel and spinning project.
Please note: this is not a teaching group. This is for seasoned spinners who would like to spin in good company.
Next dates:
19th October 2025
16th November 2025
18th January 2026
22nd February 2026
22nd March 2026
