What's On

What's on At Birkhill House...

At Birkhill House offers 19 hours of fully funded opportunities to get involved with our animals, crafting workshops and gardens. The full programme can be found below.


Additionally we offer creative workshops for children and adults. If the schedule doesn't suit, visit our Crafting Directory for more options.


We also offer wellbeing sessions incorporating animal assisted activities and creative pursuits. Visit here for more details.

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 are absolutely delighted to have been asked to manage the raw fleece market at Tangled Galashiels Fibre Festival 2025 for a second year running!

We have rescued and been donated so much fleece already since the last Tangled and have been sorting and categorising like crazy.


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. Join us from Tuesday 19th November (11am-1pm) as we begin to look ahead to Tangled 2025!

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 & spinning wheel group: 6-8pm

No session Tuesday 15th October 2024. Last session of the term is Tuesday 17th December 2024.

Friday open session: 10am-12noon

No session Friday 18th October 2024. Last session of the term is Friday 20th December 2024.

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.

The Tuesday evening sessions will also be open to fibre spinners, keen to gather and get some spinning done together in the company of other spinners. We have eight wheels here (three Ashfords, a Kromski, a Louet, a double treadle, a Hebridean and an old flax upright), which are all available for use - or feel free to bring your own. We also have a lot of different sheep fleeces here in our growing fleece library, as well as our own alpaca. These are competitively priced and we sell them alongside prepared rovings, some of which have been acid-dyed and some of which have been dyed with homegrown materials from our natural dye garden.

* Please note: the spinning sessions are not teacher-led; they are for experienced spinners looking for company whilst they spin.

Makers Group

Free, block booking necessary (see below)

Wednesdays 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 block starts on Wednesday 23rd October 2024 and will focus on prepping for Christmas! We will be needle felting, folding origami, jewellery making and creating wreaths.

If you fancy turning over a leaf in the new year, the next block runs from 8th January to 12th February 2025.

Check back soon for details on future blocks.

Garden Project

Free, block booking necessary (see below)

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!

Starting with seed categorisation and list-making, the first session will incorporate the making of a simple book to track jobs, planting schedules and more. Throughout this first four-week block (23rd October to 13th November), you will help to batten down the hatches for winter in the polytunnel, veg beds and dye garden. There will also be a bit of time spent processing some of our harvested materials and preparing some for kits and packs to be sold in our shop.

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 Club Social for Adults

Free, block booking necessary (see below)

Thursdays 5:30-7:30pm

Like to doodle, draw, collage or paint? Bring along your sketch pad and enter the flow state while you focus on doodling and drawing in our creative spaces, warmed by the fire and surrounded by friendly faces. Whether your interest happens to be in meditative mark making, journaling, fine drawing, lettering, zentangle or collage art, all skills and interests are welcome.

  

While there is no dedicated weekly instruction of particular art techniques, prompts/themes will be provided if anyone feels like they need something to start with and the first session of the block will include the opportunity to make a simple booklet that can be used for drawing throughout the rest of the block.

 

Light refreshments are also included, and participants will have access to an assortment of art materials from those donated to us. Hand bound sketch and art journals, as well as handmade natural paints and inks, will also available to purchase from our in-house shop should you need more supplies.

 

The current block meets every Thursday from 5:30 to 7:30. You are welcome to come for the whole block or drop in when you can, but in both cases, booking would be appreciated to enable us to keep track of numbers and prep for the day.

 

Block 3 Sessions are as follows:

November 7th (special booklet session), 14th, 21st & 28th

December 5th, 12th & 19th

 

Block 4 Sessions are as follows:

January 9th (special booklet session), 16th, 23rd & 30th

February 6th & 13th

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.

FREE, ages 11+, 10 spaces max, booking necessary

Block 5: Friday 25th October, 1st & 8th November 2024

Block 6: Friday 22nd & 29th November, 6th & 13th December 2024


contact

Birkhill House

Earlston TD4 6AR

email & phone

lara_armitage@hotmail.com

07779 339 653