Duncan MacLeod-Rhodes
Chief Instructor & Founder

Duncan has always held the countryside, its inhabitants and the skills of indigenous tribes in his heart and Wild Connections is the culmination of this life long study and passion.  His natural teaching abilities, absolute commitment to providing the highest quality instruction and generosity of spirit make him an ideal guide to introduce you to the joys of the natural world.

With careers advice from a City School, he did not believe his passion could become his vocation and trained as a Design Engineer. As he gained in knowledge and experience he began training and managing others and learnt the art and the value of helping people to face challenges and expand their knowledge and skill base, broadening their view of themselves and their abilities.  Weekends were spent outdoors with a preference for open Canadian canoeing, enabling a unique view of the countryside and wildlife.

Eventually, weekends and holidays spent following his heart were not enough and in 2004 he gave up engineering to attend the NCFE Bushcraft Instructor and Woodcraft Courses at Plumpton College, run by Woodcraft School, achieving a higher award for demonstrating exceptional ability in the field of bushcraft skills and instruction.

He also attained the new BCU Level 1 Coach qualification (canoe and kayak) and 3 Star Open Canoe; qualified as a GNAS Archery Instructor; completed an Intermediate Tracking Course and spent every waking minute learning as much as possible about the art of Bushcraft and the flora and fauna of the British countryside.

Duncan is highly regarded and has been employed on a freelance basis by one of the top Bushcraft Schools in the UK since 2005.  He also works freelance for Somerset District Council as well as commercial corporate and public activity providers.  In his spare time he continues to hone his knowledge and skills in woodcraft, including bow making.

“I believe that the more we understand our environment and the plants and animals that live in it, the more respect we will have for it and the more we will want to protect it.  Every encounter with nature brings new insight, even to those who are extremely knowledgeable, and I believe that the day I think I know everything there is to know is the day I’m not looking hard enough.”

Duncan has been CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) cleared by Woodcraft School and Somerset District Council and is qualified to Advanced Explorer standard in First Aid, as recognised by the Mountain Leader Training Board (training exceeds the recommendations for First Aid at Work).

Heath Dawson
Guest Instructor

Wild Connections are honoured to have the opportunity to introduce you to Heath who is a lifelong naturalist with a sense of adventure and a thirst for wild places. He has an incredible affinity with wildlife and an amazing ability to walk through woodland without disturbing even the most skittish creatures.

Heath studied alongside Duncan at Plumpton College, also achieving a higher award for demonstrating exceptional ability in the field of bushcraft skills and instruction.  He also has several years youth work experience for Somerset County Council.

He’s committed to providing a high quality of teaching and to ensuring that his students go away with solid and practical bushcraft skills and an enhanced appreciation of the natural world.  This is a man who knows whereof he speaks, as he spent over a year living in a Tipi on a nature reserve. When he talks about living comfortably in the outdoors, you can be sure that he knows exactly what he’s talking about!

When he’s not working for us or running his own courses he’s teaching bushcraft and nature awareness for organisations like the Charterhouse Centre-on-Mendip, The Peat Moors centre and the RSPB out on the Somerset Levels.

“Wilderness cannot be pointed to as just a place on the map - it’s a state of mind, as well as a place for adventure, reflection, observation and growth”.

Heath has been CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) cleared by Somerset District Council and is qualified to Advanced Explorer standard in First Aid, as recognised by the Mountain Leader Training Board (training exceeds the recommendations for First Aid at Work).

Martyn Huxter
Guest Instructor

Wild Connections are honoured to have the opportunity to introduce you to Martyn, who has a life long love of all things wood and can turn his hand to any woodcraft with consummate skill, calling on years of experience and furniture making qualifications. His wood crafting experience ranges from whittling spoons; wood turning and crafting beautiful chairs right up to working as a YTS Instructor on a boat building project.

He is also a well seasoned and experienced bowyer, using his innate understanding of the nature of wood and how best to craft it to make a variety of different bow designs as well as guiding others in the craft. As well as being a natural teacher, Martyn also holds a further education teaching qualification.

As if all of this were not enough he also runs his own small holding and it is thanks to the cast off feathers of his gaggle of geese that he can authentically fletch his arrows!

It is Martyn's skill as a master wood craftsman, as well as his amazing ability to share his knowledge with others, that makes us thrilled to welcome him as a Guest Instructor on our Primitive Bow Making Course.

Unlike Ratty in Wind in the Willows, Martyn's outlook is more along the lines of this......

"There is NOTHING – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about with wood.”

Wild Connections promote minimal impact; sustainability and environmental responsibility in their courses and continue this ethic in other areas of their work and lives.

Our office and home is run on electricity from 100% renewable sources - through Ecotricity on their New Energy Plus package.

Lighting is provided by energy efficient light bulbs.

All paperwork, including business cards and promotional material is printed on 100% recycled paper.  Items from our shop are packaged in either reused or new recycled paper jiffy bags, using waste paper from various sources for protective padding.

We use 1&1 for our web hosting, a company that was the first large web host to rely solely on renewable energy.  1&1 use wind, water and solar power in accordance with the Renewable Energy Certification System (RECS).

Because of the course locations, we find it necessary to run an off road vehicle both for practical and safety reasons.  No journey is undertaken lightly and it is our hope to be able to run courses back to back to significantly reduce commuting.

Wild Connections is supporting Friends of the Earth www.foe.co.uk
This is not an endorsement by Friends of the Earth of the products or services supplied by Wild Connections