Hometree’s Experience Week is an immersive journey into Ireland’s native woodlands - a week of hands-on learning, deep conversation, shared meals, and meaningful connection with people and place. It is an active, grounded, hopeful response to the ecological challenges of our time.
Experience Week is an invitation to connect with the leading edge of nature restoration and the ancient roots of Ireland's natural habitats. It is an immersive journey into Ireland’s native woodlands - a week of hands-on learning, deep conversation, shared meals, and meaningful connection with people and place.
You will spend your days working in our tree nursery and out on restoration sites, guided by experienced facilitators. Alongside this practical work, there is time to explore nature, learn together, and live simply in community with others drawn to this work. This is an active, grounded, hopeful response to the ecological challenges of our time.
What to Expect:
Get Your Hands in the Soil: Spend your days learning by doing. Work in our native tree nursery and restoration sites, gaining practical experience in how to grow, plant, and care for Ireland’s native trees. You’ll understand what true habitat restoration looks like - not in theory, but in practice. By the end of the week, you’ll have developed real skills and a deeper understanding of how to grow, plant and care for native trees.
Learn from the Landscape: Join expert-led walks through native woodlands and restoration sites. Explore the ecology, biodiversity, and layered history of Ireland’s landscape - and the complex challenges it faces today. This will deepen your understanding of the history of Ireland’s landscape, the complex challenges facing habitat restoration today, and the solutions we’re putting into action.
Deep Adaptation with Matt Smith: Take part in a powerful workshop with Hometree CEO Matt Smith, exploring resilience, regeneration, and how we respond meaningfully to climate and ecological and climate crises. This is space for honest conversation - about grief, hope, responsibility, and action. It’s not just about restoring forests. It’s about restoring ourselves as part of the living world.
Film & Conversation: Nature restoration involves radical collaboration and creativity. We’ll screen Dinnseanchas, Hometree’s short film exploring landscape and spirit of place. This is followed by a facilitated Q&A on the themes and issues it raises, providing an opportunity to reflect on nature restoration and landscape change through culture, story, creativity and community.
Shared meals & Connection: Camping together, sharing meals, and working the land side by side is a powerful way to build community. Each day begins and ends around the table, with nourishing vegetarian breakfasts and lunches provided. Add in sea swims, evening trips to the pub, conversations around the campfire, and you have the makings of lasting connections.
Perspective & Capacity: Time spent immersed in nature changes you. As you leave, you’ll carry with you a renewed connection to the land and Ireland’s woodlands - and a renewed sense of agency about your role in their future.
Who Should Attend?
All of our workshops are designed to deepen your connection with nature and build your understanding of Ireland’s native trees and woodlands. This week is open to anyone curious about nature restoration in Ireland. No prior experience is required.
Whether you are a professional ecologist, someone beginning to reconnect with nature, or anywhere in between, you will find something meaningful here. The pace of the week is self-directed, with opportunities to engage deeply in the work or to slow down and reflect.
A national study on nature connection found that “if you have a deep connection with a particular place, it is more likely that you might feel moved to do something if it is under threat.” The study highlighted that a sense of connectedness to nature was enhanced by participating in community-based environmental education and citizen science initiatives. By deepening connection to our natural world in an engaged, active or immersive way through direct learning experiences, Hometree, enhances awareness, empathy, environmental concern, and supports sustainable actions. We encourage people to act locally and think globally. Hometree’s educational programmes build on emerging research in Ireland and seek to improve the health and wellbeing of the people of Ireland.
This event is kindly supported by funding from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
Testimonials
“The entire Experience Week at Hometree felt like a slice of magic. I never could have expected what a special experience it would turn out to be! It was a week of sharing chats over morning coffees (and the best porridge of my life!) with a bunch of people I felt instantly connected to, spending the morning outside on the land learning from Mitch, doing jobs that felt purposeful and busy in the best way, lunch-times spent eating delicious food prepared by Caolann. Afternoons were for learning, exploring, discussing and reconnecting with nature with Ray, Matt, Lia & Baiba. I've been describing it as "the week I didn't know I needed" and I am so grateful for this magical little spot in the hills of Ennistymon & the people I met there!”
Sarah Casey, Founder of Soul Stuff Adventures
“I could not recommend this week enough. Connecting with, and learning about, nature and feeling like you are giving something back was only the beginning. The real highlight of this week was meeting and bonding with some fantastic people, both staff and other participants. Everyone felt included and part of a group, while being supported to engage on a level they were comfortable with.
And the food was amazing. I will definitely
be making more visits to Hometree.”
Nathan Flaherty, Social Worker
“The Hometree Autumn Experience was a wonderful and practical immersion into nature restoration. We were a lovely group of like-minded people passionate about the environment and hungry to learn more. The week is balanced between volunteer work and field visits/classroom sessions. The Hometree team is so open and welcoming. Within a day we were already feeling part of a special family. More importantly, the experience was very inspiring and, in our case, helped my wife, Aideen and I, in our own plans for restoring woodlands. I can’t recommend it enough. The value of the education and new friendships made far exceeded the cost of taking part.”
Fred, Nadur Nua
