Axes, Arrows and Tardigrades: What’s Coming to Heligan This Half-Term

Fancy hurling an axe, loosing an arrow or hunting microscopic creatures that look like eight-legged gummy bears? Half-term at Heligan is going properly feral this year.

The Lost Gardens of Heligan is bringing back its popular Wild Week for May half-term, running from Saturday 23rd May to Sunday 31st May, with axe throwing, archery, fire-making and an assault course all on the agenda.

Four zones around the Play Meadow

The action will be based around the Play Meadow, which Heligan describes as the biggest and best outdoor play area in the south west. Four themed zones will cover wildlife discovery, bushcraft, outdoor play and nature books for children.

Visitors can learn how to track animals, peer at tardigrades and other microscopic creatures down a microscope, and make rope bracelets while they are at it.

Wild Week also marks the launch of the next seasonal Heligan Field Guide, a free companion to wild discoveries across the estate. Among other things, it covers how to identify animals by their poo.

Heligan’s first BioBlitz

On Thursday 28th and Friday 29th May, Heligan will host its first ever BioBlitz, a survey of wildlife across the estate led by experts with input from visitors.

Both days will include talks and guided walks themed around different branches of natural history. Experts from Three Bays Wildlife, Cornwall Wildlife Trust, Friends of Par Beach, HiveTracks and Budding Nature will be on site to chat with visitors about the wildlife they encounter.

The BioBlitz will be headquartered in Heligan’s new Centre for Nature Futures, where results will be reported throughout Wild Week. Full findings will be released after the event finishes.

David Harland, chief executive of The Lost Gardens of Heligan, said: “Wild Week is a perennial Heligan favourite and this year will be bigger, better and with more fires, sharp flying objects and wild discoveries than ever before. We will also be finding out more about the fascinating wildlife and plants of Heligan, and hopefully finding some things we’ve never seen before, as part of our BioBlitz citizen science survey.”

Tickets and Locals’ Passes

All Wild Week activities and experiences are included in standard Heligan admission, although some BioBlitz tours and workshops are charged separately.

Heligan has also reduced the price of its Locals’ Passes, with a Direct Debit pass now costing the same as a single day’s admission. Tickets and passes are available at heligan.com.