Learn More: Express your arty side with printmaking
Down at the Skirrid Print Studio in the Olchon Valley, you can get arty with printmaking.
Join a 2-hour workshop (cake and a cuppa included!) and learn how to work closely with a printing press to turn your own photographs into a beautiful printed masterpiece, or get retro with linoprinting. By the end of the session, you’ll have something worthy of hanging pride of place in your living room!
More things to do on a Microgap
Brush up on your chef skills
Cross the county border to Gloucestershire to Harts Barn Cookery School for a lesson in culinary excellence. You can choose from a range of artisan classes, from pasta making to vegan baking, chocolate tempering to cheese making.
Set in the beautiful Forest of Dean, this glass-fronted cookery school has stunning views of the surrounding countryside and hills. As well as more traditional classes, they also offer more unusual cooking experiences. Forage and Feast gets you outside hunting through the hedgerows and woods for wild garlic, berries and mushrooms to take back to the kitchen to create a feast with, while Fire Pit cooking shows you how to prepare ingredients to cook over a fire!
Get crafty with iron at Oldfield Forge
Photographer: @aaronhoughton421
In the heart of the Herefordshire countryside is a traditional family-run blacksmith’s forge that combines traditional techniques with modern equipment to create wonderfully bespoke ironmongery. The forge also hosts courses and experiences where you can try your hand at making forks, hooks, knives and even swords (which you can embellish with your family crest – if you have one!). It’s history, science, maths and metalwork all rolled into one memorable lesson, and you’re sure to feel leaving like your favourite character from Game of Thrones.
Spend the night in a hobbit hut
Envelop yourself in nature within a woodland wonderland, home to the Brook House Hobbit Hut – a hand-crafted cabin made from felled ash trees. Open the huge round door and step into a cosy space adorned with fairy lights and a king-size bed. Outdoors, you even have your own private fire pit, perfect for toasting marshmallows.
A short walk through the lush foliage will take you to an outdoor kitchen – with gas hob and a cob-barrel pizza oven – and a bathroom, where you can have a hot shower under the oak trees. The forest is also home to an array of activities, from green woodworking and yoga, to tasting sessions and communal dinners around a huge outdoor banqueting table.