The Elderwood Project

03/09/2026

We will be closed today and tomorrow as we are off “dahn sarf” for an event.

(We’ve been vaccinated, don’t worry)

We’ll be back on Monday as usual!

02/09/2026

We're really proud to be supporting Otley Men's Group - OMG

Elderwood has always been about more than rescuing timber and making things. It's about people, community, learning skills, having somewhere to belong and sometimes simply having somewhere to go.

The work the Otley Men's Group does supporting local men (and ladies via Otley Women’s Group - OWG) experiencing poor mental health and loneliness is something we're very happy to get behind.

We're fortunate enough to have received a huge amount of support from our own community as Elderwood has grown, so being able to put some of that support back into another local organisation doing genuinely important work feels exactly right.

Keep doing what you're doing, lads. We're proud to be alongside you. 🌲❤️

See the local businesses who sponsor OMG to help us keep doing our community work

31/08/2026

🪵 When reclaimed timber meets the forge… 🔥

A little upgrade has arrived at Elderwood.

These beautiful hand-forged hooks have been made for us by our very good friends at SylvanKin ⁠ in York.

SylvanKin, run by Frank and Alex, are a non-profit organisation dedicated to reviving traditional crafts in modern Britain, teaching practical skills including forging and metalwork, woodworking, bow making, leatherwork and shield crafting. In their own words: hand made, hand crafted, hand forged. Which makes them rather perfect friends for Elderwood.

And these aren’t destined for ordinary coat racks.

They’ll be finding their way onto some of our bigger immersive builds: Viking storage chests and longhouse furniture, medieval tavern pieces and great hall tables, pirate crates and ship-inspired builds, Western saloon furniture, gunfighter-style storage and whatever other ridiculous historical creation comes out of the workshop next!

We love reclaimed timber, but when we’re creating something that’s supposed to look like it belongs in another century, sticking a shiny modern hook from B&Q on the side rather ruins the illusion.

So where we can, the details should be made the old way too.

Reclaimed timber from Elderwood.
Hand-forged ironwork from SylvanKin.

Old skills aren’t dead. They just need people willing to keep using them.

And there’s more to come from this little partnership. 🔥

We’re going to work out a way of getting the SylvanKin lads over to Elderwood to run some of their own traditional craft workshops here at Elderwood.

Forging, heritage skills and the chance to learn from people who genuinely know their craft sounds bloody incredible to us.

Is that something you’d like to see at Elderwood? Let us know in the comments, because if there’s enough interest, we’ll start plotting. 👀

And in the meantime, go and give SylvanKin a follow and have a look at what they do. They’re good friends, good people, and doing exactly the sort of thing we want to see more of: keeping traditional skills alive and passing them on.⁠

30/08/2026

Another weekend. Another local show!

We’re here at Pool Feast and the weather is glorious.

And once again, Northern Realms - The Ultimate Viking Experience are providing Axe Throwing and Archery for those who want to involve themselves in a little chaos!

27/08/2026

🌲 Something new is taking shape at Elderwood…

We’ve been playing around with ideas for our first hands-on woodworking workshop, and we think we may have found it.

Whimsical Woodland Birdhouses. 🐦🍄

Built from reclaimed timber, each one can be shaped, scorched, stained and decorated to create your own crooked little woodland home, before heading back with you to find a place in the garden.

No two need to look the same. In fact, the wonkier the better. 😂

This is exactly what we want Elderwood workshops to be about. Learning practical skills, working with reclaimed materials, making something with your own hands and having a bloody good time doing it.

We’re still putting the workshop details together, so for now we want to know:

Would you come and make one of these?

And if you’d rather skip the making and just have one of ours, the birdhouses pictured are also available to buy now over in The Hearthfire Trading Post. 🌲

If there’s enough love for them, this could very well become Workshop No. 1 at The Elderwood Project.

26/08/2026

From idea to item 🌿🪵

Sometimes a commission starts with nothing more complicated than a message:

“Could you make something like this, but on barked wood?”

This is exactly what Lu @ Rooted & Wild Magick said to us!

From a simple sketch and an idea, to a completely unique piece made on a natural slice of timber. We kept the character of the wood, worked her design into it, and turned something that existed only in her head into something she could actually hold.

This is one of our favourite parts of Elderwood.

You don’t need technical drawings or a perfectly worked-out design. Bring us the idea. A sketch, a photo, a scribble on the back of an envelope, or even just “I’ve got this weird idea…”

We’ll take it from there. 🌿

Idea → timber → something that didn’t exist before.

24/08/2026

🌲 WE’RE BACK! 🌲

After a well-earned break, a ridiculous amount of driving, and then throwing ourselves straight back into events, Elderwood is open again!

The doors at Murphy’s Yard are open, the sawdust is already appearing, and we’re ready to get back to rescuing timber and making strange and wonderful things from it.

Pop in and have a rummage through our reclaimed timber, browse the handmade pieces, flick through our new design catalogues, or come and have a look at The Elder Hall and The Elder Hollow.

We’re also taking commissions again, so if you’ve got an idea for something you can’t simply buy off a shelf, bring it to us. Sensible ideas welcome. Weird ideas actively encouraged.

And with our workshop insurance now all sorted, there’s plenty more coming from Elderwood over the next few weeks. 👀

Murphy’s Yard, Ellar Ghyll, Menston

Come say hello. 🌿🪵

23/08/2026

We’re here at Arthington Show by Otley Garden Centre

Also here with Northern Realms - The Ultimate Viking Experience with Axe Throwing and Archery

Come and say hello!

13/08/2026

🌿 THE ELDERWOOD PROJECT IS CLOSED FOR A WEEK! 🌿

That’s it. Tools down. Workshop locked. Van loaded. Dogs aboard. We’re off to Northumberland! 😂

It’s been an absolutely mental year so far. We’ve built, collected, rescued tonnes of timber, launched workshops, taken on commissions, grown Elderwood beyond what we imagined and generally worked our bloody arses off.

So we’re doing something we’re not particularly good at…

Stopping. 😂

We’re taking a proper, well-earned family holiday and Elderwood will be CLOSED until Monday 24th August.

No guilt. No “we should probably just pop into the workshop”. No sneaking off to collect a suspiciously nice pile of timber.

We’ve earned this one. ❤️

Thank you to everyone who has supported Elderwood, bought something, donated timber, attended a workshop, shared our posts or simply wandered through the door to see what the hell we’re building.

See you on the 24th, hopefully rested, probably windswept, and almost certainly with several new ridiculous ideas.

Northumberland, here we come! 🏰🌲

12/08/2026

🛡️THE INSURANCE GODS HAVE ANSWERED! 🔨🌿

After forms, questions, policy documents and all the wonderfully exciting things that come with running a charity…

The Elderwood Project is officially insured and we’re ready to start opening up the workshop properly!

And this is the bit we’ve been waiting for.

From the beginning, we never wanted Elderwood to simply be somewhere you could come and buy reclaimed timber or something we’ve made.

We want it to be somewhere you can learn to make things yourself.

Our rune workshops were just the beginning.

Now we can start working on a proper programme of hands-on workshops, traditional crafts, reclaimed woodworking, beginner-friendly projects, home education sessions and probably a few slightly unusual things along the way.

Some will take place around the big table in The Elder Hall.

Some will get you working with your hands in the workshop.

Some may venture into The Elder Hollow.

But wherever possible, the idea will be simple:

Come to Elderwood. Learn something. Make something. Take it home.

And this is where you lot come in.

👇 If you could spend a few hours at Elderwood learning to make ONE thing, what would it be?

A bird box?
A planter?
A rustic shelf?
A wooden sign?
Something Viking or medieval?
Something completely different?

Don’t worry about whether you think we’d actually run it.

Throw your ideas at us.

We’ll be reading every single one. 👀🌿