Hi all,
I was recently comissioned to design and build a film set for a documentary about Mesolithic Ireland. Rather than building chicken wire huts and thatching them with plastic grass,as you might expect from them oul' hollywood types, we went for the real deal, and built some small but perfectly formed shelters from hazel and esturine reeds.Took a few days, since it was my first foray into thatching, and we had to cut all the hazel and drag it through a forest and up a hill. They're pretty comfortable, and can sleep about three each, with a small fire. I used charcoal in the fire for cleanliness and to keep the smoke down, but we did leave a small gap under the 'eaves' for smoke to escape, and a small fire of dry wood is pretty tolerable. They're sited about 300m from an original mesolithic site, on the banks of the mighty Shannon river.
I guess the ladder was the only real non bushcrafty element in our construction. The rest was done with an axe, a folding saw, and two pocket knives. We also cheated and used jute string rather than bark for most of the knots, but did use yucca (which happened to be growing in a garden locally) for many of the visible ones. Not Irish Mesolithic I know, but looks like bark lashings on camera.
Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25jntbLJ-AA
I was recently comissioned to design and build a film set for a documentary about Mesolithic Ireland. Rather than building chicken wire huts and thatching them with plastic grass,as you might expect from them oul' hollywood types, we went for the real deal, and built some small but perfectly formed shelters from hazel and esturine reeds.Took a few days, since it was my first foray into thatching, and we had to cut all the hazel and drag it through a forest and up a hill. They're pretty comfortable, and can sleep about three each, with a small fire. I used charcoal in the fire for cleanliness and to keep the smoke down, but we did leave a small gap under the 'eaves' for smoke to escape, and a small fire of dry wood is pretty tolerable. They're sited about 300m from an original mesolithic site, on the banks of the mighty Shannon river.
I guess the ladder was the only real non bushcrafty element in our construction. The rest was done with an axe, a folding saw, and two pocket knives. We also cheated and used jute string rather than bark for most of the knots, but did use yucca (which happened to be growing in a garden locally) for many of the visible ones. Not Irish Mesolithic I know, but looks like bark lashings on camera.
Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25jntbLJ-AA