By Sean Fagan
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Two beauties of the night sky: fiery Venus and a crescent moon adorn the southern sky above Dublin city (Photo: Sean Fagan).

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Bushcraft is Many Things...

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Bushcraft can facilitate our desire to get away from it all - to temporarily live a simple life that can be more vivid and often more meaningful.

And the night sky is a compelling reason to love the outdoors, especially during the longer nights of winter.

Being comfortable in a wild place at night – and recognising stars, constellations and planets in the sky - is an experience that can be both humbling & profoundly connecting at the same time.

It can also be deeply reassuring – whether in a city or in a wild, remote region of the earth - to look up at the sky and see, in the fathomless darkness of the night sky something you recognise – and just as importantly something you can navigate by. This can be an amazing feeling.

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Bushcraft & Astronomy

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Fostering a love of the night sky during the maelstrom of winter, can also be very beneficial in developing other bushcraft skills.

Why? Because other bushcraft skills are often required to support an individual staying out in nature during winter – skills such as fire-lighting and map & compass skills etc.

Skills that will be well-tested, and improved, by the rigors of winter.

Bushcraft can encourage an appreciation of all things outdoors. I believe that appreciation, admiration even, can find expression throughout the year.

Personally – some of my fondest outdoor memories stem from the cold, mysterious nights of winter.

The vast, celestial drama of the night sky - has the potential to fill us with awe.

How many times in our life do we get the opportunity to feel awe?

And yet, above us - the night sky slowly wheels around the earth; a window into the immensity of space.

I've no doubt, if you experience many a cloudless night this winter - that you will develop a taste and an appreciation for the beauty, navigational value and silent allure of the night sky.

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"If we want fantastic experiences we must go to fantastic places"

Donnie Vincent

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"No sight is more provocative of awe than the night sky"

Llewelyn Powys

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