Plas Helyg is a smallholding where the Lishman family live, in the Lammas Community of Tir-y-Gafel in Glandwr, Pembrokeshire. At Tir-y-Gafel, our planning permission requires that we provide 75% of our basic needs from our land within 5 years. We try to do this whilst living as sustainably and gently on the land as we are able.

Eco building Courses
Willow Coppice & Crafts 
Live Lightly Craft Co-op
Lammas Low Impact Initiatives
Weather forecast

Are you interested in eco-building and living sustainably? Would you like to learn hands-on skills in a beautiful, unique community setting?

Our week long eco-build courses are experiential, using a ' learning through doing' method to help you discover more about designing a structure, choosing materials and creative problem solving. They also offer insight into what the quest for self-reliance is really like. Suitable for novices and those with some experience.

Quotes from previous courses:

'I was taught a good number of 'eco-building' skills during the week and was able to take part in many tasks I've never previously tackled and certainly would hope to incorporate some of these methods into my own home and garden in the future. I wouldn't hesitate in recommending this course...I spent a week in a Utopian state – how do you put a price on that!''
Jane, July 2011

'It’s been some time since my attitude to the day’s work ahead was filled with so much enthusiasm.'
Hugh, July 2011

'I was really impressed by the way you constantly shared all your knowledge, happy to repeat things two or five times, happy to take the time to sit down with people and explain things in more detail and really make sure that everyone got the answers they were looking for. I also really liked the structure of the course... it was great to visit different places on different days - it broke up the work, kept my interest up, renewed enthusiasm for working and made the course more interesting'
Solena, September 2011

Willow Coppice & Crafts

A large part of my 'low impact livelihood' is growing willow for sale. I sell the rods, I weave them into crafts, I teach children in schools and adults in workshops all about willow, and we also use it for burning as fuel. Willow is an incredible tree, as each year you can coppice it (cut down all the growing shoots until only a stump remains) and it will grow back the next year with great vigour.
We have more than an acre of coppiced willow, all organically grown, with more than 12 varieties of willow, including the native Salix Viminalis, as well as very popular basketry varieties such as S. Black Maul and S. Brittany Green. With the willow I make Living Willow Sculptures, such as dragons, whales and viking ships. I also make willow bird, reindeer, angels and more! Almost any shape can be made out of willow. For more information about my sculptures visit www.livelightly.co.uk or email me cassandra@livelightly.co.uk

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Live Lightly Eco-Building Courses 2012
at Plas Helyg

Course Dates Course Fees Course Content Site Facilities Contact & Booking Booking Form

In our last eco build course we raised a large part of the cruck frame of a roundwood barn, and began the cob greenhouse. We will be continuing to build these two structures over the course of 2012.

The timber framing includes using hand tools to make mortice and tenon joints, using power tools to frame the floor, raising the second half of the frame using block and tackle, cladding sawn boarding.
Cob building includes rubble bag wall building, slate stem wall building using lime mortar, cob mixing by foot, raising cob walls and insetting recycled windows as we build.
All jobs are dependent on the progress of build, so if you are interested in one particular aspect of tbuilding then please email for details of progress.

All courses are run by Cassie & Nigel Lishman, as part of Live Lightly.

 

 

Course dates 2012

Course 1 - May 13th  – 19th  - roundwood barn
Course 2 - June 3rd  – 9th  - cob greenhouse
Course 3 - June 17th – 23rd – cob greenhouse
Course 4 - September 9th-15th  - roundwood barn
Course 5 - September 23rd – 29th  - roundwood barn


 

 

Course Fees

Eco-building courses £250 per person including all food for 6 days & nights, max 8 people.
Arrival by 3pm on Sunday, leave by 3pm the following Saturday.

Some concessions may be available, please ask. Booking essential as places are limited.
If you have a disability, please contact us as we aim to try to make this experience accessible to all.

 

 

 

Course content

- What is Low Impact?
- Permaculture design for land and buildings
- Health & safety training
- Tour of the Tir-y-Gafel community
- In depth tour of our smallholding
- Hands on eco-building experiences using various materialsdetails, for details of what's going on each week, go to Dates or email cassandra@livelightly.co.uk
- Optional extras include spending one of your days with us learning about permaculture gardening

 

 

 

Site Facilities

- Camping space in our young orchard or behind our willow coppice at Plas Helyg
- time out to explore common areas of this lovely 75 acre site
- delicious organic vegetarian meals cooked on site each day
- a warm yurt to relax and socialise in each evening
- a firepit nearby to light and enjoy when the weather is fair
- wood burning showers and bath
- compost loo

You must bring with you:
- Tent and warm bedding
- Waterproof clothing
- Wellies and/or steel toe cap boots
- Torch



 

Contact & Booking


To book or for more information contact cassandra@livelightly.co.uk or call 07786067297. Please include details of which course you are interested in attending and I will email you a booking form.

 

 


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All images and text © Cassandra Lishman 2011-2012. Please ask before using any images.

 

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