Where do we get wood for Firewalking?

When we are standing around a blazing fire with a group we usually get a lot of questions. One such question is, “That’s a lot of wood. Where do you get it?” The answer to where we get our wood for Firewalking is simple, it depends on where we are.

Sustainable Wood for Firewalking

At our Headquarters in Ireland we are very lucky to partner with Baronscourt Estate.

Baronscourt Estate  has a long history in forestry going back to the late 1800’s. Today, they work toward “Continuous Cover Forestry” (CCF).  This enhances the stability within the forest structure from wind, soil erosion, and climate mitigation. A multi-age (uneven) and multi-species forest structure has significant economic, environmental, and social benefits in comparison to standard plantation forestry.

This is part of the reason why we choose to partner with Baronscourt. But there’s more

Baronscourt Estate commercial forestry is FSC approved. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) shall promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world’s forests.

In 2003 the Estate was awarded the prestigious Royal Forestry Society’s “Duke of Cornwall’s Award” for their efforts towards Forestry and Conservation Management.

Baronscourt are members of the ConFor (Confederation of Forest Industries), The Royal Forestry Society, and Prosilva Ireland, which advocates and promotes CCF in Ireland.

You can see why we work with Baronscourt Estate and are proud to have them as a partner.

Oh, two more things about Baronscourt Estate, their staff are great, and they always give us the exact type of wood that we need for Firewalking.

How to get wood for Firewalking

We have delivered and continue to deliver Corporate Firewalks and Charity Firewalk across the Globe. Where we get wood for Firewalking can become an adventure in itself.

Throughout the UK it is easy as we have our partners in England and Scotland and they can source sustainable wood suppliers for us. Further afield, we are lucky enough to be able to tap into the expertise and support of the International Network of Firewalk Instructors.

That said, it isn’t always easy. We have often been in countries where we can’t find a local Firewalk Instructor that can support us. That means we need to get wood for a Firewalk while negotiating language and logistic hurdles. But this makes it all interesting and fun.

Back to Basics

We did a Firewalk in the Sahara Desert in March 2017. We had tried to organise the wood in advance but our contacts there couldn’t grasp what we were trying to accomplish. In the end, we just trusted that we would be able to make it happen when we arrived in country.

True enough, that is what happened. With pigeon English, photographs and video footage the guys now understood what we wanted. They did think we were a bit mad. They had never heard or seen of Firewalking before.

The next day they arrived with the wood as requested and along came the next challenge. The wood needed to be cut, and we did not have the proper tools in the desert. Again, these guys sorted everything for us as you can see in the pictures below.

We have plenty of other stories about the challenges we have faced when we need to get wood for Firewalking. Including having wood delivered and stored in the baggage area of a hotel before being loaded onto minibuses with the groups. There’s the time the wood arrived and it was soaking wet. Or there’s the time the wood was being delivered in a van and the van broke down. The wood was then delivered by tow truck! Those are stories for another day though.