Ochils Festival

Each June the Ochils Landscape Partnership hosts the Ochils Festival, a varied programme of events designed to celebrate the landscape, heritage and people of the Ochils and Hillfoots. Each event helps to encourage a greater understanding and appreciation of this unique area. 

June 2014 promises to be AWESOME, with an extensive programme of 40+ FREE events.

One of our main events is the family day - OCHILS FEST - which will be held on Saturday 21 June 2014 in the Dumyat Centre and grounds, in Menstrie. This year we'll have the following:

  • Jacobite re-enactors who will try to find new recruits for their cause and demonstrate musket firing
  • An authentic 17th century campaign camp where you can learn about food, clothes, weapons and even make-up!
  • Forest creatures puppet shows
  • A leathercraft tent, where you can make your own pendant
  • Bushcraft, where you can discover if you could survive in the wild
  • Citizen Science activities
  • Ladybird hibernation box building
  • Dragons and damsels, where you can make your own wee dragonfly and learn about these beautiful creatures
  • Animation Station - the public premier of 6 animated films created by Hillfoots primary pupils and your chance to try your hand at making your own cartoon
  • Tree Cookies - make and decorate your very own necklace from a tree branch!
  • Animal Magic - meet an array of wonderful birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians
  • Toys Through the Ages - where you can play with iconic toys from every decade of the 20th century, and make your own cool toy to take away with you
  • Victorian life - rummage through the dressing-up box and have a go at the games Victorian children played
  • Bird box building - build your own wooden bird box, with the help of the Stirling Ranger team
  • Newts and legless lizards! Make a newt on a stick and/or wooden necklace! Meet some real-life newts and slow worms too
  • Archaeology for All - a chance to play in the dig box and find out about local archaeology projects
  • PLUS - climbing wall, inflatable fun, face painters, juggling and balloon animals

And don't miss the TARTAN BALL on Saturday 14 June

Our WALKS cover:

  • hill-walks
  • historic kirkyards
  • Geo-caching
  • mining and quarrying
  • the historic Alva Estate
  • foraging
  • place-names
  • botany
  • mindfulness
  • photography

Our TALKS cover:

  • farming in the Ochils
  • photography
  • the environmental impact of coal and silver mining
  • genealogy

Our WORKSHOPS cover:

  • woodland musical instruments
  • handmade paper
  • bee and bug boxes
  • storytelling
  • river dipping
  • handmade tiles
  • wet felting
  • willow weaving
  • handmade clay flowerpots
  • natural dyeing
  • cyanotype art
  • bushcraft
  • natural art
  • woodcarving
  • pond dipping

And we have some fantastic HIGH ENERGY activities:

  • canoeing
  • abseiling and climbing
  • gorge walking

To see more photos from Festival events, visit our Facebook page. If you want to see what we got up to last year, you can download the Ochils Festival 2013 brochure from our downloads page too!