About
Celtic Harmony Camp is a reconstructed prehistoric settlement set across thirteen acres of native woodland at Bourne Wood, in the countryside near Brickendon a few miles south of Hertford. It is not a museum in the conventional sense — there are no cases, and almost nothing on the site is an original artefact. Instead the charity has built full-size Iron Age roundhouses and a recreated Palaeolithic cave, and uses them to present the long span of British prehistory from the Stone Age through to the Iron Age as an inhabited landscape rather than a sequence of objects. Visitors walk into the roundhouses, sit by the hearths and move between the settlement, the woodland and the pre-history centre.
The approach places it in the tradition of experimental archaeology and open-air museums such as Butser Ancient Farm, where reconstruction is itself a form of research and interpretation. Building a roundhouse to period technique tests assumptions about materials, roof pitch, smoke management and the practical realities of daily life that excavation alone cannot settle, and the results are legible to a visitor in a way that a ground plan on a display board never is. The wooded setting matters too: much of prehistoric southern Britain was managed woodland, and encountering the settlement among trees rather than on mown parkland gives a more honest sense of context.
Most of the charity's work is educational. Celtic Harmony is best known for school visits and residential trips, and for the prehistory programmes it runs for organised groups, which is what sustains the site financially. Alongside that it opens to the general public at weekends through term time and daily during school holidays, with entry to the Iron Age village, the woodland and the pre-history centre free and no booking needed. A programme of weekend workshops runs from March covering crafts including flint-knapping and pottery, and there are seasonal festival events such as the Samhain celebration; these activities, along with archery, axe throwing and disc golf, are ticketed and normally need booking in advance. A woodland bistro serves hot food and drinks, there is a trading post selling fair-trade and heritage goods, and dogs are welcome on leads.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- Public opening is weekends during term time and every day through the school holidays, 10am to 4pm. Check the events page before you travel, because the site is also used for school and group bookings.
- Entry to the village, woodland and pre-history centre is free and needs no booking, but archery, axe throwing, disc golf, workshops and festival events are ticketed and should be booked ahead.
- Picnicking is not permitted anywhere on site. If you intend to stay for several hours, plan to eat at the Woodland Bistro.
- Wear boots or wellingtons outside high summer. This is thirteen acres of working woodland with earth and woodchip paths, and it gets genuinely muddy.
- Dogs are welcome but must be kept on leads throughout.
- Go inside the roundhouses and sit down for a few minutes rather than looking in from the doorway — the smoke, light and acoustics are the whole point of the reconstruction.
- The approach is along narrow country lanes; drive carefully and use the free on-site woodland car park.
- Bayford station is about two and a half kilometres away, making a car-free visit possible, though the walk is along rural lanes without pavements.
Highlights
The Iron Age Roundhouses
Full-size Iron Age roundhouses form the core of the settlement, and visitors go inside rather than viewing them from a rope line. Standing under a thatched conical roof, in the smoky half-light around a central hearth, communicates something that excavation plans and artists' impressions cannot: the scale, the warmth, the way sound and smoke behave, and how a single circular space accommodated cooking, sleeping, working and storage together.
Building them to period technique is itself a form of experimental archaeology, testing assumptions about materials and construction that can only really be settled by putting a roof up and living under it.
The Palaeolithic Cave
A recreated Palaeolithic cave extends the site's range far beyond the Iron Age settlement, reaching back to the Old Stone Age and the earliest human occupation of Britain. Caves are almost impossible to present in a conventional museum, since the whole point of them is enclosure, darkness and the relationship between a confined space and the world outside, and a reconstruction is one of the few ways to give visitors that experience.
Together with the roundhouses it lets the site cover an enormous span of prehistory, from the Stone Age through to the Iron Age, within a single short walk.
Thirteen Acres of Native Woodland
The setting is not incidental. Much of prehistoric southern Britain was wooded or managed woodland, and encountering a reconstructed settlement among native trees rather than on mown parkland gives a far more honest sense of context than most heritage sites manage. The thirteen-acre site allows the roundhouses, the cave and the activity areas to be separated by real distance and vegetation, so that moving between them takes time and effort.
Walking the woodland is a substantial part of the visit in its own right, and the charity treats the landscape as an exhibit rather than a backdrop.
Free Entry Without Booking
Entry to the Iron Age village, the woodland and the pre-history centre is free and requires no booking, which is genuinely unusual for a reconstruction site of this scale and makes it an easy destination for a family afternoon. The charity funds itself principally through its school and group programme, and the open weekend access is effectively subsidised by that work.
Individual activities such as archery, axe throwing and disc golf, along with craft workshops and festival events, are charged separately and should be booked ahead, but the core site can simply be walked into.
Collections
Celtic Harmony Camp is a reconstruction site rather than an object collection: its interpretive resources are full-size Iron Age roundhouses, a recreated Palaeolithic cave and thirteen acres of native woodland at Bourne Wood, used to present British prehistory from the Stone Age to the Iron Age as a lived landscape.
The charity works in the tradition of experimental archaeology, where building and using structures to period technique tests what excavation alone cannot establish. Interpretation is delivered principally through costumed sessions, craft workshops in skills such as flint-knapping and pottery, a festival calendar including Samhain, and an extensive schools and residential programme that underpins the site financially.
The Iron Age Village
Full-size reconstructed roundhouses which visitors can enter, presenting Iron Age domestic life around a central hearth.
The Palaeolithic Cave
A recreated Old Stone Age cave extending the site's coverage back to the earliest human occupation of Britain.
The Pre-History Centre
Interpretation covering the sweep of British prehistory from the Stone Age through to the Iron Age.
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.