wildernessLectures
A winter series of public lectures in Bristol the theme of which is world-wide adventure.
Our lecturers are well known explorers, mountaineers, travel writers, TV personalities, adventure sports personalities or anyone who has an epic story to tell and can enthral our audience with a rattling good yarn. The talks are invariably illustrated with slides and/or film.
You can buy tickets from each lecture page, they are all linked from What's On, follow the link from the menu at the top.
Featured Speaker

Gavin Newman
Gavin is a cameraman and photographer working extensively with the BBC, Discovery and National Geographic. He specializes in environmental and adventure subjects, particularly underwater, underground and other 'hostile' environments. As well as working with conventional filming equipment Gavin has also designed and built many specialist camera systems incl...
View Profile2023-2024
We're off the starting blocks... If you enjoyed Mark's lecture (or, like me, regret that you weren't able to attend) then our next talk from John Ruthven should appeal a lot. Please come.
Not ony have we have relaunched our Wilderness Award but our friends at Ellis Brigham have kindly offered to top up the sum from £650 to £1000. Our application process is minimally bureacratic (we've all had to suffer lengthy applications that, if successful, result in small sums and a requirement to deliver a long report). So if you are planning to go away to do something that might make us jealous, please consider applying. Details are on our award page and the application form can be downloaded from the link on the right of this page.
Steve, Steve and Dick
Upcoming Events

In some of David Livingstone's Footsteps
This African journey had its origins in the premiere of Child 31, a film showcasing the extraordinary work of Argyll-based school-feeding charity Mary’s Meals, in Glasgow in November 2012. (Mark Beaumont incidentally has been a great supporter of thi...
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On Thin Ice: a winter's walk in Siberia
In February 2022 Charlie travelled to the Arctic in Far East Russia to undertake a 600-mile hike along the frozen surface of a remote river. The goal was to visit and learn about the indigenous Siberian peoples living along the route: horse breeders,...
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Swimming to Afghanistan
Swimming to Afghanistan! Absurd, surely Afghanistan is totally landlocked? Well, Chris Aslan took an unusual approach to this benighted but beautiful country by swimming to it (and back) from Tajikistan, across the Panj River, the headstream of the A...
Find out moreDownloads
You can download a number of our documents here.
Please read our Covid statement, below
Our past speakers list details all our lectures since Wilderness Lectures started operation, over 30 years ago. One of our favourite speakers was the mountaineer Doug Scott who set up charity, Community Action Nepal, to provide assistance to Sherpa communities. A gift aid form for C.A.N. is available here, if you would like to support the charity's work.
- Our full list of past speakers
- Our Covid statement
- Community Action Nepal gift aid form form
- Wilderness Award 2024 2024 award application