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World Bound: Ireland to Scotland: Where the Dead Poets Roam
A Fireside Journey for the Brave, the Curious, and the Becoming
We are thrilled to announce one of the boldest and most imaginative teen travel experiences ever created by Fireside Adventures. It’s wild, raw, and unfiltered. It’s something Mr. Keating himself (keep reading…) would have stood on a desk for.
World Bound: Ireland to Scotland (2026) is not a retreat. It’s a rebellion. A two-week creative odyssey through landscapes that have birthed poetry, protest, and beauty that cannot be tamed. This journey is led by Jeff “Willy” Willis, Fireside’s founder and eternal student of experiential education, alongside Noah Tyler, Fireside alumnus and Irish-Canadian guide. Together, they bring 30+ years of Fireside’s spirit into a new kind of expedition, one that unites literature, adventure, and self-discovery into a living story.
The Spirit of Mr. Keating
“I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way…”
If you’ve ever watched Dead Poets Society (and if not, do yourself a favour and get caught up), you’ll know Mr. Keating wasn’t just a teacher — he was a spark. He lives on through this journey as our spirit guide: daring us to see differently, think freely, and live deliberately.
DATES: Aug 14 –28, 2026 (15 days)
LOCATIONS: Ireland and Scotland
AGES: 13–18 (co-ed)*
*Also available for 18+. Contact us if you dare to keep learning.
PRICES (CAD)
Regular Price: $4,899
*Includes non-refundable $1000 + GST deposit
Includes:
– Pre-course virtual orientation
– Duke of Edinburgh Award Centre integration
– 24/7 instruction and mentorship by Jeff Willis and Noah Tyler
– All accommodations (tents, glamping, dorms, homestay)
– Most meals and private ground transportation
– Group equipment and activity admissions
– Access to something intangible: perspective, voice, and courage
Flights and personal items are not included, but we will help coordinate flights to make your and our lives easier.
Does not include: Anything not mentioned above.
More info: office@firesideadventures.ca
Mr. Keating Meets the Climate Generation
If Mr. Keating were alive today, he’d be telling you, “Carpe diem isn’t about taking selfies on mountaintops. It’s about taking responsibility for the world beneath your feet.” Part of protecting the natural world is celebrating the beauty and awe it has inspired through countless generations of poets.
But this experience isn’t just about memorizing poems; it’s about living them. It’s about taking Seamus Heaney’s muddy realism, Robert Burns’ unshakable pride, and Mr. Keating’s call to “seize the day,” and turning them into action: rewilding land, protecting coastlines, challenging greenwashing, and finding your voice when silence feels easier.
In Ireland and Scotland, you’ll stand in the same winds that carried revolutions — literary, cultural, and political — and realize they’re not over. You’ll hike, write, argue, sing, and create. You’ll see that the fight for a livable planet isn’t new; it’s just our verse in humanity’s long poem of resistance.
So yes, put your phone down. Pick up your pen. Stand on the metaphorical desk.
Wake up, rebel wisely, and write the next chapter.
A Journey Through Words and Wilderness
World Bound is not about going somewhere new. It’s about becoming someone new.
Ireland and Scotland are not backdrops, they are living and experiential classrooms. The rivers, cliffs, and cobblestones are chapters of human story, echoing through poets, rebels, and dreamers who used words as weapons and art as truth.
This is A Journey Through Words and Wilderness, where every landscape becomes a stanza and every conversation becomes a verse.
Itinerary Highlights
Day 1 – Arrival in Ireland: Dublin to Killaloe
We begin where the River Shannon meets the hills. Campfire light. The first reading:
“If we winter this one out, we can summer anywhere.” — Seamus Heaney
Day 2 – Clonmacnoise: Stones of Time
Among ancient ruins and Celtic crosses, we listen for the ghosts of poets and monks. Reflection journals open. The page breathes.
Day 3 – The Burren: Landscape of Bones
A geological poem written by wind and limestone. Here, Yeats whispers:
“Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”
Day 4 – Across the Sea
The crossing from Ireland to Scotland — not just a journey, but a stanza between stories.
Day 6–8 – The Cairngorms, Scotland
Three days deep in the Highlands. Hike. Write. Sleep beneath the oldest silence you’ve ever heard.
“The world is full of things I don’t know, and that’s all right.” — Norman MacCaig
Day 9 – Edinburgh: The City of Voices
The capital hums with centuries of rebellion. We walk Makars’ Court, climb Arthur’s Seat, and feel the pulse of history still writing itself.
Day 13 – Anthology Night
By lantern light, each voice rises — honest, raw, unfinished. A collection of words that could only have been written here.
Day 14 – Farewell on the Shannon
Morning mist. The last fire.
Why Ireland and Scotland?
Because these are lands that never stopped speaking.
Ireland’s moss-covered ruins and Gaelic rhythms remind us that language is survival. Scotland’s wild highlands remind us that rebellion isn’t a trend, it’s heritage.
This is where stories were weapons, where poets were warriors, and where music carried the fight for freedom across generations.
Ireland
Ireland’s poets and songwriters once resisted oppression with rhythm and rhyme — from rebel ballads to modern protest anthems about land and freedom.
Seamus Heaney’s poetry still inspires environmental movements, reminding us that “hope and history rhyme.”
The spirit of Irish resistance lives on through young climate activists leading rewilding and green justice projects across the Emerald Isle.
Scotland
Bagpipes once rallied rebels, today they call youth to climate marches from Glasgow to the Highlands.
The Scottish Declaration of Arbroath (1320) inspired freedom movements worldwide — and now Scotland leads Europe in renewable energy goals.
Writers like Robert Burns and musicians like Runrig and Mogwai turned pride, protest, and place into power — voices still shaping how Scots protect their land and seas.
Fireside Adventures: 20 Years of Honouring of a Youth ReWilding
For two decades, Fireside Adventures has designed programs that teach through challenge, community, and wonder. From the Yukon River to the jungles of Ecuador, and now across the Celtic frontier, every experience carries the same purpose: to help young people learn what textbooks can’t teach. Following in the footsteps of pioneers like Kurt Hahn, we are dedicated to helping youth grow into young adults who are courageous, empathetic, curious, and a little wild.
