Scout Adventures are a network of activity centres run by The Scout Association. They offer outdoor facilities, adventurous activities and experiences for members of the Scout Association, other youth organisations and school groups. The centres typically have capacity for hundreds of Scouts simultaneously, often including indoor accommodation in addition to camping. Staffed by qualified instructors, they offer adventurous activities and training for adult volunteers and young people following the badges of the Scout programme.
Purpose
Scout Adventures exists to deliver outdoor learning, adventurous activities and residential experiences to members of the Scout Association, other youth groups such as members of Girlguiding, and school groups. They are a commercial division of the Scouts and any profits made supplement the income of the association. They follow the Scout method when delivering activities, with principles such as learning through doing a key tenet of their approach to outdoor learning.
History
National campsites pre-2005
During Scouting's early history the need for camp sites and activity centres to train young people and undertake Scout activities and practice Scout skills has been evident. By 2004, over 700 sites were owned, run or had connections to Scout groups, districts or counties/areas with The Scout Association owning 14 sites outright. These were:
In February 2004, the Scout Association took the decision to sell a number of these campsites and instead focus their efforts on four national centres of excellence. It was noted that while there were many great camping sites, the range of adventurous activities on offer at each varied and so these four centres would be developed into high quality activity centres, run by the Scout Association directly.
The sites no longer owned by the association were sold with the proceeds being used to form the National Campsite Fund, which funds the improvement of the four new centres of excellence and any new sites that may join them at a later date. The last of this fund was used in the 2014–15 financial year. The majority of the sites that existed were sold to the local scout counties or districts that had been running them up until that point. The exceptions to this were Kingsdown International Scout Campsite, which was sold in 2005 to a private group which retains discounts for visiting Scout groups, Longridge Scout Boating Centre, which was sold to user group The Friends of Longridge Trust before becoming The Adventure Learning Charity in 2014, Perry Wood International Scout Campsite, which was not taken on by the local district and closed with the site redeveloped for housing in 2013 and Walton Firs Campsite, which was sold in 2008 to the Walton Firs Foundation who continue to run the site as an activity centre for youth groups maintaining strong links with the Scouts.
Scout Activity Centres
In 2005, the Scout Association launched four enhanced Scout Activity Centres that offered residentials, camping and high quality activities on offer to members. The four initially chosen at the announcement of the plan in February 2004 were Downe Scout Activity Centre, for the Southern Home counties, Gilwell Park, recognised as headquarters of the association and spiritual home of Scouting, Youlbury Scout Activity Centre, for the Northern Home counties, and Great Tower for the North of England. However, when the Scout Activity Centres launched in 2005, Great Tower was not among them and a new centre for the North, Hawkhirst Scout Activity Centre, was launched c. February 2007. Despite not having any on-site activities, the central London Baden-Powell House was also listed as a Scout Activity Centre alongside the others from the launch until 2011.