DEESIDE Scouts made a trip to London to mark 100 years of the opening of a landmark of the world Scouting movement.

Scouts from the Connah’s Quay and Northop Hall groups visited Gilwell Park over the weekend, which in 1919 became the home of Scout skills training for adults and young people.

The Scouts joined 4,000 others from across the UK for the first camp of the year. The three day camp kicked off the year’s centenary celebrations of Gilwell Park.

The site contains a number of camping fields, indoor accommodation, historical sites, monuments of Scouting, and outdoor adventure activities. The site can accommodate events up to 10,000 people, and regularly does so at Scouting events throughout the year.

Scouts aged 10 to 14 enjoyed the cold and lots of mud as they learnt the skills of putting up tents, cooking, empathy and looking after each other in winter camping conditions.

As well as surviving the winter weather the Scouts tried out high impact activities like the 3G swing, abseiling, white water rafting and climbing. Scouts under 17 years of age even get their first chance to get behind the wheel of a car on a specially constructed under 17 driving experience. The combination of surviving the winter weather and trying out a range of adventure based activities tested each Scouts resilience.

In 1919 Gilwell Park became the home of Scout skills training for adults and young people when it was adopted by the Scout Movement as a training centre