Find Your Peace: a 3-night silent retreat
Katherine Wilkes
Susan Papas
Billie
Louise Neicho (lou lou)
Tessa Turner
Hear FIRST about our retreats & events
Looking for a longer silent stay? See our 5-night silent retreats here
Silent retreats are transformational and I can highly recommend Sharpham whether you’re a seasoned ‘retreatant’ or new to the idea. The silence felt like a hug from an old friend.
Experience quiet and stillness for an extended time, within supportive company in a beautiful, nurturing setting.
In an increasingly frenetic world, with so many competing demands for our time and attention, this silent retreat offers a precious opportunity for spaciousness and stillness.
You’ll be in a safe and supportive setting, allowing you to deepen into mindfulness practice and your experience of silence, in the tranquil setting of Sharpham House and Estate.
This 3-night retreat is a chance to turn inward and to let go of the daily struggles that can so easily get in the way of the simplicity, freedom and joy in each present moment.
There will be a maximum of 28 participants on this retreat.
Read on for more details on this retreat and click the Leaders, Schedules and Venue & Directions tabs above for further information.
Previous retreat and meditation experience
This retreat is for people who already have prior experience of being on a retreat or of mindfulness meditation. If you are new to mindfulness and retreats, you might like to consider joining our Mindfulness for Beginners retreats, which run on a monthly basis.
This retreat is for you if you are:
- in need of rest and replenishment
- interested in deepening or reconnecting with your practice in a silent setting
- inspired by spending time reconnecting with nature
- have prior meditation and retreat experience
- 18 years or above
Connecting through quietude
Spending an extended period of time in silence with others can feel challenging and awkward at first, however participants often discover that the experience can also allow for a surprisingly rich sense of connection.
This is a chance to experience quiet and stillness, yet still be in supportive company, with the opportunity to let go of the usual social conventions.
How much silence?
The retreat is not in total silence the whole time. Each morning there is the chance to connect with a smaller home group to share your experiences and some of the meditation sessions each day will be guided. Other than this the rest of the retreat will be in silence, including meal times and group activities, such as silent walking and nature connection.
What you’ll experience on this retreat
During this retreat you’ll:
- practice silence to develop a strong container for deepening meditation practice
- explore embodiment, with simple mindful movement and exercises
- have the chance to take mindfulness into the outdoors through walking, nature connection and sensing activities (weather permitting)
- experience mindfulness enquiry sessions in smaller groups
- be living in community with like-minded people, bringing mindfulness to everyday experiences and tasks
- enjoy delicious, healthy, home-cooked vegetarian food that regularly receives rave reviews
- be cared for full-board in a Grade I-listed Georgian House surrounded by history and art, with staff looking after you, in a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty close to nature, amid breath-taking scenery on the banks of the River Dart.
Mindfulness in nature at Sharpham
When you experience Sharpham's inspiring and nourishing environment, we hope you'll connect spiritually with the natural world, so you’ll:
- become aware of how we are all part of nature - not artificially separate from it
- pay attention to and appreciate the natural world surrounding us
- explore nature through your senses and your natural creativity
- Tread more lightly on our finite planet, developing a respect and reverence for all living things
Click here to read our ethos and principles
What you need to know
If you decide to stay with us, we’ll send you a list of what you need to bring for this retreat in your Welcome Letter that we send out after you've booked.
You can also find out more about staying with us on our Frequently Asked Questions page, including
- accessibility information
- why we encourage you to come on your own and not with partners or friends
- what the difference is between our retreats
See our Sharpham House Covid-19 measures here
Our food & your dietary needs
The retreat is full-board with delicious home-cooked vegetarian food.
In line with sustainable practices across the Estate, our cooks produce seasonal, vegetarian food for our guests. We source food whenever possible from our kitchen garden and support local food suppliers.
Food allergies & intolerances
Please tell us well in advance of your stay of any food allergies or intolerances you may have.
You can tell us this on the Booking Form via a link we send you in your confirmation email.
Your physical and mental health
This retreat is suitable for you if you have meditation and retreat experience.
Although meditation and mindfulness can be helpful in managing stress, depression and anxiety our retreats might not be suitable if you are experiencing major depression or other clinically diagnosed psychiatric illness such as bipolar disorder, psychosis or current self-harming. Click here for more information and for our booking process.
We have an accessible en-suite bedroom The Clare Milne Room – click here for details on how to book this room
If you have a medical condition that requires you to have an en-suite room, please contact our Programme Administrator on the number below as these rooms are limited and are bookable on a first-come first-serve basis.
Every time I come here, the ambience of the House and surroundings infuse me with a wonderful sense of well-being
If you're coming to stay with us on retreat, it is important to make a commitment to arrive in time for the first group meeting and to attend all the days.
This ensures you experience the retreat programme from start to finish and helps your group of participants to gel.
Typical schedule
Arrival Day
| Afternoon/evening |
|---|
| 3.00pm - 5.00pm - arrival |
| 5.15pm – Welcome meeting, House tour, settling in |
| 6.30pm - Supper and washing up |
| 8.15pm - Guided meditation |
Typical day
| Mornings | Afternoons |
|---|---|
| 7.00am - wake-up bell | 1.00pm – Lunch & tasks |
| 7.30am - Mindful Movement | 2.00pm – Personal time or estate walk |
| 8.00am - Meditation | 5.20pm - Guided meditation |
| 8.30am - Breakfast / Tasks | 6.00pm – Dinner, tasks and personal time |
| 10.00am - Home Groups | 8.00pm - Meditation |
| 11.30am - Meditation | 9.00pm - Personal time |
Final day
| Afternoon/evening |
|---|
| 7.00am - wake-up bell |
| 7.30am - Mindful Movement |
| 8.00am - Meditation |
| 8.30am - Breakfast / Tasks |
| 10.30am - Final meeting |
| 12 noon - Departure |
How much silence?
The retreat is not in total silence the whole time. Each morning there is the chance to connect with a smaller home group to share your experience. There will also be some discussion as part of Mindfulness teaching and enquiry sessions. Other than these the rest of the retreat will be in silence, including meal times and group activities, such as silent walking and nature connection.
Silent retreats are transformational and I can highly recommend Sharpham whether you’re a seasoned ‘retreatant’ or new to the idea. The silence felt like a hug from an old friend.
This retreat takes place in the beautiful and historic Grade I-listed Sharpham House set in a Capability Brown-designed landscape with stunning views over the steeply-wooded River Dart.
Click here for our How to Find Us page on this website.
Click here to view, print or download directions and a map to Sharpham House
Click here view and download walking/cycling directions to Sharpham House
If you have a medical condition that requires you to have an en-suite room, please contact our Programme Administrator on the number below as these rooms are limited and are bookable on a first-come first-served basis.
Just to let you know, we have poor mobile phone coverage – which we see as a virtue. While there is wi-fi in Sharpham House, we encourage you to disconnect from ‘the network’ so you can fully retreat when you’re here.
We are 3 miles from Totnes – famous for its Transition Town movement
We are in a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Sustainability
We take sustainability seriously.
All of the hot water and heating in the House is produced by a state-of-the-art biomass woodchip boiler and we have 2 large photo-voltaic solar panel arrays on barn rooftops.
Our gardens are managed organically and we only use bio-degradable cleaning products.
£300 – Shared room
£375 – Standard room
£450 - Premium room
Bursaries
Limited 50% bursaries offering reduced-price retreats are available for those experiencing financial hardship. Please contact the Programme Administrator at least 4 weeks in advance if you wish to apply.
Our bursary fund relies on donations. If you’d like to help another to go on retreat here through our bursary scheme, you can give online quickly and easily by clicking here
Bathrooms
Because Sharpham House is a Grade I-listed mansion (with limits to the changes we are allowed to make to the building), few bedrooms come with an en-suite bathroom and toilet. There are shared bathrooms on every floor.
If you have a medical condition that requires you to have an en-suite room, please contact our Programme Administrator on the number below as these rooms are limited and are bookable on a first-come first-served basis.
Our accessible rooms
We have an accessible en-suite bedroom The Clare Milne Room – click here for details on how to book this room
All rooms have tea & coffee-making facilities and towels are provided. Click here to see more about our rooms
Rupert Marques
Rupert has practiced in the insight meditation tradition for nearly 25 years in Europe, America and Asia. His primary teachers have been Christina Feldman and Joseph Goldstein. The work of Toni Packer and John Tarrant have also been influential in his practice and teaching. He teaches at various retreat centres in Europe and beyond. For the past 4 years Rupert has lived and worked at Ecodharma, a contemplative retreat community in the Spanish Pyrenees dedicated to exploring the role of the Dharma in the movements for social justice and ecological sustainability. At Ecodharma he directed the Nature based Practice strand of their work that marries contemplative practice with a range of approaches within the field of experiential ecopsychology in a wilderness setting.
Ethan Pollock
Ethan has been supporting retreats and mindfulness groups for over a decade. He spent five years training at Plum Village with the internationally recognised Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and currently offers retreats and classes on mindfulness and buddhism at meditation centers and local groups around the UK. His teaching helps people touch more calm and ease in their everyday lives by bringing awareness and appreciation to simple daily activities, retreatants especially love his guided meditations!
Nadia Abdel-Karim
Nadia Abdel-Karim has practised mindfulness and meditation since 2015, influenced primarily by Insight Meditation and Mahayana Buddhist traditions.
As a freelance mental health worker, she spent several years facilitating support groups and offering one-to-one crisis support across London for the mental health charity Mind.
After training as a Mindfulness Practitioner in 2019, she began co-facilitating 8-week Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction courses specifically for people experiencing depression and anxiety.
Nadia relocated to Devon to live at The Barn Retreat Centre, where she spent almost two years co-leading meditation retreats. Alongside leading retreats for Sharpham, she works as a Focusing Practitioner and facilitates spaces for people to connect with their grief.
Her journey continues to be guided by her love for exploring and understanding spiritual traditions and practices.
Emma Thom
Emma has worked in mental health for over 20 years. She has a Post Graduate Diploma in Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (University of Exeter). She works at the AccEPT clinic in Exeter teaching mindfulness courses to adults with depression and health and social care staff. She also teaches mindfulness to adoptive parents, teenagers, and families with learning difficulties. Emma’s life has benefitted in many ways from mindfulness. She first discovered mindfulness during an extensive period of ill-health and has no doubt that mindfulness gave her what she needed to recover. Emma loves sharing what she has learned with others and is particularly interested in the ways that mindfulness supports wellbeing and flourishing along with increasing capacity to manage stress and ill-health. Emma especially enjoys practicing mindfulness in movement, through yoga and walking.
Steve Banks
Steve trained as a mindfulness teacher with Mindfulness UK. He started practising meditation in 1990 within the Buddhist tradition, and has attended retreats, mostly at Gaia house, with many different teachers. Steve is a qualified Psychosynthesis counsellor and has engaged in many forms of menswork over three decades, including co-leading transformative Rites Of Passages retreats for men. He leads workshops on Ken Wilber’s ‘Integral’ model and has presented seminars on sacred music, ‘The Power Of Music’, at many events, including the Integral European Conference, the foremost global gathering of Integral thinkers and practitioners. Steve has attended the one-week Mindful Self-Compassion retreat with Chris Germer and Kristin Neff. He is passionate about passing on the gift of mindfulness and meditation.
Dr Jo Gosling
Jo has over 30 years’ experience in the NHS, initially as a Macmillan nurse in cancer care then, after gaining a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology in 1996, as a Clinical Health Psychologist. She has a longstanding mindfulness practice and has undergone extensive training with teachers from Bangor and Exeter Universities.
She has regular mentoring and attends silent meditation retreats to deepen her practice. As a freelance mindfulness teacher she has delivered numerous MBCT groups for people with recurrent depression at the Mood Disorders Centre, University of Exeter and been supervisor to trainee mindfulness teachers. A personal health crisis, combined with training to teach Mindful Self-Compassion (with Chris Germer and Kristin Neff) led to a change of direction in life and she is now at Plymouth College of Art studying an MA in Fine Art. A natural follow-on has been to combine the two areas of mindfulness and creativity, in the form of retreats and workshops: ‘Mindfulness and Creativity-Working from the Heart.’
How to book easily and securely:
- online on this page
- by phoning 01803 732542
Ring us or email us on [email protected] if you've got any questions.
Please click here to see our booking and cancellations policy.
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