Mindful walking retreat on the Sharpham Estate - 4 nights
Katherine Wilkes
Susan Papas
Billie
Louise Neicho (lou lou)
Tessa Turner
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Connect with yourself and nature as you walk on and develop a mindfulness practice on the beautiful Sharpham Estate.
Increasing your mindful awareness will bring added appreciation to your walking and to the landscape.
As well as a longer walk on Sharpham Estate the retreat will also offer the chance to experience practices which include slow walking and walking without an objective; increased time for nature connection and really observing the natural world around you; as well as practices which involve walking in nature as a tool for personal reflection and contemplation.
The leaders of this retreat – drawn from our wide pool of experienced leaders – help you to develop and extend your mindful experience.
Read on for more details on this retreat and click the Leaders, Schedules and Venue & Directions tabs above for further information.
An active retreat in a hilly landscape
This retreat is for you if you:
- Want to combine mindfulness teachings with walking in the beauty of the Devon countryside
- Enjoy an active, physical retreat and have medium to good levels of fitness
- Are aged 18 and above
The longer estate walk averages 7-8 miles with some hills. The walks are suitable for people with medium to good levels of fitness. Please contact us using the details below if you are unsure whether this applies to you.
Some of the walks will be held silence and there will also be the chance to experience some solo time on the land.
There will be a maximum of 20 participants on this retreat. Click here to view costs and room types
There are periods of silence on each of our retreats.
Because Sharpham House is a Grade 1-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.
What you’ll experience on this retreat
During this retreat you’ll:
- experience guided meditations with periods of silence and quiet contemplation
- explore walking and nature sensing as mindfulness practies
- be living in safe community with like-minded people, sharing experiences and tasks
- be able to explore our tranquil Capability Brown-designed parkland and our Grade 2*-listed gardens designed by Percy Cane
- have a single-occupancy room and your own space in which to rejuvenate, with free time to deeply rest and reconnect with yourself, far from the busy-ness of daily life. Click here to explore our rooms
enjoy delicious, healthy, home-cooked vegetarian food that regularly receives rave reviews- be cared for full-board in a Grade 1-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 are new to mindfulness, or seeking to renew or reconnect with your practice.
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.
I can't praise the Sharpham Trust enough for the wonderful experience I had on the mindfulness & walking retreat. I can highly recommend it. I have come away calm and relaxed and ready to go forth with gratitude
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
Day 1:
| Afternoon | Evening |
|---|---|
| 3.00pm - 5.00pm - Arrival |
6.15pm - Supper and tasks |
| 5.15pm - Welcome meeting, House tour, settling in | 8.15pm - Guided meditation |
| 9.00pm - House moves into silence until 8.30am, supporting individual mindfulness and reflection |
Typical Day:
| Morning/afternoon | Evening |
|---|---|
| 7.00am - Wake up | 6.00pm - Supper and tasks |
| 7.30am - Meditation | 8.30pm - Meditation |
| 8.00am - Breakfast, tasks & make packed lunch | 9.00pm - House moves into silence until 8.30am, supporting individual mindfulness and reflection |
| 10.00am - Home Group | |
| 11.00am - Walk |
The final day is as above with a closing meeting at 10.30am, and your departure by 12noon.
Just back home after an amazing Mindfulness, Meditation and Walking Retreat. The experience was incredible. You are immersed in learning, kindness and peace linked to walking. I cannot fault anything. To be without my iPhone/pad for the whole period was also so liberating. The leaders (Ethan and Lynette) were the best and the community experienced with the other retreatants was supportive, non-judgemental and loving. I will definitely be back again. Thank you.
Staying here for a few days for the mindfulness and walking retreat was amazing and exactly what I needed. I'm definitely going to be returning in a few months. The facilitators, the house, the location, the food, everything was carefully (mindfully:)) thought through. Thank you.
We enjoyed walks surrounded by outstanding natural beauty, and were gently guided through mindful meditation in a friendly and supportive environment within the majestic house, which very quickly felt like home.
I opted for the walking, meditation and mindfulness retreat as I needed an escape from a stressful job and a busy London life. I'd never done anything like this before but I loved every minute. My phone was switched off from the moment I arrived and it was like transcending into a different life. The silence allowed for an new-found appreciation of our beautiful countryside...as well as some much-needed time to clear the mind and recharge. A week without worry - bliss!
I had a fantastic time at the mindfulness and walking retreat at Sharpham. The people, the meditations, the silence, the setting, the walks, and the fantastic food made for a brilliant week when I was going through a difficult time in life. The week inspired me to continue with my practice, and also to look into the possibilities and start teaching mindful meditation to some of the patients I rehabilitate who suffer from recurrent or chronic dizziness. All in all, a great week which I would recommend to anyone who is interested in mindfulness - beginner or more advanced
It is the most amazing place; I had a fantastic time. The walks, the company, the food, the meditations and silences all really helped me re-balance and return to the world with fresh vigour. Highly recommended.
I came to Sharpham House quite tired and jaded. In a matter of days I was revitalised and able to practice mindfulness in a way that had evaded me before.
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.
Up to April 2023
£460 Standard room, single occupancy, full-board
£495 Premium room, single occupancy, full-board
£595 Heritage room, single occupancy, full-board
From May 2023
£465 Standard room, single occupancy, full-board
£525 Premium room, single occupancy, full-board
£625 Heritage room, single occupancy, full-board
(see also room types below)
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
Room types
Standard rooms
Our Standard rooms are smaller and cost less, but they’re still cosy and comfy. If you prefer a simpler or less expensive retreat experience, these rooms are for you.
Premium rooms
These are attractive rooms with good views of the stunning countryside that surrounds us. They are comfortable, giving you a restful environment in which to restore.
Heritage rooms
These are our most spacious & historic rooms, helping you deeply rest and rejuvenate in a nourishing and inspiring atmosphere surrounded by artworks and with river views.
Bathrooms
Because Sharpham House is a Grade 1-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
Bursaries
Limited 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
All rooms have tea & coffee-making facilities and towels are provided. Click here to see more about our rooms
Lynette Robinson
Lynette Robinson is a qualified Breathworks mindfulness teacher and accredited life coach. She teaches mindfulness to a diverse range of groups, such as seniors living in residential complexes, men in prison and women’s groups. During 2020 lockdowns this diversity expanded to teaching online mindful-working courses for home-workers. Her freely given Zoom group ‘Stop The Week & Rest to Calm' supported the mental and emotional well-being of attendees from four different countries. Author of the book 'Reclaimed', and' Mindfulness Mediations for Modern Day Women' CD, Lynette lives life with passion, following the energies of creativity and contribution. In 2016 she volunteered as Retreat Coordinator for three summers, at The Barn.
Will Evans
Will has been meditating in various Buddhist and Non-Dual traditions for a decade, guided by a spirit of exploration and experimentation and a sense of wonder and possibility. He mostly finds his home in the Insight Meditation tradition. In 2019 he trained as a mindfulness teacher with the Mindfulness Training Institute under Martin Aylward and Mark Coleman, and in 2020 he joined the team at the Barn Retreat, where he spent over a year facilitating both online and in-person retreats. He has a passion for helping people find approaches and relationships to meditation that work for them, with the view that meditation practice is not a fixed path but a vast landscape to explore.
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.’
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.
Ramiro Ortega
Ramiro is a mindfulness teacher and a retreat leader, and also a philosophical counsellor in training. He started practising in Spain in 2005 in the Soto Zen tradition, moving later to the UK to finish his studies in philosophy, where he came into contact with other different schools of meditation practice.
Finally Ramiro made his home in the UK and after spending two years living in Gaia House, a Buddhist meditation retreat centre in the Insight Meditation tradition in Devon, he trained to teach mindfulness with the University of Bangor and with the University of Exeter. He is also participating in the teacher training programme with the Bodhi College.
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!
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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