Top
Top

Woodland Retreats - 3 nights

Our Woodland Retreats run seasonally from June to September

Click here to subscribe to Sharpham emails
Hear FIRST about our retreats & events


Experience mindfulness meditation and a transformative connection to nature – in an incredible Woodland Retreat setting far from life's frantic pace.

Sharpham Woodland Retreat participants speak of feelings of gratitude, wonder, calm, self-insight and positive emotions afterwards.

Read on for more details on this retreat and click the Leaders, Schedules and Venue & Directions tabs above for further information.
 

Make an inner journey in the Great Outdoors


This retreat gives you the chance to feel more fully alive and ‘in your skin’ – experiencing yourself as part of the natural world rather than separate. A return to nature as your true home.


This retreat is for you if you:

  • Love the outdoors and nature or would like to experience nature in a different way (you don't have to be an experienced camper to attend) 
  • Are longing to spend time in nature with the chance to reconnect with your true and authentic self
  • Are new to mindfulness or are looking to sustain and reconnect with your practice in a new way 

Get close to nature on woodland meditation retreats at Sharpham

Be nurtured in nature


Accommodation is in spacious, cosy, single bell tents pitched in Sharpham's woodland, close to the River Dart in a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

Your accommodation will be in comfortable and spacious bell tents, which include a single foam mattress and protective cover, pillows and a box for muddy shoes and a simple table. Guests are asked to bring their own sleeping bag. We like to call it comfortable camping rather than glamping! 

There is a shower and toilet block at the campsite featuring four hot showers and three flushing loos.

Click the Venue & Directions tab above for further information.

A covered hearth area gives you access to the wisdom of the campfire, whilst protecting you from the elements.

There will be a maximum of 16 participants on this retreat.

There are periods of silence on each of our retreats.

Get close to nature on woodland meditation retreats at Sharpham

What you'll experience on this retreat


During this retreat you’ll:

  • experience guided meditations, relaxation sessions and periods of silence and quiet contemplation, amid breath-taking scenery on the banks of the River Dart
  • have a single-occupancy furnished bell-tent, 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.
  • participate in accessible and engaging nature connection and nature sensing activities - cultivating moment to moment awareness in the outdoors 
  • be able to explore our tranquil Capability Brown-designed parkland and our Grade 2*-listed gardens designed by Percy Cane
  • enjoy delicious, healthy, home-cooked vegetarian food that regularly receives rave reviews
  • be nurtured within a safe and supported space with time around the fire


Accessibility


Parts of the campsite and Sharpham’s grounds are on uneven ground and the retreat includes some walking on hilly terrain. Please contact us if you have physical health or mobility difficulties to make sure we can best accommodate your needs.

Get close to nature on woodland meditation retreats at Sharpham

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

Our food & your dietary needsGet close to nature on woodland meditation retreats at Sharpham


The retreat is full-board with delicious home-cooked vegetarian food, served in the Woodland Campsite’s covered outdoor kitchen and dining area.

In line with sustainable practices across the Estate, our cooks produce seasonal, vegetarian food for our guests, and you’ll get a chance to eat food foraged from the wild.

We source food whenever possible from our kitchen garden and support local food suppliers. The Estate's farm tenants produce award-winning wine and cheese as well as organic eggs, meat and vegetables.

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 psychiatric illness such as bipolar disorder, psychosis or current self-harming. Click here for more information and for our booking process

 

A 5-star setting with the added bonus of really being grounded in nature.

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.


Silence

All our retreats include periods of silence as a way of deepening into mindful awareness.

If you are new to spending time in silence in the company of other people, it can feel awkward to begin with. But we encourage you to explore the silent periods with a spirit of openness and curiosity - people usually find it to be a useful experience. 

The retreats typically move into silence each evening from 9pm - 9am the following day


Typical Schedule

Day 1: 

Afternoon Evening
3.00pm - 5.00pm – Arrival and unload 6.30pm - Supper and washing up
5.15pm - Welcome meeting, settling in 8pm - Evening gathering
  9.00pm - Camp moves into silence till the following morning, supporting individual mindfulness and reflection

Typical Day:

Morning Afternoon/Evening
7.00am – wake up 1.00pm - lunch 
7.30am – simple movement/warm-up exercises & meditation 2.00pm - free time
8.30am – Breakfast 4.00pm – mindfulness and nature connection activity
10am - Group Sharing Circle 6.30pm - supper
11am – mindfulness & nature connection activity 8pm - Evening gathering
12.30pm - meditation 9.00pm – camp moves into silence
   

Final day is as above, with a closing meeting at 10.30am, and your departure by 12pm – 1pm.

I was really looking forward to spending time outdoors and reconnecting with nature, but the actual experience far surpassed all of my expectations...I was blessed to attend the retreat with a group of beautiful beings who shared deep reflections and supported one another with real kindness, respect and a sense of shared humanity. I can't believe how deeply we bonded and how much healing we experienced in three days. I shall most definitely return and I cannot recommend this retreat too highly.
 

I cannot recommend this highly enough - the more you give up to the activities and people around you, the more the reward. A beautiful 3 days.
 

A 5-star setting with the added bonus of really being grounded in nature.
 

The most perfect introduction to mindfulness, in an awe-inspiring setting.
 

I came with an open heart and open mind and left with an expanded heart and expanded mind.
 

The situation of the camp was idyllic and food delicious. The last morning was for me truly golden.

This retreat takes place in our beautiful woodland campsite area in the grounds of Sharpham House, surrounded by nature and with the River Dart and 550 acres of the Sharpham Estate to explore.

Get close to nature on woodland meditation retreats at Sharpham

The Estate includes a diversity of natural habitats including reed beds, salt marsh and ancient woodland with a rich variety of wildlife, flora and fauna – all set within a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty


PLEASE NOTE THAT THE WOODLAND RETREAT DROP OFF POINT IS NOT AT SHARPHAM HOUSE ITSELF

Look out for and follow Woodland Retreat signs once on Sharpham Estate.

If you’re coming by taxi, the drivers will know the way to Sharpham House but not necessarily to the Woodland Retreat luggage drop-off point. Please look out for the signs.


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 Woodland

Click here to view and download walking/cycling directions to Sharpham Woodland


There is a shower and toilet block at the campsite featuring four hot showers and three flushing loos. 

It is a timber-framed building constructed by students from South Devon College.

Get close to nature on woodland meditation retreats at Sharpham

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


Sustainability

We take sustainability seriously.

We have two large photovoltaic solar panel arrays on the Estate.

Get close to nature on woodland meditation retreats at Sharpham

Our gardens are managed organically and we only use bio-degradable cleaning products.

Cost & Booking

£395 - Supported Rate

The Sharpham Trust is committed to ensuring that its retreats are accessible to all - regardless if income. The Supported Rate is for those unable to pay the Standard or Benefactor Rate.

£445 – Standard Rate

Paying the Standard Rate means you will be contributing towards our running costs, supporting the work of The Sharpham Trust and helping retreatants of lower incomes to access our retreats.

£495 – Benefactor Rate

If you are able to pay the Benefactor Rate, that means that you'll be supporting others who cannot afford to benefit from a retreat on The Sharpham Estate. Your choice to pay this rate will help us with the running costs of The Sharpham Trust, enabling us to continue our charitable work connecting people to nature and fostering mindfulness and wellbeing, as well as caring for the land, wildlife and wider estate.

You can book easily and securely online below, by phoning 01803 732542 or by [email protected]


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

Brigit-Anna McNeill

Brigit-Anna McNeill

Brigit-Anna trained in wilderness therapy, counselling and mentoring following her MA in Art Psychotherapy. She empowers others to feel safely held in a group setting, and her approach is strong, safe, transformational and loving. With a rare gift for getting to the heart of the matter and helping others find the deeper truth, Brigit-Anna's knowledge and passion for plants and the natural world is infectious, whether for food, medicine or spiritual ally. She loves to guide us in nature to see it as we have never seen it before; as the missing community we always craved. 


Jess Stein

Jess Stein

Jess offers retreats that combine mindfulness, nature connection and creativity. She has been facilitating mindfulness spaces since 2012, initially as part of the Plum Village tradition and for the last six years at Sharpham Barn, House and Woodland. 

Reverence for nature informs all that Jess does. Initially trained as a yoga teacher all that she teaches takes its inspiration from the organic shapes of the human body and the forms and patterns of the natural world. She offers practices that awaken each person's unique capacity for awareness, creativity and connection. The spaces she holds are welcoming, intuitive and gently transformative.

Alongside retreats, Jess is a palliative care nurse and holds a degree in English Literature. Eternally curious, she has completed training in Dru Yoga, Scaravelli Inspired Yoga, Creative Writing and meditation, Embodied Anatomy, Nature Connection and Cultural Repair, Qi Gong, Adaptive Yoga, Yoga for Women’s Health and much more


Will Evans

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.


Rupert Marques

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.


Maite Alonso

Maite Alonso

Maite has a background in general and psychiatric nursing, and Movement and Drama Therapy. Since 1990 she has been practicing meditation and attending retreats in different traditions, mainly Insight Meditation and Zen, in India, Europe, the UK, and the USA. 

She has trained in Sivananda Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, and Shakti Dance and has been working for the last 12 years as a yoga teacher and massage therapist. In the last 6 years, she has been co-leading retreats at Sharpham.

Maite's passion is co-creating spaces where people can find insights through connecting with their bodies, with nature, and with each other. Embodiment practices and using the body as a source of wisdom are also her passion.


Barry Thurgood

Barry Thurgood

For over 10 years, Barry has been guiding meditation groups and coordinating retreats at Lam Rim Buddhist Centre in Bristol, The Sharpham Barn Retreat and also online. He has also worked as the Sharpham Woodland Camp Retreat Manager and is a qualified Integrating Mindfulness & Compassion (CPCAB accredited) teacher.

Barry is inspired by sharing his passion for deepening a sense of connection with ourselves, each other, nature and something bigger than ourselves, all in a spirit of kindness.


Ollie Frame

Ollie Frame

Ollie Frame works as an integrative therapist, trained mindfulness teacher (MBSR) and retreat leader. He is a co-leader on the Mindful in Nature programme at Sharpham, for which he has written and recorded a large range of meditations and resources. He is passionate about how mindfulness can help us connect more deeply with the natural world, for the sake of our own wellbeing as well as that of the planet.


In addition to leading mindfulness courses in various settings, he is also trained to teach compassion-based approaches (Mindfulness-Based Compassionate Living), and is especially enthusiastic about self-compassion, Metta meditation and other heart-based approaches to meditation practice. As an integrative therapist, Ollie has a particular interest in Psychosynthesis, inner journeying and the therapeutic use of meditation and the imagination. He loves the woodlands, rivers and coasts of Devon, and takes every opportunity he can to be by or in the River Dart.


Retreats & Events

How to book easily and securely:

  • online on this page
  • or by phoning 01803 732542

Ring us or email if you've got any questions.

Please click here to see our booking and cancellations policy.


Do check our Calendar to see and book for our events - or join our mailing list by clicking here to be kept in touch about Sharpham Trust news, retreats & events.