Women's Woodland Retreats - 3 nights
Our Woodland Retreats run seasonally from June to September
Hear FIRST about our retreats & events
This Woodland Retreat offers a spacious & sensuous immersion in mindfulness & nature within the supportive company of women on the beautiful Sharpham Estate in South Devon.
Accommodation is in single, cosy bell-tents pitched in Sharpham's woodland, close to the River Dart in a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
You'll experience:
- guided meditations
- movement & sitting practice
- nature awareness and nature sensing activities
- medicine walks
The retreat is for you if you are
- New to mindfulness or are looking to sustain and reconnect with your practice in a new way
- Feeling overwhelmed, stressed or anxious by the demands and pace of modern life
- Love the outdoors and nature or would like to experience nature in a different way
- Looking for tools and resources to sustain you in your everyday life
- Feeling a longing to spend time in nature and the chance to reconnect with your true and authentic self
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 details of our booking process.
This retreat is for all women (as self-identified) aged 18 and above.
Accommodation & surroundings
This retreat takes place in our beautiful woodland campsite area in the grounds of the historic Grade 1-listed Sharpham House, set in a Capability Brown-designed landscape with stunning views over the steeply-wooded River Dart. You'll be surrounded by nature with 550 acres of the Sharpham Estate to explore. The Estate includes a diversity of natural habitats including reed beds, salt marsh, ancient woodland with a rich variety of wildlife, flora and fauna – all set within 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!
All bell tents are single occupancy to give you time to yourself for rest and contemplation. The woodland campsite includes a covered outdoor kitchen and dining area and the retreat is fully catered with delicious and locally-sourced vegetarian food, as well as food foraged from the wild. There is a covered fire hearth area for wet weather. We use compost toilets on the site and there is a shower available in the courtyard of the house.
A welcome letter and suggested kit list of what to bring will be provided at point of booking.
Parts of the site are on uneven ground. Please contact us if you have physical health or mobility difficulties to make sure we can best accommodate your needs.
Please click here for directions to Sharpham Estate and follow signs on arrival to drop-off point for luggage and registration.
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 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. The Estate's farm tenants produce award-winning wine and cheese as well as organic eggs 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.
Silence
All of our retreats usually include some short 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. However people usually find this to be a useful experience and we encourage you to explore the silent periods with a spirit of openess and curiosity.
Sustainability
We take sustainability seriously. We use compost toilets on the Woodland Campsite, while all of the hot water and heating in the House is produced by a state-of-the-art bio-mass woodchip boiler and we have 2 large photo-voltaic arrays on barn rooftops. Our gardens are managed organically and we only use biodegradable cleaning products.
Typical Programme
Arrive between 3-5pm for unload, welcome talk and settling in
| Mornings | Afternoons |
|---|---|
| 7am – wake up call | 2pm – personal / free time |
| 7.30am – walk & movement exercises | 4pm – mindfulness and nature connection activity |
| 8am - guided sitting meditation | 6:30pm – Supper / Tasks |
| 8.30am – breakfast / tasks / make packed lunch | 7.45pm - Meditation |
| 9.30am – mindfulness and nature connection activity | 8.30pm – personal time / fireside time / night time activity |
| 1pm - lunch | 9pm – camp moves into silence |
Depart 12pm - 1pm on the final day
*Silence
All of our retreats usually include some short 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. However people usually find this to be a useful experience and we encourage you to explore the silent periods with a spirit of openess and curiosity. The retreats typically move into silence each evening from 9pm - 9am the following day and until 2pm on day 3 (see also schedule tab above for typical day)
This has been a very cleansing and empowering experience for me. I leave feeling refreshed and excited about life again.
I arrived frazzled and stressed by modern day life and I left soothed and calmed by nature and reconnected to my body and heart.
The retreat completely surpassed my expectations. The energy created and held by the retreat leaders and the other participants was so strong you could almost touch it. I reached parts of myself I didn’t know existed.
I’m rested, nourished, nurtured, fed, challenged and looked after. Lovely.
I have become a happier person and feel this is the beginning of a new chapter in my life. I have been shown that I can be strong and I do have inner power if I get back to nature.
Stunning location with inspiring teachers. A great insight into plants and nature...and the connection to life. An awakening experience to the need for wildness in life and to reconnect to nature. So grateful to be on a women-only retreat and to gain strength and empowerment from them. Would recommend to everyone.
The combination of mindfulness in nature works so well. I've been on hundreds of retreats over the years, but none so nurturing as this.
Please click here and follow the directions as per Sharpham House - HOWEVER 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 the estate. Please note that if coming by taxi - the drivers will know the way to Sharpham House but not to the luggage drop off point. Please look out for the signs.
Venue/Accommodation
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. The Estate includes a diversity of natural habitats including reed beds, salt marsh, ancient woodland with a rich variety of wildlife, flora and fauna – all set within a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Your accommodation will be in comfortable and spacious bell tents, which includes a foam mattress, warm 13.5 tog duvet and bedding, a small table and a solar light. We like to call it comfortable camping rather than glamping! The tents offer a good opportunity for those new to camping and a bit of extra comfort for more seasoned campers. There is a covered fire hearth area for wet weather.
We have created a new shower and toilet block at the campsite featuring four hot showers and three flushing loos. It's a lovely timber framed building constructed by students from South Devon College.
Food
Our cooks produce high-quality seasonal, vegetarian food for our guests. We source food whenever possible from our kitchen garden and support local food suppliers.
We can accommodate the following dietary needs:
- vegan
- wheat-free
- gluten-free
- dairy-free
as long as you have included these on your Booking Form. Please alert us to any food allergies you have. The booking form is sent as a link once you have booked and paid for a retreat.
All bell tents are single occupancy to give you time to yourself for rest and contemplation. The woodland campsite includes a covered outdoor kitchen and dining area and the retreat is fully catered with delicious and locally-sourced vegetarian food, as well as food foraged from the wild.
£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.
Accommodation
Your accommodation will be in a comfortable and spacious single bell tent, which includes a single foam mattress and protective cover, pillows, a box for muddy shoes and a simple table. Due to the Coronavirus we are asking guests to bring their own sleeping bags. A full list of what to bring is offered at the point of booking.
You can book easily and securely online below or by phoning 01803 732542
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
Shoshana Moskowitz
Shoshana’s personal journey led her to Buddhism, yoga and health. After completing her BA in psychology in 1995 she lived in Japan and India, devoting herself to practice of Vipassana (insight meditation), Ashtanga Yoga and traditional Karnatic singing for 4 years. During this time she sat in monastic environments in the mountains of Tamil Nadu and Sri-Lanka.
Since 2016 Shoshana has led mindfulness & nature connection retreats in the woodlands at Sharpham Trust in Devon, where she supports the participants to cultivate compassion, rest and self care in the present moment while finding a renewed connection to our Earth and our bodies as a living resource.
Shoshana's influences are yoga, breath and movement, Vipassana as taught by S.N. Goenka, Love & Kindness (Maitri and Karuna) as exemplified by Dalai Lama, Earth & Heart of Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh and resourcing Japanese practices of Shinrin-Yoku Forest Bathing and Misogu Waterfall cleansing.
Shoshana has been teaching meditation, yoga and health practices and facilitating groups since 2000 when she founded Karuna Detox Retreats, the first detox retreat outside of Asia. She was also a founding member of Eco-Forest project, a raw-food land based spiritual permaculture community initiative in Spain. She supports awareness of social issues and created lottery-funded programs to support people with caring roles in her community and led large events raising awareness to ending violence against women & children. Shoshana is trained in Trauma Release Exercise (TRE), Systemic & Family Constellations and Internal Family Systems (IFS) practitioner and leads healing sessions online outside of retreat time.
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
Nina Jankelson
Nina began practising mindfulness in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, attending retreat in Northern India and Nepal and later drawing inspiration from the Insight Meditation tradition and the teachings of Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh.
A former residential coordinator - and now Assistant Manager - at Sharpham's Barn Retreat, Nina has been facilitating meditations, ceremony and retreats for the past five years. Her practice is grounded in a connection to the land and in contacting moments of ordinary beauty and grace in the every day.
She is interested in exploring how contemplative practices can open up our experience of the world and is passionate about creating opportunities for others to do the same.
How to book easily and securely:
- online on this page
- 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.
