“Veil Between Two Worlds”  retreat details and booking.

Theme:

A combination of relaxation and creativity.

Relaxation through ….

• minimal touring but maximum experience
• being pampered with very comfortable
  accommodation and healthy fine dining
• being amongst the most beautiful scenery
  and views in Ireland
• accommodation including optional spa, massage,
  pampering and herbals
• meditation and quiet time at our labyrinth and
  in ancient cairn cells
• connection with the spirit of nature on mountains,
  in gardens, by lakes, rivers and on quiet beaches 

Creativity through ….

• expressing yourself through writing, painting, drawing, photography or video
• awareness that “its never to late to start, learn and create something new” 
• not being intimidated, held back or being judged on abilities
• outlet for your creativity through easy publishing and performing
• choice of individual, partner or team group creative expression

Activities Of The Week:

• Celtic Ways Cottage, Co. Sligo,with labyrinth, theatre and ceili
• visit and relax at Carrowkeel 5500 year old passage cairns
• gentle workshop to discover your creativity
• visit Lazier’s Sacred Well and other sites for inspiration
• a guided creative project day
• sharing your work as we watch the sunset from within Cheis Caves
• live publishing of your work
• reward day at a Co. Sligo beach or indulge in the hotel’s spa
• Guided tour of Tara Hill and shopping in Tara village
• farewell ceili in Dublin

Hotels of the week, subject to availability:

• Cromleach Lodge, 5 star with beautiful views
  (5 nights)
• Deerpark Hotel, Howth Castle, near Dublin
  (1 night)
• additional optional hotels in Dublin
  or around Ireland

Retreat dates still available during 2008:

Maximum of 8 guests per retreat

• July 27^th (Sun) until August 2^nd (Sat)  escape summer crowds
• September 28^th (Sun) until October 5^th (Sat)  harvest retreat 
• November 2^nd (Sun) until November 8^th (Mon)  special Samhain retreat
• November 16^th (Sun) until June 22^nd (Mon)  cozy winter peace retreat

Experiences past travellers have shared with us:

• This part of ireland has a unique spirit
• Where you live, where you take us, is always inspiring
• Everyone was flexible and a huge help in every way
• This was a very special time for me
• Warm hospitality, especially at the hotel
• Happiest and most exciting days of our lives
• I am at home, still taking it all in

Fuller Itinerary: (special requests are welcome)

Scroll down for pricing and booking ….

Most of these daily itineraries are optional

While accommodated at Cromleach Lodge during Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, if you prefer a day away from the itinerary to use the hotel’s own spa, relaxation and herbal facilities we will pay €50 towards your treatment costs for that day.

We encourage everyone to re-group for the evening meal and share our daily ceili that follows.

What is a ceili?

Today, a ceili is regarded as a get-together in a hall or pub where the focus is on singing, traditional music, maybe some dancing and plenty of drinking. They are usually arranged by halls as fund raisers and by pubs to create more business.

When I was a child, and through my younger years, where I lived did not have TV reception, or even decent radio reception until we bought a community FM aerial. Our entertainment were“ceilis”, hosted in our own home or neighbour’s homes.

A warm welcome with a served cup of tea and a snack would usually start off a ceili. Those who had spare food would bring it along to share with others. By tradition, part of the intent of a ceili was to try and make sure that nobody was hungry by the end of the day. Another intent was to make sure nobody was alone and wanting.

Greetings were quickly followed by an exchange of gossip to catch up what was going on, “the local soap opera”. Soon, the whisky, and other alcohol beverages, would be shared by those who like to partake and gossip would soon exaggerate into monologues, stories, and even lyrical poetry. Then the singing would start. As the beverages flowed our inhibitions dissolved and the half door, or some other wood, became the dance floor.

After some set dances, swing dances, circle dances and maybe a show off broom dance or attempted sword dance with sticks, loads of laughs, joy and some pouring of sweat we would settle down again. With inhibitions still dissolved, we would all be like family, connected to each other with caring and spiritually guided conversation. This was the time we shared our deepest thoughts and stories of our family both living and passed on.

Eventually this sharing would drift into the silence of prayers while the unstoked fire diminished in the hearth. Finally, someone would dare to call upon raising a glass to bless each before we parted and returned home to snuggle into our beds. This was the perfect way to close a day. That was they way we shared ceili, in a way that is called “traditional” today.

With our tours and retreats, we will share the tradition of ceilis with you at our cottage and at your hotel. Of course these will take a slightly different course. For one, most of our guests are not major drinkers. Instead of local gossip we share our fun times, exhilarating times and humourous moments of the day passed. This drifts into sharing our inspirations with others by performing our writings, poetry and songs we may have created during the day. We close the evening with final thoughts, meditation and prayer before we call upon sharing a parting glass blessing before retiring to sleep.

The “ceili” should become the most restoring and most healing part of every retreat day we host. It is our time to share, connect and archive the wonderful inspirations and experiences we gather during our day. Usually this ensures retiring to a most wonderful peaceful night’s sleep.

Each day of our retreat is a journey towards our evening “ceili”. Then ceili time becomes a joy of unwrapping, sharing and treasuring the gift of the day just past.    

Sunday: Journey to Co. Sligo & Celtic Ways Cottage Welcome

We collect you from Dublin, either the airport or your hotel if you arrived a day or two early. Then we travel to Celtic Ways cottage in Co. Sligo.

If you can, I recommend arriving in Dublin a day or two before our retreat. Not only is this a good idea for restoring after jet lag and losing a night’s sleep, if you travel from North America, but it is good to have some time to use atms to get some euros, shop and buy any pharmacy and personal needs, and become familiar with Irish communication networks. We can book a hotel for your earlier arrival.  

Our drive to Co. Sligo takes just over two hours from Dublin so we take a bathroom break after about an hour’s travel.

When we arrive at Celtic Ways cottage (opening in May) lunch will be ready and waiting for you. This will be served around our hearth or outside on our patio. It depends on how the weather is on arrival.

After lunch you can stretch and try out our Garden Labyrinth (opening in May). Where possible, Claire Roche will also serve you a few songs and tunes with her harp from our little Clairseach Country Theatre (also opening in May).

During late afternoon we move on from Celtic Ways cottage to your accommodation at Cromleach Lodge, about 15 to 20 minutes away where you will check in and take a couple of hours to settle in.

Dinner is at 7:00 pm, but if you find you need to take a nap and oversleep, do not worry, as dinner is served until 9:00pm. This is not a meal where we expect everyone to gather in unison. Go your own pace and if you join us, enjoy a full meal, part meal, or just a starter snack.

After dinner, those of use still present, will gather in the cozy Cromleach lounge for a very social and informal introduction ceili to continue our introductions and learn a little about each other. 

Monday: Carrowkeel Passage Cairns

After a good night’s rest, and invigorating breakfast we meet for a session. By now, everyone is usually fully refreshed and able to share with each other. During this session of introductions everyone has a space to be heard, to express, to share and to have their presence welcomed and appreciated by the group.

After this gathering we will start our adventure into the beautiful Tibet-scene-like Bricklieve mountains, driving up the winding dirt track road to the easy walking path that will take us to the Carrowkeel Passage Cairns.

It is important to visit these ancient cairns in the morning as their popularity is growing by the year. This is usually a busy place almost every afternoon. Fortunately, so far, we still find that we can usually have the cairns to ourselves until around noon. There is much more freedom here than visiting the controlled Newgrange and Loughcrew ancient cairn sites.

Four of the sixteen or more passage cairns here are still intact and usable. We visit and introduce you to two of them, share their traditions and ceremonies, and then invite you to cuddle up in one of the inner chambers of the cairn of your choice to be left in silence for awhile.

The scenery is also remarkable here. On a clear day over a third of Ireland can be seen from outside of the cairns. Some travellers prefer to spend their quite time outside amongst the ancient stones than inside them. 

If you ever journey on our Litha Midsummer tour we share sunset here. If there is a clear sunset we witness a remarkable lighting of the cairns. One of the cairns has a precise light hole that allows a beam of light to enter the cairn and light up a couple of the stones like a torch. As you can imagine mythology is rich here and we share tales of how these cairns link to Bhride as a swan. This is truly a fascinating and inspiring site for all those who visit here.

Most of our travellers tell us that their visit to Carrowkeel is the most moving experience of their entire tour. We like to introduce you to this place during our first morning with you so that its Cygnus Swan spirit may bless you and carry you on through your entire retreat.

From Carrowkeel Cairns we head back to Celtic Ways cottage for lunch.

After lunch we invite you to walk the Garden Labyrinth to its center where we collectively gather and help everyone to define their creative goals while on this retreat. Everyone is encouraged to keep their goals simple, doable, and, most important, full of fun.

At about 5:00 pm we return to Cromleach Lodge to allow everyone a couple of hours for themselves before gathering back together for the evening meal and ceili.

On this evening you are sure to fully appreciate how stunning the dining is at Cromleach Lodge. Not only is the food, produced from local meats, fish and produce where possible but you will also enjoy the caring service of the staff and hotel owners. The restaurant has wonderful ambience enhanced by its surrounding walls covered with awesome photographs by local resident and one of Ireland top wildlife and celebrity photographers, Mike Bunn.

After our meal we join together for ceili in the hotel lounge, or in the hotel garden if we have a dry warm evening. Feel free to join and leave this, and every, ceili as your spirit moves you. Some people feel the end of day ceili is the most important time of the day and join us every night. Some people like to have an evening for themselves away from the group, or a quiet time with a partner or new friend, or just feel a need to retire to bed early.

Tuesday: Morning Workshop & Lazier’s Sacred Well

We set aside this morning as our first workshop morning, but you should find this relaxing and fun rather than pressured and intimidating. This is not like being at school or college.

The intent of this first session is to self discover new levels that you can reach through writing, painting, photography or filming.

You can expand existing experience and skills or start a completely new interest from scratch. Our motto here is “its never to late to start, learn and create something new” .

This morning’s session has the intent of sprouting the seeds of your inspirations and letting them flow abundantly. Ideas are bounced around the group and confirms that you are truly in a place where you can express yourself, be listened to, gain wisdom from listening and feel warmed and excited by this spirit of sharing. This session grows the “food” that you will “gather” for your next day’s project.

After this exciting session we break out into lunch, followed by a visit to Lazier’s Holy Well below Kilronan Mountain and then a walk through the woods to an ancient court cairn. Some of you might like to rest by the lake and watch the swans glide and feed around an ancient crannog, which is a man made island.

This area of Kilronan is said to be the place where the Tuatha De Dannan, led by Dagda, landed and emerged with their harps from the mist. There are some wonderful stories to share with you here.

After another wonderful evening meal at Cromleach Lodge our ceili will also prepare your spirit for our project day to follow. This is important as we do not want to you stay awake either excited or worrying about it.

Wednesday: Project Day & Cheis Coarran Caves

This is a “creative time out” day, though we are around for transport and guidance.

After breakfast we have a sessionto talk about your project intents for the day. Some will want to work alone, others as pairs and others as groups. This gathering takes this time to find out what you aim to do, where you would like to be, and what you need to make it happen.

Writers usually work alone if they are writing a story, journal or poetry. Script writers may work alone and then get together with a film making person or group. Songwriters work alone or with others, same with comedy sketch writers.

Painters and photographers work alone unless they work with someone who prefers to work this day as their model. Some might come together, later, with a writer or film maker to be part of their story board and production.

Film makers either work alone or work with othersas a team including actors, writers and designers.

Packed lunches will be issued to you after this kick-off session. We then travel and drop you off at your chosen locations, which can be indoors or outside. We will be available to pick you up and transport you to additional local places indoors or outside, anywhere where you need to be to continue through your creating process. Guidance will be available for you at any time if you need it. Having a fully charged mobile/cell phone would be very handy for this. You can buy inexpensive prepaid sets at the airport when you arrive. 

Overall If you take on this creative opportunity this can be one of the most wonderful and exciting days of your life!

About two hours before sunset we collect everyone and make our way to Cheis Coarran Caves. Have you ever seen the Dead Poets Society movie? Inspired by this, we raise the plot of that movie a few notches. As the sun is setting, hoping there will be a visible sunset, we create our own theatre presentation of our creations so far. There’s a lot of space in these caves. If it is wet, cold and miserable we will head for the coziness and comfort of our Clairseach Country Theatre instead. 

Dinner and ceili tonight will be at Celtic Ways cottage, outdoors if possible. This ceili will truly be the showcase of your creativity, the ultimate of being heard and shared. This wonderful opportunity of expression can be an essential life enhancing experience.  

Thursday:  Publishing, then to the Beach

Today, we invite and help you to evolve your creativity into a small online production. Writer’s might compile a travel blog, a short story, some poems, even a song or two. The songwriters might be able to record a demo on our mobile recording pack that we can upload and release as a downloadable MP3, or use as a soundtrack to another member’s movie. Surprisingly, we can do all of this before lunch.

Painters may have their work photographed for wider sharing.

Photographers can either publish their work as a slideshow album or as a video movie. Either could use an audio soundtrack, maybe an audio session created by another member of the group.

Movie makers can also launch their short movies online and may choose to integrate some of the photo, music, writing, and painting creations of other members.

In short, we can get your work published online, using a variety of tools such as Blogger.com, MySpace, and YouTube and our own Celtic Ways Media, and do all of this before lunch.

For those not familiar with how to use these tools we will show you how. Please do not feel intimidated by being unfamiliar with online social media. Its not a requirement for survival and living, but is a wonderful discovery for fulfilling creative expression.

Once your work is published, hopefully by about 2:00 pm, we’ll have some lunch and then break out to celebrate. The most popular choice is to head for the coast, and play on the beach if the weather is good. If the weather is not so good we can go to an exhibition or two in Sligo or Carrick On Shannon. Some of you may just want to stay and head for a pampering at the hotel spa. If that’s your choice we’ll pay €20 towards your session

We are then back at Cromleach by 6:00 pm, or just after dark if this is a winter retreat. Our evening meal might be a bit later today, which is followed by a short fun packed celebration pat-on-the-back, or giant hug, ceili.

Friday:  Tara Hill, then Dublin 

During the morning it is time to leave our Co. Sligo retreat and head back to Dublin. On the way, we will detour so that you can visit Tara Hill. Tara was not only the court of Ireland’s High Kings for over 2000 years, but its where the creativity of the nation was delivered and shared at every fire festival, especially at Samhain, early November.

Our journey at Tara starts at the Banqueting Hall where the bards and harpers of the nation collected to share their works, if it was accepted as being worthy by clan leaders.

Next we visit Rath Of Grainne and share its connection to the retreat we have just come from. This is a lovely place on Tara Hill that is largely ignored by the mass of visitors on the hill. Here you can re-enact your right to express your creativity. More will be revealed when we visit here.

From Rath of Grainne we visit the Wishing, or Fairy, Tree and then what I feel is the most regal approach to the ancient Royal Court. We depart from the Royal Court along the route of mass of tourists who come here, visiting the Mound of Hostages cairn on the way, and honoring Tara’s Sheela na Gig.

Then is time for well earned and highly anticipated free time to browse the village crafts, books and coffee shops.

When we gather back together we close our retreat at the White Cow Sacred Well beside Tara Hill before travelling into Dublin.

We feel it is too early to delve into the bustling heart of Dublin so we take you to the beautiful Howth peninsula where we will share the last night together at Deep Park Hotel on the grounds of Howth Castle. H.G. Wells once described this place as the “best view east of Easter Island”.

At Deer Park we will share our closing evening meal, ceili and truly our parting glass for now.

I hope you will plan to stay in Dublin for a couple of days more after we part. It is worth seeing the city sites, exhibitions, museums and even a theatre show. One day your creativity might expand into work that can be showcased at one of the city’s prestigious film, writing, and music festivals. You just never know what wonders our Veil Between Two Worlds retreat could open up for you.

Why is our retreat called “Veil Between Two Worlds”?

That will be explained when you commence your retreat with us.

Some folks question if our retreat is to lure folks into a new “faith” or “cult”. Quite the reverse, really. During our retreat weeks we trust that everyone will include and share stories of their faiths so we may embrace them. We also trust that our retreats will help everyone to not only make new friends but to make existing friendships and relationships much stronger when they return home.

Our most important intent is to serve you with a week that combines personal pampering with creative challenge, a time when you convert your half empty glass into a half full glass, that is starting to fill up.

When we say our motto is “its never to late to start, learn and create something new” we hope that through this week you will discover that “new” actually does not mean different but means an awakened awareness of something you already have, but may not have truly bonded a relationship with yet.

What’s included in the cost of this retreat:

• 6 nights accommodation with breakfast
• 6 evening meals
• 6 days guide, driver and transport or
• €50 paid towards spa services on each day you do not use guide, driver, transport
• 6 lunches
• harper bard performance by Claire Roche at Celtic Ways cottage
• free use of internet from Sunday until Thursday night
• porterage for up to 2 cases/bags per person
• gratuities for hotel and restaurant staff

What’s NOT Included:

• airfare
• travel insurance
• beverages with meals and extra beverages
• personal items
• materials needed for your creative project
• driver and guide gratuities

Pricing & Booking:

• current price range is between €EU1100 to €EU1400 per person
• that’s currently from $US1620, $CA1620, $AU1800, $NZ2060 £UK825
• pricing is highest during late June, July and August
• pricing is lowest from November until Easter.
• all pricing includes 5 nights in a superior hotel with fine dining
• and the hotel on the last night is clean, relaxing and cozy
• single supplement varies between €200 and €300 
• questions and suggestions before booking are very welcome
• when you book we have several easy payment options

Reminder of 2008 dates still with availability :

Maximum of 8 guests per retreat

• July 27^th (Sun) until August 2^nd (Sat)  escape summer crowds
• September 28^th (Sun) until October 5^th (Sat)  harvest retreat 
• November 2^nd (Sun) until November 8^th (Mon)  special Samhain retreat
• November 16^th (Sun) until June 22^nd (Mon)  cozy winter peace retreat

If you prefer dates not listed above, please inquire because additional dates may be added.

To Inquire and Book:

Please use our inquiry email utility below.
We will respond quickly with answers, suggestions and current pricing
along with payment terms and booking link when you are satisfied.

You can book all or part of a retreat, quotes provided for either,
We look forward to you possibly joining us.

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