Retreats in Ireland

Ireland has quietly become one of the places people bring a group to think.

Some of that is practical. It is an hour and ten minutes from London, a direct overnight from Boston or New York, and nobody has to work in a second language. Some of it is older than that. This is a country with a fourteen-hundred-year habit of walking into a quiet valley to get away from things, and the landscape still has the room for it.

We run one venue, in Glendalough, an hour from Dublin Airport. What follows is what we have learned about bringing groups to Ireland, including the parts that are inconvenient.

May and September are the two months everyone wants. Long light, warm enough to be outside between sessions, and the valley is not full. Ask about these a year out.

June to August is the mildest stretch, with daytime highs around 19 to 20 degrees. Warm is the wrong word. Comfortable is the right one, and for a group who will be outdoors in the middle of the day, comfortable is what you want.

April and October cost less and are only slightly less reliable. If your programme is mostly indoors, ask about these first.

November to March is dark by late afternoon and wetter. That suits some retreats very well. Silent ones. Writing ones. Anything built around a fire, a sauna and a long evening. It suits a walking retreat badly.

The part nobody tells you. It will rain. Wicklow sits on the drier eastern side of the country, and Dublin averages around ten rainy days in June against thirteen in January, so it is not the deluge people imagine. But build a programme that works wet and treat every dry afternoon as a gift. Everyone who runs retreats here does.

The west - Kerry, Clare, Connemara - is the Ireland on the postcards. It is also three to four hours from Dublin Airport, and that is three to four hours at each end of a five-night retreat.

The south - Cork and Waterford - is gentler country, and a second flight or a long drive.

Wicklow, where we are, is mountains, lakes and forest, one hour from the airport. It is called the Garden of Ireland, which undersells it. Glendalough is a glacial valley with two lakes and a monastic settlement in it, and the Wicklow Way, the country's oldest waymarked trail, starts a few minutes from our gate.

If your group is flying in, the drive from the airport is worth more than the extra drama further west. A retreat that starts with a four-hour coach transfer has spent its first day already.

Dublin is served direct from most UK cities, from the US east coast, and from across Europe.

Two things about Dublin that matter for groups. It has US Preclearance, so an American group clears US immigration and customs before they fly home rather than queueing at the far end. And there is no visa for UK, US or EU passports, which removes an entire administrative job from your planning.

From the airport to us is about 60 minutes. Most groups meet one flight and travel in together.

Ireland is not the cheap option and it is not the expensive one. Expect to sit somewhere between Portugal and Switzerland.

What changes the maths is the travel. A shorter flight, no internal transfer of any length, and no third currency to explain to your guests. Groups that compare the total cost of a week in Ireland against a week somewhere further south are often surprised which way it lands.

Our own rates are on the host a retreat page, with no commission on facilitator ticket sales.

Yoga retreats - the practice space decides it, and ours is round.

Wellness retreats - sauna, cold plunge, soak baths, and food that is actually good.

Corporate and executive retreats - a round room where nobody sits at the head of the table.

Creative retreats - writing, painting and making. Long unbroken days and somewhere to leave the work out.

Meditation and silent retreats - quiet is the absence of other people, and there are none.

The Deerstone is a six-acre eco retreat in Glendalough, Co. Wicklow. Cottages, shepherd's huts and guestrooms, a roundhouse, and a sauna in the woods. Compost toilets, solar, heat pumps and a rewilding programme, because we would rather be part of the valley than parked on it.

When you are here, there is no one else here.

Hosting a retreat: rates, capacities and dates · Looking to join one: our calendar

Twenty-two ensuite rooms across cottages, shepherd's huts and guestrooms. Three meals a day cooked on site. The Roundhouse as your main space, seating up to 50. Sauna, cold plunges and soak baths in the woodland. Six acres with nobody else on them.

Off-site activities, guided walks and transfers are extra and charged at cost. Nothing is marked up.

Facilitators keep 100 per cent of their ticket revenue. We charge for rooms and food.

Yoga and meditation teachers, wellness facilitators, chefs, therapists and mountain guides. Thirty-six of them across our calendar, several on their third or fourth retreat with us.

US-led groups as well as Irish and British ones. Eat Pray Move, a US retreat company, run a five-night Ireland retreat here.

Eighty-eight reviews on our Retreat Guru profile.

May and September are the two months everyone asks for first. June to August is the mildest stretch, with daytime highs around 19 to 20 degrees. April and October cost less and are only slightly less reliable. November to March is dark and wetter, which suits silent, writing and restorative retreats very well and walking retreats badly.

Less than the reputation, on the east side. Dublin averages around ten rainy days in June against thirteen in January, and Wicklow sits in the drier half of the country. Build a programme that works wet and treat the dry afternoons as a bonus.

About 60 minutes. London to Dublin is 1 hour 10 minutes, Boston to Dublin about six hours direct. Dublin also has US Preclearance, so American groups clear US immigration before they fly home rather than queueing at the far end.

Not for UK, US or EU passports. English is the working language and the currency is the euro, so there is no third currency to explain to anyone.

Twenty-two ensuite rooms, roughly twelve of them singles and fewer if you twin.

Accommodation, three meals a day cooked on site, the Roundhouse, and the sauna, cold plunges and soak baths. Six acres with no other guests on them. Off-site activities and transfers are extra, at cost.

No. What you charge is yours. We charge for rooms and food.

Yes. Vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, dairy free and allergies are routine here rather than an exception. Send us the list when you confirm your numbers.