Date/Time
Date(s) - Monday 7 Sep - Saturday 12 Sep, 2026
All Day
Location
Moniack Mhor, Kiltarlity, Inverness-shire, IV4 7HT
Bring the essence of place into your writing
How can you create compelling and authentic travel and nature-based writing? This course will immerse you in our local landscape to help you explore how observation and place-based approaches can influence and enrich your non-fiction work. Horatio and Monisha will introduce you to a range of writing techniques during workshops and on two site visits in the local area. You’ll have time to practise imagining places and spaces by drawing inspiration from what surrounds you and get feedback on your work in a one-to-one session with your tutors.
Mid-week, we’ll be joined by author and journalist Cal Flyn for an evening reading and insight into her work.
Writers of all levels and abilities are welcome, from beginners to published authors
Tutors
Horatio Clare is a Welsh writer and broadcaster. His acclaimed memoirs, travel and children’s books include Running for the Hills (Somerset Maugham Award), A Single Swallow, Down to the Sea in Ships (Stanford Dolman award), Aubrey and the Terrible Yoot (Branford Boase Award), and the “game-changing” (Telegraph) Heavy Light. His book Your Journey Your Way: the recovery guide to mental health, was a Sunday Times self-help book of the year. Horatio presents Is Psychiatry Working? on BBC Radio 4 and writes regularly for the international press. His latest book, We Came By Sea: stories of a greater Britain (shortlisted for the Nero Book Award) tells the unreported story of the small boat crisis. Horatio lectures in non-fiction at the University of Manchester. He lives with his family in Yorkshire.
Monisha Rajesh is a British journalist whose writing has appeared in The Guardian, The Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. Her first book Around India in 80 Trains was one of The Independent’s top ten books on India. Her second book, Around the World in 80 Trains won the National Geographic Traveller Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Award. Her third book, Epic Train Journeys was shortlisted for the National Geographic Traveller Photography Book of the Year. In 2023 she was named in the Condé Nast Traveller Women Who Travel Power List and her new book, Moonlight Express: Around the World by Night Train was published last year and is currently shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award.
Guest reader
Cal Flyn is a writer from the Highlands of Scotland. She is the author of Thicker Than Water (2016) and Islands of Abandonment (2021), a book about the ecology and psychology of abandoned places. The latter won her the title of the UK’s Young Writer of the Year and the John Burroughs Medal for natural history writing; it was also shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize, the Ondaatje Prize, and the British Academy Book Prize, among others. In 2024, she received the E. M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters.
Fees
The full fee for this course is £745. This includes your accommodation in a single room with shared bathroom, all meals, hot drinks and snacks from Monday afternoon until Saturday morning, and your tuition. For more information about the format and practicalities of our courses, tutored courses, and retreats, please visit our About the Residential Courses & Retreats page.
A limited number of en-suite rooms are available, which can be booked in advance for a £50 surcharge. We will also reserve an en-suite room for anyone who may need it due to a medical condition. This will be offered out as an upgrade nearer the course start date if it is not needed.
A small single room with a skylight is available at a discounted price of £720. Please note this room does not have an ordinary window, only a small skylight.
Two non-residential places are available on this course at the price of £440. This includes all meals, hot drinks and snacks from Monday afternoon until Saturday morning, and your tuition. You will not be assigned a room, but you will be able to access communal spaces and evening events throughout the week. You will not be able to stay overnight at the Centre. Read our non-residential frequently asked questions for more information.
A deposit is required to secure your place, which is non-refundable after a 14-day cooling-off period. The remainder of the course fee is due six weeks before the course begins. Please read our Terms & Conditions for full details about our cancellation policy. If you would like to pay the full amount in advance, please email info@moniackmhor.org.uk.
Bursaries are always available, and you also have the option to pay in instalments. If you have any problems paying online, or wish to discuss paying in instalments or applying for financial help, or would simply like assistance, please contact us by emailing info@moniackmhor.org.uk.
Access
Please let us know in your booking form if you have any access requirements, for example a ground floor bedroom and/or access to a step-free accessible shower room. We also reserve one en-suite bedroom per course for anyone who may need this due to a medical condition.
We have a limited number of twin rooms available on site. If you need to book a twin room for access reasons, please book a standard single room and mention in the comments box that you will need a twin room.
For more information about access to our courses, please visit our Access page.
Terms and Conditions
Please read our Terms & Conditions before booking.