Date/Time
Date(s) - Monday 9 Nov - Saturday 14 Nov, 2026
All Day
Location
Moniack Mhor, Kiltarlity, Inverness-shire, IV4 7HT
Be present in your writing
Join us for a quiet tutored retreat with Kapka Kassabova and focus deeply on being present in your writing. Every day will start with a silent morning with an optional 45-minute meditation led by yoga teacher Caoimhe Keohane. She will help you connect to your inner world and bring clarity and focus to your writing time. There will also be the opportunity to join a walking meditation on one of the days. After some quiet writing time, Kapka will provide one-to-one tutorials in the afternoons to help you refine and hone your work. In the evenings, everyone will enjoy a nourishing dinner and reflect on the day’s work.
Our guest reader, poet and novelist Aonghas Phàdraig Caimbeul/Angus Peter Campbell, will be joining us midweek for an evening reading.
All genres of writing are welcome.
Tutors
Described as ‘the poet laureate of the margins’, Kapka Kassabova is a writer of people and place. Her recent Balkan Quartet comprises Anima (2024), Elixir (2023), To the Lake (2020) and Border (2017). Awards include a British Academy prize, Scottish Book of the Year, Stanford-Dolman Travel Book of the Year, the Highland Book Prize, Prix Nicolas-Bouvier, Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger, Premio Mazzotti, and her work is translated into most European languages. Borrowed Land, a Highland story (Cape 2026) is her first book set in Scotland. Kassabova grew up in Sofia, Bulgaria, and migrated to New Zealand as a teenager before settling in Scotland twenty years ago. She lives by the Beauly River.
Growing up along the western shores of Ireland, Caoimhe Keohane was inspired by the landscape, ancient stories, and the dance of the seasons. Since moving to Scotland she has been exploring the shared Gaelic heritage and mythology that flow between Ireland and the Highlands. A yoga teacher and nature guide since 2018, she facilitates others in mindful movement, through yoga and nature immersions, practices that ground us in the breath, body and earth. She weaves together mindfulness, mythology, and movement ~ creating space for others to remember our natural, wilder ways of being and reconnect with the land.
Guest reader
Aonghas P(h)àdraig Caimbeul/Angus Peter Campbell is a bilingual (Gàidhlig/English) writer. His poetry collection Aibisidh won the Scottish Poetry Book of the Year Award in 2011, his novel Memory and Straw the Saltire Scottish Fiction Book of the Year in 2017, and his Gaelic novel Murdo ann am Marseille the Gaelic Fiction Book of the Year in 2022. He is from South Uist, and a graduate in History and Politics from Edinburgh University. His recent novel Donald and his Seven Cows has been reviewed as ‘a literary reinstatement of indigenous Gaelic cosmology, and the most significant literary ethnography from out of the South Uist faerie hill in modern times’.
Fees
The full fee for this tutored retreat is £625. This includes your tuition, accommodation in a single room with shared bathroom, all meals, hot drinks and snacks from Monday afternoon until Saturday morning. For more information about the format and practicalities of our courses, tutored retreats, 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 £600. Please note this room does not have an ordinary window, only a small skylight.
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 us on 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.
For more information about access to our courses, please visit our Access page.
Terms and Conditions
Please read our Terms & Conditions before booking.