Anam Cara Writer's & Artist's Retreat
Thank you for visiting our web site.. We are welcoming creative (and vaccinated and boostered!) people interested in retreating to Anam Cara! Thanks to all of you who have been enquiring about our reopening. I really appreciate your support and encouragement.
In order to follow current Covid protocols and to protect my own health vulnerabilities, I am opening half of the retreat building to creators. You may work on your own or with up to two others... either people you are familiar with or others who are fully vaccinated and boostered and willing to follow Covid protocols when in close proximity to people.
During this partial opening, three comfortable bedrooms will be available. (See Photo Gallery) Postcard with a queen-sized bed and private bath, all-inclusive weekly rate is €850; Mishkish with a double bed and private bath, all-inclusive weekly rate is €800; and Coulagh Bay with a queen-sized bed and ensuite bathroom, all-inclusive weekly rate is €900. (The week begins on the evening of that week's Saturday and ends with your departure after breakfast on the next Saturday.)
There is wifi throughout, and retreaters will share a sitting room/dining room, and the Anam Cara library. Continental breakfastl is self-serve (there is a small kitchen furnished with a breakfast selection of food), a kettle, a microwave, a fridge, and a toaster).
The mid-day meal, and supper will be served in this dining room Amenities include a sauna, a glass conservatory with working spaces, and the five acres of grounds, including the Kealincha River and Cascades, the riverbank, the river island, the labyrinth, the gardens, benches with views, and about one kilometre of walking paths through the hazelnut and sally grove.
Check the availability calendar for future dates:
I hope this interim approach will work for you until we can be certain that getting back to the original expanded programme is safe for everyone. I look forward to hearing from you (
To help fulfill Anam Cara's purpose and to let the breezes off Coulagh Bay clear your creative path, we recommend a stay of at least a week. Your hostess, Sue Booth-Forbes, an experienced writer and editor who began her editing career at Cambridge University Press, creates an ambience and a daily schedule that will help you concentrate your energies on your artistic endeavor: In the evening, you may want to share your work in conversation with others in front of a turf fire or watch the sun set in the magical west-of-Ireland sky.
Since 1998, artists and writers have been having that conversation — inspiring and supporting each other as they have worked through their own creative processes. Hands down, the best part of being Anam Cara’s director is getting to know the writers- and artists-in residence (now over 1,000) and their work.
They have taught me and each other much about the creative process. Their genre / medium may be similar to someone else's, but their approach is always unique and inspirational. One intention for naming the retreat Anam Cara was to provide a space for people who, as they worked with their creative gifts, would recognize the “soul friend” in themselves, in their work, and in others.
*The name Anam Cara means "soul friend" in Irish; it was chosen, in part, to pay tribute to the work and writing of John O'Donohue.