Out on Lambay

Welcome to Lambay  •  Activities  •  Food  •  History  • Book here

Gorse and wild herbsOnce on the island, Monica is your host. Activities will include foraging for seaweeds, wild herbs or mushrooms, walking, birdwatching, rewilding, hilltop or seashore meditation, and optional fishing or hunting when in season. If it rains, we’ll have slideshows, talk around the log fire or play games. You can join in everything, or opt out and relax when you want. There is no pressure. The pace is yours.

Foraging for seaweed with Monica WildeMonica has designed the retreat to give you a truly immersive experience of the island’s ecology and the abundance of wild food and herbs growing there. Foraging walks will cover the different habitats on the island. We’ll visit the seashore for coastal plants, go inland to find wallabies and deer, watch the seabirds that fearlessly breed on the cliffs and gather food and herbs from the castle’s beautiful organic walled garden.

You will learn how to identify and collect seasonal food and in the evening can help Monica to prepare and cook the harvest. You learn to make wild mushroom pate, debone a wallaby for her signature stew with nettle dumplings, or make laverbread from seaweed collected that morning. Monica has designed a menu so that you eat well in all senses – healthy can also be gourmet!

Rewilding means restoring ourselves to ways of living, that give us greater mental and physical health and return a natural balance to ourselves and our relationship with the earth’s ecosystems. Rewilding teaches us how to return to using all of our senses to discover ways of living in a natural world that many people are disconnected from in their daily lives. For those that want to, Monica can also share some Shinrin Yoku techniques that help you to relax in nature.

Above all, this break is about you. It’s a retreat from your everyday life. Living well means enjoying life, as well as eating well and being well. In addition to learning a lot of practical knowledge, think about your mental and physical health, share stories and have fun. Being with me on Lambay will give you the chance to come down. To recollect your thoughts, to review priorities and reconnect with yourself and the natural world.