Retreats · The Comb · Northumberland
Host your retreat at the Comb.
Yoga, wellness, photography, writing, walking: a private estate for the retreat you run. The Lodge for 20 and the Farmhouse for 10, the Dark Skies Barn as the big room, and 60 acres on the edge of Kielder Forest with no mobile signal.
What you get
The place is ours. The programme is yours.
You bring the teacher, the guide or the tutor and the people who follow them. We give you the houses, the Barn and the estate, and leave you to it.
The Lodge
Ten en-suite bedrooms for 20, five on the ground floor. One long table for 26, a bar you stock yourselves, a lounge, a snug with a log burner, and the Dark Skies Balcony. Take the Farmhouse too and there are 30 of you and nobody else.
The Barn
A big room with a stage, a bar and its own toilets. Set with tables for 120, or cleared for mats, easels or chairs in a circle. Open from ten in the morning, staffed by us when the bar is in use.
The estate
Sixty acres of lawn, woodland, hill and burn, the forest at the end of the drive, the fire pit, and the largest area of protected night sky in Europe overhead. Walks from the door; Kielder Water, Hadrian’s Wall and the coast within the hour.
Food
Cook for the house in the Lodge kitchen, which is built for a full house, or bring a caterer. We have a list of people who know the Barn and the kitchen, and we send it with your booking.
Who it suits
Yoga and wellness retreats. Photography and painting, with the sky at night and the valley by day. Writing and reading weeks. Walking groups. Company retreats that want a house rather than a hotel.
How it works
Tell us the dates, your numbers and what you are looking for. We work with you to shape what you need, and quote for the houses and for the Barn if you need it. Midweek and the quieter months are the easiest to find.
Enquire
Tell us about your retreat.
Rough dates, rough numbers and what you run. We reply personally, usually within a day.
The retreats we run
Three of our own, hosted at the Comb.
One day and a fire · Teams of 6 to 40
Reivers Raid
A day of navigation, nerve and teamwork across Kielder Forest, then the reckoning round the fire and a night in the Lodge. Every team against the clock, a live scoreboard, and the Hall of Fame in the bar.
Enter your team
Two nights · Couples and small groups
Skyfire Retreats
Fire, food and stars. Two nights: the sky from the Dark Skies Balcony on the first, and on the second a meal you have foraged yourselves, cooked over the fire.
Register your interest
Three days · Hosted journeys
Borderland Legends
Castles, the Border Reivers and the dark sky, told by people who know this ground. A day at Bamburgh, Hadrian’s Wall or Cragside; the stories by the fire at night.
Read the three daysHow they work
Hosted, and few of you.
Hosted
Unlike a weekend in the houses, a retreat is run for you: the hosts, the guides, the food and the programme are part of it.
Set dates
Retreats run on dates we set, fitted round the self-catering weekends.
Small numbers
Each retreat takes a limited number of people, so the fire stays a fire and not a crowd.
Next dates
Register your interest on the retreat’s page and we ring you when the next dates are set. No deposit is taken until a booking is confirmed.