Reflection: Our Time at Inverlonan
Late Summer invites us to loosen our grip on urgency, and return to what is simple. At this point in the Celtic year, we enter Mabon, the season of steadiness and subtle change. The days are still warm, yet touched by something quieter and more reflective. It is a natural moment to step back from noise, and reconnect with the land.
My time at Inverlonan reminded me how deeply nourishing that reconnection can be. The retreat reimagines the traditional bothy: modest in comfort, simple in rhythm, yet crafted with intention. There is no hot running water, no switches to flick, no background hum of modern life. Everyday tasks become rituals again. Heating water on the stove, brewing tea, washing, preparing breakfast slowly and by hand. With each small action, the mind settles and softens.
The bothies sit gently in the landscape overlooking Loch Nell, framed by oak woodland and open sky. Built from natural materials, they feel less like structures set in nature and more like part of its fabric. Life outside the window becomes life inside it. Red squirrels flicker through the branches, deer move quietly at the tree line, dragonflies skim the surface of the loch. The pace is set by what you notice, not by what you need to do.
Meals become their own meditation. Cooking over fire slows time to a human rhythm. Stirring homemade beans, baking sourdough pizzas in the outdoor oven, shaping dough as the shadows lengthen. Hours slip by without effort. Even the simplest ingredients taste fuller when they are cooked with intention, and eaten without distraction.
Those days were filled with reading, sketching, wandering, and quietly watching the light change across the loch. Creativity returned easily once space was made for it. So did gratitude for the comforts of home: a warm shower, a light switch, a kettle ready at the press of a button. These small luxuries feel different when you have lived without them, even for a short while.
If you go, arrive ready to switch off. Pack lightly, wear sturdy shoes, bring midge spray, and welcome the chance to live at nature’s pace. Inverlonan is not an escape from life, but a deeper way of stepping into it. Slow living here is not an aesthetic, but a practice: one that invites you to notice, to savour and to come back changed.
