Your space to write…

Bespoke Writing Retreats  in the North-East of Scotland, focusing on creativity and wellbeing in this beautiful countryside, hosted by novelists Myszka and Adam Fox:

We offer a quiet and respectful space, full of possibility and creativity. How you use it is up to you. You can choose to tuck yourself away and just write. You can explore the countryside to stretch cramped writing muscles. You can venture to the sea, to swim or simply to watch the moving water.

Workshops and Coaching sessions to explore further aspects of your writing are available in addition to your fully catered stay, with prior booking, around the Foxes’ other commitments.

Food is all prepared from scratch by Myszka and Adam with wholesome ingredients to suit your dietary requirements. Good quality simple ingredients make delicious meals.

Now that we are settled into our new home, we are ready to start offering one fully-catered retreat space with a private study bedroom, excellent wifi, armchair and writing desk. A log cabin will be soon be coming along too, so do keep an eye on things, or ask us to let you know when it is ready. 

Sea swimming here is a thirty five minute walk away across open countryside.

Circular rural walks are directly from the farm gate; there is no need to drive once you are here, as we are surrounded by Scottish open access countryside.  There is no passing traffic; we are at the end of a mile long track. 

We regularly have red deer, roe deer, badgers, goshawks, buzzards, white-tailed sea eagles passing through the fields in front of the house.  Several families of hares live in our fields and stop to chat on their way through the farmyard, without much concern for our existence.  Cranes nest in the forestry around our home, and puffins nest in the summer on the local cliffs, alongside the gannets.  We often see orca off the coast, from land, and there are many dolphins and seals to be seen too.  Sea otters live on our local beach and are due to have their first litter pups for 2025 shortly! 

From 2025 we will be working differently, as requested by our regular writers…

We will accommodate one writer to stay at a time, to allow for more of the solitude required by so many of us when we write. We have many beautiful souls who prefer Foxes’ in this way, so it makes sense for us to focus on that element of our work.

You will have your own comfortable sea-view study bedroom, with a writing desk and armchair, in our large guest room set up with a fabulous sea and forest view, as well as being in the middle of arable farmland, with no neighbours.  

You will find a range of breakfast items to help yourself to, and a homemade soup/delicious salad, with freshly Foxes' Retreat baked bread for lunch. There will be a bowl of fresh fruit, not to mention delicious cake for your afternoon tea time.  Dinner will be ready for you at an agreed time, to suit the rhythm of the day.  We agree all menus ahead with our guests, to account for allergies and personal preferences - no one wants to eat uncomfortably when on retreat!

We have excellent wifi for research and accessing writing platforms online.

There is no expectation that you book additional sessions - you can simply write, working on your project whilst you are here. Often our writers want something specific from their Writing Retreat, and many have asked for one or more sessions to be added on to suit their project. As a result we do offer pre-bookable sessions - if you do want to tap into support or develop a project, then please outline to us what you are working on.

Popular add-ons:

  • Character Building & Development, Flash and Short Story Writing

  • Therapeutic Writing sessions, safely led by BACP registered Psychotherapeutic Counsellor, Myszka

  • 1:1 Coaching for Writing to work specifically on a project

Travel:

Recognising that we are now an hour away from Aberdeen, we can arrange collection from the airport (ABZ), or from the rail/coach stations in our retreat offerings, for those of you who are keen to travel other than by car, by arrangement and at a small additional cost to cover the fuel.  FLIX coaches do a great service into Aberdeen bus station, there are plentiful rail services into Aberdeen, and Easyjet fly from Heathrow, London City, Luton and Gatwick, as well as Loganair from Bristol, Norwich, Birmingham and Manchester.  

Cost:

Prices remain as set in 2022; £945 fully catered for five nights, payable one month in advance of your stay to secure your dates. If you are booking far ahead, we will take a 20% deposit and the remaining balance a month before you arrive. All stays booked within a month of arrival need to be paid in full on booking.

What will I need to bring with me?

You will need to bring a notebook with you, as well as a laptop or tablet, if you prefer to use technology to record your thoughts and ideas.

Pre-load any podcasts that you might need for research, or your favourite mood music and pack your earbuds if you enjoy listening to things are you go along.

Any spare time can be spent in planning, reflection, or walking locally, so bring some stout shoes if that is your thing.

Whilst we have central heating and double glazing, each bedroom also has a hot water bottle and an electric blanket for the colder months, as sitting still to write can lead to feeling chilly without extra warmth at hand! We know that some writers like a cooler room with a warm bed, or a warmer room with a cool bed - so the options are there for you to make it perfect for you. Quality duvets are topped with old-fashioned bedspread eiderdowns for those who like to snuggle into bed deeply. Please don’t feel you have to dress up in a certain way at Foxes’ Retreat - you can be smart, casual, comfy or cosy - we are happy as long as you are comfortable to write.

Taking that first step…

Making the decision to start to write can feel daunting, to any one of us. Foxes’ Retreat specialises in bringing out the best in all writers, no matter what their previous experience, with a relaxed professional approach to relax and unwind the creative processes.

If you would like to have a chat with us about joining us to write and relax into yourself, please call or email, and we will be happy to work with you to find your best fit.

myszka@foxesretreat.com or 07734 328762