Make moves and chill: Eight gorgeous yoga retreats to escape to this winter

I was so stressed the night before my week-long yoga retreat, I had an anxiety dream. I wasn’t alone. While mine involved being hoodwinked into sharing a prison-like chamber with loads of dirty strangers, plus a certain degree of upset screaming, I soon discovered one of my fellow yogis had something similar. Her dream included an unexpected dorm and a lack of bathroom facilities.

We shouldn’t have worried. Recently refurbished, the Burren Yoga Retreat centre has lots of lovely single and double en suite bedrooms; so while you can save money by sharing a bathroom, or booking a dorm, it’s definitely not obligatory. Stress can do funny things to a person, and one of its more insidious tricks involves making you believe it’s dangerous to relax. I’m sure there’s a deep evolutionary reason, dating back to when we were living in caves and trying not to be eaten by wolves, but it’s less useful in the 21st century.

According to the glamping pod gurus at Further Space, the average person has 60,000 thoughts a day, and they can only settle when we slow down and unwind. Being in nature helps, but you have to remember to pause, breathe deep and soak it all in. I was halfway through a walk in the enchanted Burren woodlands (that may or may not have inspired JRR Tolkien to write The Lord of the Rings), before I realised I was so stuck in my head, I hadn’t actually noticed how gorgeous they were.

It took me a good few days to let go. By day three I realised that “achieving relaxation” might not be the best way of going about things and that there is a great deal to be said for just settling in and going with the flow. By day four, my face had changed, grim lines soothed into something softer — to which an amazing massage by Devatara Ní Fhinn has definitely contributed. Owner and director David Brocklebank tells us the centre has been blessed by llamas. It is also surrounded by sheep and cows whose bleats and moos infuse our twice-daily meditation sessions.

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Surrounded by all this beauty, retreats at the centre vary depending on what you’re in the market for. You can do boot camps, if you so desire, but we’re signed up for yin-inspired Hatha yoga with Niamh Daly, which is excessively lovely. “Have you done restorative yoga?” Daly asks on our first evening. “No? You are in for such a treat,” she says happily.

Restorative yoga turns out to involve discovering hugely comfortable positions and cuddling bolsters. Nidra yoga is similar, but as Daly informs us, it also includes “me saying nice things to you”. Having endured plenty of pulled muscles and sweaty aching during my occasional forays into weekend yoga classes, I’m delightfully surprised. In fact, the kind of yoga-for-keep-fit so many of us do in this part of the world is actually a relatively recent import, via Swedish gymnastics, Daly says.

I look it up to discover that back in 1949, Indian yogi Shyam Sundar Goswami visited Sweden and made a sort of a spiritual movement mash-up with Pehr Henrik Ling’s system of physical jerks. That’s not to imply that exercise is absent from Daly’s classes, it’s just more of a byproduct of a way of relearning to inhabit your body, move with grace and intention, making the most of some too-long-ignored muscles and always, always remembering to breathe.

It’s amazing how quickly we fall into a routine. Mornings start at 8am with meditation and yoga until 10am. Weirdly, you’re expected to achieve this uncaffinated, but even though I have decided to throw myself fully into the experience, there are limits. Fortunately, the dining room has a coffee dock and fruit bowl, so what passes for equilibrium is restored.

Daly also has a career as an actor. Fans of Fair City will recall her as Debbie O’Brien, mother of Katy (of kidnapped Katy-in-a-box fame). As her storylines were usually pretty grim and miserable, I ask her for a quick burst of “anguish”. She instantly obliges, cracking us all up. Daly is a brilliant teacher. Our group ranges from beginner to experienced, stiff to bendy, and 30-something to over 70, but Daly is able to make sure we all get everything we need from each session.

Finally, it’s time for breakfast, where there is a wonderful array of fruits, free-range eggs, breads, cereals and more epically necessary coffee. Retreats are alcohol-free and the food is vegetarian and inspiringly delicious. Still, as we gel as a group we all agree that dinner of beans, nuts and pulses followed by yoga and stretching isn’t quite as relaxing as it should be. “Digestively challenging” is a more accurate description perhaps, although I do discover some more unfrequented muscle groups as I try to refrain from interrupting the silence of evening meditation.

After yoga each day we head out to explore the beautiful Burren. We scramble over limestone pavements, swim at the Flaggy Shore made famous by Seamus Heaney’s perfect poem Postscript (etched on to a handy sign nearby) and those who feel up to it climb Mullaghmore. Another sunny day, we swim in Lough Bunny, where the water streams like silk in front of me, and if it wasn’t for the arctic cold as I get to a deeper darker spot, I would have stayed in till teatime.

There is no phone coverage or wifi at the retreat centre, and it is incredible how quickly the urge to “just check something on email” evaporates when you physically can’t. The whole digital detox aspect is slightly marred by Brocklebank popping in to ask if he can film us for Instagram. It’s an unwelcome reminder of a world I’m anxious to ignore, if only for a few days; although I can see how after the Covid hiatus, every little helps when it comes to spreading the word.

He shouldn’t be so anxious. Billed as offering “luxurious simplicity”, the centre is very special. The new refurb means it’s still a little shiny and new in feeling, and some touches, such as a few extra-soft furnishings and nice Burren-ey pictures in the rooms, are still to come. The grounds are in the process of being done over to include covered seating areas and an outside yoga spot. Wandering to the car park to dig out a raincoat one day, I come across boxes of stone Buddhas, no doubt soon to be plonked in various thickets.

I leave at the end of the week determined to keep up the practices of sitting in quiet, letting my thoughts settle and of stretching in creative ways. It won’t last, I know it won’t. But as I drive away from the beautiful, beautiful Burren and a group of new friends it was a pure pleasure to spend time with, for a little while, I really and truly believe it will.

Retreats start at €570 in a shared room for two nights, to €1,590 in a super-king en suite room for six nights. Breakfast, dinner and yoga sessions included.

Retreat and relax: Seven more yoga holidays to try

West Cork wonders

With gorgeous lakeside spa pavilions and more than 123 acres of West Cork gardens and grounds to explore, Liss Ard is relaxing before you even start doing downward dogs. With group and individual sessions available, you can also choose your instructor, time and day, from €60. Or try a tea ceremony and sound bathing experience, for groups of three and more, where crystal bowls clink as you sip nice (legal) herbal concoctions. Or head to Inchydoney where 45-minute classes are available Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and are free for hotel guests in the recently renovated yoga room, or outdoors with glorious beach views to get highly mindful over. B&B from €190 per room.

Retreat to the Beara Peninsula

Galway’s delicious destination Ard Bia will help you settle in at Bothar Buí. Designed by the late architect Robin Walker, the Beara spot is a beautiful combination of renovated farmhouse and modernist pavilions. According to Ard Bia’s Aoibheann McNamara, “we all move, just not always with awareness”, so your weekend includes yoga, conversations and workshops on food, mental awareness, body movement, attitudes, cold exposure (and warm fires), night walks and plenty of tasty grub. Runs November 18th-20th, from €600, email ardbia@gmail.com for bookings.

Ballymaloe bending

Take two nights at Ballymaloe House to disconnect, swim, stretch and eat delicious vegetarian food. Led by Dearbhla Glynn, you’ll get all mindful with yin and restorative yoga, enjoy sunrise swims and generally tune in to switch off. Next retreats start Sunday, October 23rd, and Wednesday, November 30th. Includes bed, breakfast, lunch and dinners throughout, and all your yoga gear (mats, blocks and blankets) too, from €600 pps.

On point

Christie Seaver’s Ballet-lates is for anyone with a desire to dance and move towards better strength and health with ballet-grounded steps. Seaver also does retreats with a difference. Irish ones are scheduled for 2023, but how’s about heading to London on November 12th? You’ll take a ballet workshop at Sadler’s Wells, sip some champagne, and enjoy English National Ballet’s triple bill, including the Rite of Spring. From €280, or €420, including accommodation. Flights not included.

Sip and sigh

Maybe the clue is in the name, but the wise people at Westmeath’s Wineport Lodge let you add fizz to your practice with their Balance & Bubbles and the perhaps not-to-be-tried-at-home Topple & Tipple offerings. Book a 40-minute session with resident yoga instructor Sarah Gallagher and drink a nice glass of something soothing after drinking in the views (from whatever position you end up in). You may want to defer the sips as sessions are at 9am, but who are we to judge? Seaweed baths and hot tubs are also on offer. From €240 B&B per room, and add yoga for €20 with a smoothie, to €39 with champagne.

Yoga overseas

Holy Mama’s yoga retreats let you bring the kids, cleverly designed so you get to chill solo and enjoy family time too. Retreats have activities for different age ranges, so no child is left behind. Find holidays in Ibiza, Malaga, Bali, Goa and Morocco, with prices ranging from €2,250 to €3,497 including one child and excluding flights.

Working it

Is “working retreat” an oxymoron? Perhaps, but Irish company Yoga+ do make the idea sound enticing if your to-do list feels too long to include relaxation. The next two-week remote working retreat takes place in Fuerteventura with guided morning yoga and meditation followed by access to a fully equipped (off-site) co-working space. January 21st-February 4th, from €2,199, excluding flights.