The Hedge School is a real building: a lovely mezzanined teachín (tiny house) on the wild-hedged fringes of a large garden in Connemara, in the far west of Ireland. We’re just in the process of moving there, and doing up both the chalet and the house. Once we’re done, in late spring 2017, we’ll post photographs here. As well as ongoing online courses, and weeklong residential retreats (which are held in larger premises elsewhere), from 2018 we’ll be offering occasional small workshops and individual retreats on site.

The Hedge School is a brand-new venture, launched in February 2017. Over the coming months we’ll be creating a number of new offerings on this website, including an article database, other resources for those interested in the authentic study of our native myth and folklore, and a series of podcasts. Please sign up to Sharon’s newsletter (at the bottom of this page) to stay informed, and head over and subscribe to The Hedge School blog.

For more information about the foundation-stones of our work — myth, psychology and ecology — visit this page.

And for more information about Dr Sharon Blackie, please head over here.

 

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Our location

Connemara is a beautiful, wild region — a land of sea and stone, of lakes, bogs and mountains — which constitutes the westernmost part of County Galway. That’s The Hedge School, in the image below: see the shadow of a house tucked in among the trees there on the right, on the other side of the lough (from which we are separated by a road and a field).

 

 

We’re in the Gaeltacht (an Irish-speaking area) close to the Gaelic heartlands of Rosmuc and An Cheathrú Rua (home of the traditional Galway Hooker fishing boats). Gleann Trasna (which means ‘crossing valley’ in Irish) is a lovely hidden valley in the hills, with green fields surrounded by drystone walls. Our wider landscape is boggy, and peppered with lakes. The fascinating seaweed-strewn tidal inlets of south Connemara are close by, and the beautiful Maamturk mountains, visible from our townland, and are just a ten-minute drive away.

We’re about 45 minutes away from the vibrant old city of Galway. Shannon airport is a couple of hours away by road, and Knock airport is about an hour and a half away.