In her fourth column for Yoga Abode, Travelling Yogini Caroline Sylger-Jones visits eco-friendly holistic retreat Ard Nahoo, near Dromahair in Ireland.
The Essence
Ard Nahoo is a simple, soulful place set up a single-track road and surrounded
by quiet fields, run with integrity by owner, Noeleen Tyrrell, a massage therapist and yoga teacher who lives here with her husband and two sons.
Come with a friend or your family for a restful break. Group retreats dedicated to yoga mixed with relaxation or walking also run all year round.
The Setting
Accommodation is in three eco-friendly self-catering cabins - a blue-painted Wendy house, ideal for couples, and two spacious cedar wood cabins set next to each other and near a Celtic Nature trail.
These sleep up to six, in one double room and two small twin bedded bunk rooms, with a shared shower and toilet. Touches such as pretty bedding, pink colanders and pillar-box red teapots will appeal to the girls.
The cabins are heated with wood pellet stoves, and have sheltered porches with rural views for sunny days.
The Yoga
Yoga is done in a spacious studio adjoining the main reception building. I found Noeleen a friendly, calming, down to earth yoga teacher - she's British-Wheel trained, and strongly influenced by her bodywork.
If you stay here as an individual you can book one-to-one sessions, or choose from two types of group yoga weekends that run throughout the year, Yoga and Relaxation, and Yoga and Walking, both open to beginners as well as experienced practitioners.
Start with a steam on arrival, followed by supper and an hour of relaxation or a dusk walk on the Friday night. There are two hours of morning ‘wake up' yoga on the Saturday and Sunday.
On the relaxation weekend, this is followed by a short guided walk in the afternoon and an hour and a half of restorative yoga; the walking weekend features a three-hour guided walk instead.
The Surprise
Whether you're here for a group retreat or alone, make time to use the Uisce area, (ish-ka, Irish for water), a cute indoor/outdoor bathing area which features a jacuzzi with refreshingly powerful jets and a view over the countryside, and a detoxing infra-red sauna.
In nearby treatment rooms, excellent massages, reflexology and facials using Dr Hauschka products are given with love - be sure to pre-book.
The Atmosphere
Peaceful, relaxed and happy.
The Detail
A yoga weekend costs 350 euros per person, including shared accommodation, organic vegetarian meals, yoga tuition and guided walks, use of the steam room on arrival and an Uisce Hour.
If you come outside group retreats, cabins start from 190 euros for two nights, and the Uisce hour costs 30 euros for two. For more information go to www.ardnahoo.com
Caroline Sylger-Jones is the author of travel resource book Body & Soul escapes. Her second book, Body & Soul Escapes: Britain & Ireland, will be published in November 2008 (and can be pre-ordered here).
_0.jpg "Virabhadrasana I")
