Pilgrimages of remembrance, ritual and reconnection in the WISE Isles

(Wales, Ireland, Scotland, England)

Bespoke Ancestral Retreats

for lone wolves or small packs up to 10

hiraeth

Welsh / Proto-Celtic

noun

A longing for a place, a time or a feeling, carried in the soul rather than memory. It is the ache for ancestral roots, for the land that shaped your people, for a language, a song, or a way of being that lingers just out of reach. It holds the grief of disconnection and the beauty of remembering.

Honour the lands that inhabit your bones…

Our bespoke Ancestral Pilgrimages are sacred journeys into memory, woven with land, lineage and living ritual.

  • Each pilgrimage is designed with you, your lineage and your longings in heart. Whether you’re seeking ancestral connection, belonging, creative inspiration, grief tending, or simply time to be held by wildness and story, this is a homecoming.

    By weaving our hearts into our ancestors’ ancient crafts, stories and rituals, we become receptive to their guidance and wisdom.

    In an age of crisis and disconnect, our time together will help you remember what has been dismembered, heal untended places within and revive a deep sense of ancient belonging to ancestral lands.

    This is a time of profound connection, digital unplugging, deep listening and radical presence with your indigenous soul and the spirits of the land.

weave your dream pilgrimage…

  • Stone Circle Ritual

    Venture off the beaten track to one of many lesser visited stone circles, enabling close contact and uncapped time to immerse, offer, sing and create ritual.

  • Ancestral Communion Ceremony

    A timeless union of breath, emotive guidance and raw vocal soundscapes to expand your state of consciousness and meet the ancient memory of the land, often along the coast path, in a cave or across the moor.

  • Tor Pilgrimage

    Adventure into the heart of ancestral lands by climbing up the moorland tor barefooted. Watch a sunrise or sunset and spend uncapped time amongst the giant granite ancestors.

  • Ancestral Dream Incubation

    Share a herbal dream tea ceremony with mugwort where we can call upon your indigenous ancestors to enter your dreams for guidance, within elemental lands and dark, starry skies that welcome such quests.

  • Water Ceremony

    The WISE Isles were lands full of water-cults. Remember such reverence for the wisdom of the ancestral waters, the source of all life, the holder of all memory, through a ceremony to heal and bless the waters.

  • Coast, Cave + Labyrinth Connection

    Enter a silent state of pilgrimage and spend a day traversing the coast path, bathing in waterfalls, singing in a cave and tracing 500 BC labyrinth engravings with your fingertips.

  • Ancient Crafts

    Spend time busying your hands with ancestral crafts such as basket weaving, hand drop spinning, natural dyeing, drum birthing or clay altar piece making and firing in the coals of our hearth.

  • Sacred Wells + Ancient Yews

    Journey 2 hours by car to the Isle of Avalon to commune with the sacred wells, climb the tor and visit a 1,700+ year old yew tree hidden in a sleepy village.

  • Folkloric Foraging

    Slow down with the mindset of the hunter gatherer, venturing into the landscapes with all senses attuned. Child-like wonder will ignite as we discover new tastes, medicines and folkloric wisdom threaded through the land.

  • Long Pilgrimages

    Walk the wild edges of these Isles - and the transformative edges within - on a 1–2 week pilgrimage from our community farm along the southward coast path. With time for ritual and rest, a two-week journey carries us all the way to St Michael’s Mount.

  • Grief Tending

    Let the land hold the many generations of grief that often flow when ancestral lands are met and the heart is heard. Give space to your grief in a ritual that honours all that you love and all that has been lost.

  • Temperate Celtic Rainforest Bathing

    These Isles are home to the remaining pieces of the incredibly unique ecosystems that are our ancient Atlantic rainforests. Be held by Celtic oaks and the healing breath of your ancestors’ forests.

  • Ancestral Nourishment

    Enjoy homemade, homegrown and foraged meals together, often cooked with the fire, with a focus on bone broths, stews and other threads to our ancestors.

  • “Rooted Healing Ancestral gatherings are an act of restoration on behalf of all life. Veronica, and the wisdom keepers and space holders who contributed to her vision, wove us into deep relationship with The Ancestors, Earth and her beings. I experienced the mighty medicine of reconnection in an enchanted, verdant, and ceremonial place, through immersive stories, songs, ceremonies, forest and ocean food, sacred craft, and pilgrimages upon the landscape, I found myself coming home to my wild, creative, mythical self, and flowing back to an interconnectedness with life that most humans have forsaken. Upon my return to Turtle Island (North America), I can feel what others claim they see in me: I’m settled, nourished in my cells, and trusting that the way of the ancestors has been rekindled and will stay with me wherever I dwell.”

    Jennifer Comeau

  • “I describe this experience to other people as it feeling like I lived this whole other life, had this whole other family, whole other home. I like to think maybe in another life that we did all live like that together, not just for a week but for our lifetimes. Ancestral is so magical, connected, and restorative. It’s an authentic way of living, in harmony with people and nature. The ceremonies were extremely powerful and moving, you could feel the collective magic in the air. As if when tension is so thick you could cut the air with a knife, it was the same thing but in a totally opposite and pleasant way. It’s nourishing for the soul.”

    Louis Lovegrove

  • “Deep gratitude for this beautiful experience. Spending these days at the land of Cae Mabon was like stepping into a dream of how life can be if we remember our true nature and how to live in a relational way. These days gave me clarity on what I want more of in my own life, and how I want to be of service. Experiencing days living in a harmonious village, in community around the fire, in ceremony reconnecting with ancestral crafts I believe would be a healing experience for anyone. It certainly was for me.”

    Robin Tåg

  • "The time I spent over the Summer with Veronica and my new Rooted Healing family was a profoundly nourishing gift that moved in so many delicate and magical ways. The enchanted land that held us combined with the love, care, warmth and creativity the village made for the safest space in which to bond and soften down among the wonderful crew that were gathered there. Veronica's deep love of the earth, of song and plants, of binding, gathering and weaving people and land together impacts you deeply. My connection to the world around me has been invigorated. A profound thank you."

    Sarah McCun

  • “I have been lucky enough to attend 2 Rooted healing gatherings and could not recommend them enough. From the very first moments that I arrived I felt held and supported. I found myself deeply trusting of all the space holders and that feeling really helped with the building of a community with all the other guests. These experiences have been some of the most connected, creative and deeply nourishing experiences of my life. They help to remind me that I am the magic and I am the medicine.”

    Helen Turner

  • “This one of the most amazing experiences I ever had. Veronica has a unique and beautiful way of constructing a retreat which not only opens the soul but creates a powerful, loving and sharing space. This will not be the last of her retreats I shall go on.”

    Gini Holden

  • ”The gathering was a rich tapestry of invitations to open, connect, remember ­– the ceremonial spaces so beautifully crafted and held. The programme of offerings was carefully prepared yet perceptively fluid, adapting with the mood of each moment. I felt safe and open knowing that I was in the hands of those that deeply respect and honour the traditions and practices being shared. I am so grateful for this sacred and intimate journey with myself, with the group, with the land on which we rested.”

    Julia Goodlife

  • “A deep remembrance of ancient rituals and practices we’ve lost throughout the way. Well, we didn’t really loose them, deep inside of ourselves we still know. Eyes sparkling around the fire, your inner child making a jump of enthusiasm, curiosity and excitement while at the same time feeling a deep sense of relaxation, a deep sense of pleasure. A feeling of coming home. Thank you. This retreat was simply a realm of total bliss. A portal of deep healing, remembering and home coming.”

    Moika Nkwocha-Nweze

Ancestral Isles…

  • We welcome you to these lands with open hearts, deep care and profound reverence. Rooted Healing is based on the coastal lands of Kernow, where we centre our ancestral immersions in relationship with place and lineage. If your calling leads you elsewhere, we are honoured to co-create life-changing pilgrimages in collaboration with trusted local space holders and wisdom keepers.

    Our founder, Veronica, grew up in the wild beauty of South West Cymru, making those lands an extension of these offerings. Our primary ancestral gathering is usually held in North Cymru, a place that feels like a second home - rich with memory, myth and meaning.

    Wherever your bones are called, it is our great honour to craft a deeply moving ancestral pilgrimage in service to your journey of remembrance and reconnection.

Kernow (Cornwall)

  • Kernow (the ancient name for Cornwall) is a land where the veil thins, where stone, sea and star are forever in conversation. This rugged peninsula, shaped by Atlantic winds, granite bones and temperate rainforest valleys, once stood as a vital spiritual and cultural heartland of the Isles.

    Before the arrival of Rome, the people of Kernow were part of the wider Dumnonii tribe, a powerful Celtic confederation who inhabited what is now Cornwall and Devon. Their language, Dumnonic Brythonic (mother to Kernewek; Cornish) carried stories of the land, the cycles of life and death and the deities who guided them. These were people who lived in intimate communion with the earth, her tides and her rhythms - farmers, fisherfolk, warriors and seers who honoured the turning of the stars as much as the fertility of the soil.

    Long before Christianity, Kernow was revered as a holy land - a western sanctuary where seekers and spirit-walkers would journey to commune with the elements and receive prophecy. It is home to more stone circles per square mile than any other part of Britain. These ancient megaliths form a vast network of energetic portals and celestial alignments, used for ceremony, healing and ancestral rites.

    The landscape itself is steeped in mystery: Bodmin Moor, with its weathered tors and shadowy stone rows, holds tales of shape-shifting witches and sleeping giants. Tintagel is forever woven into the Arthurian dreamscape, a realm where Avalon might still rise through the mists. And offshore beneath the Atlantic lies the half-remembered land of Lyonesse, a sunken holy land said to stretch from Land's End to the Isles of Scilly, drowned beneath the waves in a single night. 

    Kernow’s granite backbone (part of the Celtic Spine), older than the Himalayas, forms a landscape that is simultaneously wild and deeply shaped by millennia of human reverence. Holy wells, each with their own guardian spirit and ritual lore, dot the countryside, where locals and pilgrims still tie clooties (prayer rags) and seek blessings of fertility and healing. 

    Pilgrims once walked these coastal paths not for beauty alone, but for blessing, for initiation, for remembrance.

    This is where we live, and we wholeheartedly welcome you to these incredible lands.

Cymru (Wales)

  • Known as the Land of Song, Cymru is also the land of sovereignty (not as dominion, but as sacred relationship with place, lineage and spirit). In the ancient world, Cymru was a constellation of tribal territories, among them were the Demetae in the southwest, whose lands now cradle Pembrokeshire - a coastline of jagged cliffs, crystal bays and ancient burial chambers like Pentre Ifan, the great dolmen aligned with the Preseli hills, where the bluestones of Stonehenge were quarried and carried with purpose, perhaps through ritual pilgrimage. Here, stone and song still speak.

    To the north, the Ordovices held the highlands - a people resilient in the face of Roman invasion, their hearts bound to the mountains of Eryri (Snowdonia). Their presence lingers in the wild majesty of Yr Wyddfa (Mount Snowdon), a peak woven with the legends of giants, dragons and the cauldron of Ceridwen, the dark goddess of inspiration and rebirth.

    And across the waters to the northwest lies Ynys Môn - the Isle of Mona, once called the ‘Druid’s Isle’ by Roman chroniclers. This was the spiritual heartland of the Druids of Britain, the priest-philosophers, healers and astronomers whose sacred groves and rites were said to rival the mysteries of the East. Tacitus tells of Roman legions halting in fear as they approached the island, faced with chanting druids in black robes, arms raised in invocation, women screaming prophecies through smoke and flame. Though their sanctuaries were destroyed in the Roman onslaught of 60 CE, the memory of their wisdom remains etched into the land. In these northern realms, stone circles, cairns and hut circles lie cradled in mist.

    Early Celtic Christians walked here, often along older, pre-Christian routes. Saints, seers and shapeshifters all moved through this terrain, guided by dreams and visions from the spirit of the land.

    Cumraeg, the Welsh language, born from Brythonic roots, is one of the most ancient languages in the world and much druidic, bardic culture remains in these lands, which is a true accomplishment, given the breadth of suppression right up into our last 100 years.

Ériu (Ireland)

  • The Irish landscape is a living manuscript of ancestral devotion, encoded with thousands of sacred sites - ringforts, cairns, ogham stones and holy wells - echoing with prayers, songs and rites from time immemorial.

    Long before written history, the island was inhabited by the Fir Bolg, Tuatha Dé Danann and Milesians - mythic and semi-mythic tribes who shaped the spiritual imagination of Ireland. The Tuatha Dé Danann, often remembered as god-like beings of light, are said to have arrived in clouds of mist, bringing with them great wisdom, craftsmanship, music and magic. Some say they now dwell in the sídhe, the hollow hills, as the Aos Sí, the fae folk of Irish lore.

    The High Kings of Tara, the Neolithic astronomers of Brú na Bóinne (home to Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth), and the countless nameless ancestors who carved spirals into stone all remind us that this island was once a ceremonial heartland of old Europe. Newgrange, aligned with the Winter Solstice sun, is older than Stonehenge and the pyramids.

    To the west, the Burren sings with limestone memories, wild orchids and ancient tombs. To the south, Lough Gur holds the oldest continually inhabited site on the island. In the north, Emain Macha - the royal site of Ulster - tells tales of warriors, goddesses and sovereignty rites.

Alba (Scotland)

  • Long before borders, Alba was home to the Caledonii, Picts and Gaels - tribal peoples deeply attuned to the spirit of place. The Picts, known for their intricate stones and symbolic art, left behind a trail of mystery that weaves through northeastern Alba, their carved standing stones rising like sentinels in the fields.

    To the west lie the Inner and Outer Hebrides, where stone circles, Neolithic temples and Iron Age brochs line the coast. Callanish, the great stone circle of Lewis, stands like a lunar cathedral, aligned with the moon’s 18.6-year cycle - a place of ancestral ceremony and deep time.

    The Highlands hum with old magic - rivers named for goddesses, mountains for warriors and glens for spirits long remembered. And in the far north, the Orkney Isles hold some of the most intact prehistoric ritual sites in all of Europe, including Skara Brae, Maeshowe and the Ring of Brodgar, forming a ceremonial complex older than Stonehenge and the pyramids.

    Alba’s stories are held in the Gaelic tongue, in lullabies and laments, in tales of the Cailleach, the ancient winter hag and shaper of the land, and of Brìde, the light-bringer of spring. It is a place where the wild still leads.

other possibilities…

  • Learn from local wisdom keepers

    We can arrange an experience with a local elder and wisdom keeper - a bearer of ancestral knowledge rooted in the living traditions of these lands. Through hands-on learning, storytelling and conversation, you'll be invited into the age-old bardic practice of oral transmission - where teachings, skills and mythic memory are passed from elder to pilgrim, as has been done across generations in the Celtic world.

  • Birth a drum + other heirloom creations

    A drum birth is a ceremonial act of creation - crafting your own drum in deep reverence for the life and lineage of the materials offered by the land. Guided by Dorrie Joy, a keeper of ancestral crafts and ceremonial artist, you'll be invited into an intimate process of honouring the animal hide, local wood, and spirit of the drum. Each step is woven with intention, prayer and the timeless wisdom of the land-based traditions she carries.

  • Collect words + songs in ancient tongues

    As part of your pilgrimage, we can arrange a sacred language exchange ​- a heartfelt communion with a native speaker of one of the ancient tongues of these ​islands: Kernewek (Cornish), Cymraeg (Welsh), Gàidhlig (Scottish Gaelic), or Gaeilge (Irish Gaelic). You’ll have the opportunity to learn traditional songs, receive gentle guidance on pronunciation, and gather new words​ and chants to deepen your own songful, prayerful medicine bag.

“These grandmothers and grandfathers set the ancient medicine of Welsh bluestone upon my aching heart. Their chants danced like the flickering light of Tuscan cave-fires. Their joyous laughter echoed on and on like Baltic waves against Scandinavian shores. They blew worlds through my mind like windswept snow over Alpine mountain crests. They showed to me the vast and beautiful world of Indigenous Europe. This precious world can scarcely be found in any literature, but lives quietly within us like a dream we can’t quite remember.”

— Lyla June (read)

your hosts

Veronica + Migjen

  • Veronica is a healing and creative arts facilitator devoted to the lifelong path of reconnection through embodiment, ceremony, land and song. Raised in the wild lands of West Wales and now living in Kernow, she draws inspiration from a deep and ongoing enquiry into indigenous traditions of both the Americas and Mother Europe. Her work is guided by a reverence for the living fabric of life and our place within it.

    With over a decade of facilitation experience, an MSc in Transpersonal Psychology, and as founder of Rooted Healing, Veronica’s passion for ancient ways is both evident and infectious.

    Migjen, Veronica’s life partner, is first and foremost a school teacher dedicated to creating inclusive, transformative spaces for learning. He, too, has immersed himself in indigenous traditions of the Americas and feels a strong connection to the folk songs and stories of his Albanian-German heritage. A gifted sourdough baker and steady presence, Migjen supports our ancestral pilgrimages in many meaningful ways.

And others…

  • Depending on your wishes, we can weave you with beautiful ancestral skills people and craftspeople, all embodying unique relationships to the lands across these WISE Isles.

Kernow booking options

  • Every bespoke pilgrimage is different so prices vary hugely. Once you reach out to us, we will connect over a video call to explore your hopes and visions. We will then provide a few options, ranging from lower budget to ‘this is a once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage and I’d like some comfort’ sort of budget. Here are some guidelines, which are somewhat replicable across the WISE Isles:

Farm Stay

  • Come and stay at our shared community 30-acre farm along the North coast. We have a few accommodation options ranging from camping to fully kitted cabins.

  • We grow most of our own food on the farm and cook nourishing, ancestral meals, such as bone broths, stews, soups and vibrant greens. We also bake our own sourdough bread and depending on the season, we can offer raw milk from our cow Tulip. Besides picnis for long days out in the landscapes, these meals are in our home, so you can expect cosy, relaxed nourishment.

Peaceful Yurts (solo or groups)

  • For a more private, woodland-immersive stay you can book a local yurt, which includes access to a stunning sauna, a luxury yurt bathroom and beautiful landscapes. For groups of 4-10, we would rent the whole place.

  • We can cater seasonal, local, organic and often homegrown nourishment, along with an effort to forage and taste the wonders of the lands around us. We can cook over the open fire and there is also the option to have partial self-catering.

Wild Camping

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  • We will eat simply and from the land as much as possible. We will carry our food and water (although we recomend good water filters as the rivers are almost drinkable).

Roundhouse

  • We can cater 1 to 3 nourishing meals a day (seasonal, local, organic, homegrown) onsite at your roundhouse, or we can collaborate with the stewerds of this land for their support in catering. You can also opt to fully and partially self-cater.

“The Great Sacred Motherland of Europe is still alive and breathing and waiting for her children to come home! She is waiting for us to ask her for songs so that we may sing to her once again. She is waiting for us to scratch past the surface of time, into the B.C. period when our languages were thriving and our dancing feet kissed the face of the Earth. She is waiting. She is waiting for us to remember who we are.”

— Lyla June (read)

tending the land

Proceeds from every booking go towards sponsoring biodiversity with The Future Forest Company, including the protection of ancient woodland, wildflower meadows and wetland regeneration, whilst supporting endangered species inhabiting them. We have also planted over 3000 trees on our community farm.

Please read our terms and conditions before booking.

Questions?

Reach out to us.