landscape as archive
Friday, 2 October 2026 - 3 nights
A three-night poetry writing retreat exploring landscape as archive, using observation, memory and place as the starting point for new work. Hosted by the beautiful Oakhill Ponds, where there is swimming and sauna on the doorstep, this retreat is set to be nourishing and restorative, a place to find creativity and renewal in the rhythm of the land.
Led by multi-award-winning poet JLM Morton, this retreat offers time, space and guidance to deepen your creative practice within the stunning natural environment here at Oakhill Ponds in Somerset.
All meals, accommodation, workshops, sauna & wild swimming included
From £645 (sharing) or £795 (single occupancy) / deposit £150
what this retreat is
Landscape as Archive is centred around the idea of place as something living, something that holds traces, memory and meaning.
Across the weekend, we’ll explore pond, marsh, meadow and woodland as sites of attention and creative response. Through poetry, field notes and sensory mapping, you’ll begin to read the landscape more closely and develop writing that emerges directly from your surroundings.
The emphasis is on slowing down, noticing and allowing writing to arise from the lived experience of place.
what to expect
Guided poetry workshops with JLM Morton
Time for independent writing and reflection
Close observation of the surrounding landscape
Approaches including sensory mapping, field notes and archival thinking
A small, supportive group environment
Opportunities for swimming, sauna and fireside gathering
By the end of the retreat, you will have developed new writing, deepened your attention to place, and gained new ways of approaching your writing practice.
an idyllic setting
Oakhill Ponds offers a varied and immersive landscape of water, woodland and open meadow as well as the main retreat house.
Writing spaces are spread across our large retreat house as well as the 25-acre site, allowing you to move between environments and find places that support your process, whether by a roaring fire, the quiet library, the water’s edge, in sheltered pavilions, or within your own room.
The retreat house, part of the original Oakhill brewery, is well equipped having two living rooms with open fires, a well resourced library as well as spacious bedrooms. The wider site is intentionally simple and hosts a horse lorry library, two warm Shepherds Huts as well as many spaces to explore, creating the conditions for focused creative work.
