British Story-led Retreats
Retreats in 2027
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Feast & Fable
DEVON, ENGLAND
18 TO 24 MAY 2027Open to all, 18 and over.
Food, folklore and history in equal measure. Stay at Fowlescombe, a regenerative Devon farm and Grade II listed Georgian farmhouse, where the kitchen cooks from the land and the mattresses are filled with wool from the farm’s own sheep. Forage on Dartmoor, hike to Grimspound and cook with Great British Menu finalist Elly Wentworth. Swim in the natural pond, warm up in the sauna, and choose optional outings to Mothecombe and historic Dartmouth. Evenings end with folk tales around the flame.
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Pubs & Pathways
THE COTSWOLDS, ENGLAND
22 TO 28 SEPTEMBER 2027Open to all, 18 and over.
Follow the Cotswold Way from Chipping Campden to Broadway Tower, climb above Stanton and Snowshill, and spend a literary day in Laurie Lee’s Slad Valley, with lunch at the Woolpack.
Along the way: a Cotswold Morris Side in the courtyard, Snowshill’s lifetime of curiosities, the Rollright Stones, English wine and a pour at Uley’s 1833 tower brewhouse. Almost every door we enter is private or normally closed.
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Thistle & Flame
EAST LOTHIAN, SCOTLAND
4 TO 10 OCTOBER 2027For women only, 18 and over.
Entirely alcohol free.A journey of remembrance and reclamation for Scotland’s accused witches, based at the beautifully restored Papple Steading beneath the Lammermuir Hills. Walk the ground where healers, herbalists and wise women were once accused, then reclaim the word used against them. Alongside honest history are broom-making and botany, song and ceremony, open fires and a Samhain feast with a chair set for the ancestors. Not about spells. About leaving on the final morning with your own power in your hands.
WHAT WE DO (AND HOW)
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We go and look first
Everywhere we take you is somewhere we have walked, eaten and slept ourselves, or where we trust someone who has. There is no catalogue behind this and no third party filling in the gaps. It is Britain known intimately, over a lifetime.
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We dig beneath the surface
There is a name for it: narrative archaeology. It means revealing the layers of a place to find the older stories underneath: the myth that grew up around a hill, the reason a village is named what it is, the thing it only tells you if you know to ask. We uncover them gently, one at a time, and let you find your own way into them.
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We travel with the people who hold it
Makers and artists, historians and guides, chefs and gardeners, the storytellers who carry the folklore, and the farmers working the land back to health. We stay in places that give more than they take. We aim for regenerative, which is a good way beyond sustainable.
Meet Lucy and Rob
We are the faces behind Inside Story.
We are both British. Lucy grew up in Robin Hood country, among the woodlands and old stories of Nottinghamshire, while Rob is from the west coast of Scotland. Twenty-two years ago, we crossed the Atlantic together and made our home in the Pacific Northwest.
Ever since, we have returned to Britain for our holidays. It means we see the country through two lenses at once: with the familiarity of locals and the curiosity of travellers.
We share the Britain we know and love, while continuing to discover it alongside you, not simply its landmarks, but its landscapes, people, food, folklore and hidden histories. We want you to feel neither hurried through as a tourist nor left to find your own way, but welcomed in and shown the story beneath the surface.
Our retreats are where we gather people together.
The rest of what we do is one to one.
Create travel shaped entirely around you.
That might mean a fully private journey, a carefully considered itinerary to follow at your own pace, or a bespoke extension before or after one of our retreats. Every experience begins with a conversation and is built from a blank page, with each stay, table, turn in the road and hidden story thoughtfully chosen.
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The Inside Story Teacast
Put the kettle on. Each episode, we sit down with the people who bring Britain alive, and talk about the places, the tales and the layers beneath them.
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The Journal
Long-form notes from the road and the archive. The stories under the stories: a piece of British folklore worth keeping, a maker worth knowing, what to read before you come.
