Feast & Fable
A Devon food, folklore and history retreat
Devon, England
18 to 24 May 2027
Open to all, 18 and over.
Some weeks move and some weeks settle. This one settles, at Fowlescombe, a regenerative Devon farm that has been worked since the 1200s. The Grade II listed Georgian farmhouse and its courtyard of barns have been restored with unusual care, old stone and beams kept and worked with rather than stripped out, and everything from the linen to the placing of a chair has been thought about.
It is understated luxury of the truest kind, where even the mattresses are filled with wool from the farm's own sheep and made up by an organic mattress company here in Devon, and it cooks from what is grown, foraged or raised within sight of the table.
Devon's larder, its old tales and its history, in equal measure.
Mornings in the greenhouse, afternoons in the orchard, evenings around the flame, with days out onto the high moor and down to the sea.
A glimpse of two days on this journey…
Day 1
The Maker and the Chef
A swim in the natural swimming pond and a sauna to begin, cold immersion and high heat one after the other.
A hands-on cookery masterclass with chef Ellie Wentworth, a Great British Menu finalist, cooking the farm's own garden produce.
Cake and tea in the orchard, a folklorist on the pixies and the Hairy Hands of Dartmoor, and dinner together, with storytelling after.
Day 2
The High Moor
A morning foraging walk onto the granite of Dartmoor with a moorland guide, gathering the hedgerow and reading the ancient sites the land is scattered with.
A hike to the Bronze Age settlement at Grimspound.
Home to a dinner laced with the day's foraging, cooked over open flame.
Optional outings
Two afternoons are yours to take or leave (and both are worth taking)
The sea at Mothecombe. A private beach on the Flete estate at the mouth of the Erme, and one of the loveliest stretches of the South Devon coast. Dips in the sea for anyone who wants them after a week of the swimming pond, and a long leisurely afternoon on the sand.
Dartmouth and the Mayflower. Down to the harbour town where the Mayflower and the Speedwell put in for repairs in August 1620, and where the pilgrims spent their last days on English soil before the crossing. For North American guests this is often the most unexpected hour of the week: the story you were taught at school, standing on the quay where it actually happened. A steep, handsome town, a boat trip up the Dart if the weather is kind, and a very good pub at the end of it.
And one evening a local Morris dancing group arrive out of the dusk in rag coats and tatters, with sticks and drums and bells, and dance in the yard. Then they hand you a stick and teach you the steps.
Who Holds the Week
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Chef Ellie Wentworth
A Great British Menu finalist, and the chef who teaches our cookery masterclass. Ellie cooks from Fowlescombe's own garden and orchard, so the class is built from whatever is ready that morning rather than a fixed menu. The feast half of Feast & Fable is largely hers.
Photo: Jon Tonks
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Mark Norman
Folklore researcher, author, and the voice behind The Folklore Podcast, downloaded more than a million times. A council member of The Folklore Society, Mark wrote the definitive study The Folklore of Devon and keeps the country's largest archive of black dog lore. He brings Dartmoor's legends to the fireside.
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Tracey Norman
Author, playwright and folklore researcher, and Devon's foremost teller of its witch history. With Mark she wrote Devon's Forgotten Witches; her play WITCH was built from real trial transcripts. She speaks on the county's witches and its old folk medicine, the cures and charms and stranger remedies.
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Katy Cawkwell
A storyteller of more than twenty-five years, working in myth, legend and folktale from the Barbican stage to a Neolithic burial chamber, and on BBC Radio 3 and 4. Katy carries the tales through the week, told aloud after dinner as they were always meant to be.
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Emma Cunis, Dartmoor's Daughter
A Dartmoor guide and forager who leads walks, foraging and nature connection across the high moor. Granddaughter of the noted Dartmoor writer Eric Hemery, Emma reads the granite landscape and its hedgerows like family, and leads our morning foraging walk and the hike to Grimspound.
Photo by Steve Hayward
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A local Morris dancing group
A Devon border side with sticks, drums and bells, and dances rooted in West Country tradition. The old ritual of stamping and song that has marked the turning seasons for centuries.
Where you’ll stay
Six nights at Fowlescombe Farm. Its Grade II-listed buildings have been restored with real care, their old stone and beams preserved rather than stripped away. The suites feel considered rather than decorated, down to the linen, the evening light and where a chair is placed so you will actually sit in it.
This is understated luxury, and the mattresses are the proof: filled with wool from Fowlescombe’s own sheep and made by an organic mattress company here in Devon. You would never know unless told, which is rather the point. No gold taps or grand announcements—just very good things, quietly done and mostly made within a few miles of your bed.
Beyond lie rare-breed pastures, the garden and orchard that supply the kitchen, and land farmed for eight hundred years. One unhurried base for the whole week.
FAQs
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No. Feast & Fable is open to everyone.
(Thistle & Flame and Sea, Song and Sanctuary are the two that are for women)
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Not remotely. Chef Ellie teaches from wherever you are, and plenty of people arrive having not cooked anything ambitious in years. It is relaxed and hands-on, and there is nothing to get wrong.
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Cold, brief and entirely optional. The farm has its own natural swimming pond, with a sauna to get back into afterwards. There is also an optional outing to the sea at Mothecombe for anyone who wants a dip in salt water.
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It is the biggest day on your feet: open moorland, uneven granite underfoot, and a hike up to Grimspound. There is a shorter version that skips the climb, and a stay-at-the-farm option if you would rather have the morning in the garden.
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It is properly rural, which is the appeal, but it is twenty minutes from Totnes. There is a fast internet connection at Fowlescombe, so if you need to be reachable you will be.
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Press Book. You will be taken into our booking area, where a deposit reserves your place and the balance falls due nearer the time. If you would rather talk first, book a call instead and we will take it from there
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All accommodation and meals for the retreat, and all drinks except alcohol. Every session and activity, all local travel and entries once you are with us, a welcome pack, and our planning and support throughout. In short, everything from the moment you arrive to the moment you leave.
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International flights, travel to the meeting point, travel and medical insurance, alcohol, and any treatments or add-on activities offered on that particular retreat. Where a retreat offers treatment add-ons, they are booked and paid for separately and the balance falls due ninety days before you travel, alongside the rest.
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Yes, and many do. All are welcome.
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No. Every retreat has a single supplement for a room of your own. Twin sharing is there if you would prefer it, and if you are coming with a friend we will put you together.
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Fit enough for a comfortable few hours on your feet, on uneven ground, at a pace that suits the slowest person rather than the quickest. There are gentler options every single day. If you are unsure, speak to us and describe your usual week honestly. After a call we will advise on the fitness level required and which activities would suit you
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Tell us on the questionnaire after booking and the kitchen will work around you. Vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, allergies, the lot. The chefs at our retreat locations are used to it and would rather know well in advance than on the night
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Yes. Valid travel insurance is required, and must cover you for the full duration of the retreat, including emergency medical treatment, hospitalisation and evacuation.
We also strongly recommend that your policy covers delay, interruption, cancellation and lost luggage, and in particular that you take a Cancel For Any Reason policy.
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A non-refundable deposit of $1,000 per person secures your place. The remaining balance is due 90 days before the retreat begins, along with any add-ons you have chosen.
If you need to cancel, 91 days or more before the retreat you lose the deposit only, and we will convert it into a credit toward any of our retreats, valid for 12 months. Between 90 and 61 days, a quarter of the total price is non-refundable. Between 60 and 31 days, half is non-refundable. At 30 days or less, the full price is non-refundable.
And a promise: if we are able to fill your place after you cancel, we will refund everything you have paid beyond your deposit and a $250 administration fee, no matter when you cancelled.
If we ever have to cancel a retreat and cannot reschedule it, you get a full refund within thirty days.
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Yes, and we would encourage it. We can arrange a bespoke trip or a curated itinerary for before or after. Just tell us when you book, or any time up to a month before you travel.
Is there an age requirement?
Guests must be 18 or over.
Join what you want and skip what you do not. If you would rather spend an afternoon in the garden with a book than get on the minibus, that is a perfectly good day.
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Any retreat can be extended with a bespoke trip or a curated itinerary, before it or after it. A few days in London first, the Highlands afterwards, or simply two slow nights somewhere good to get over the flight. Just tell us when you book, or any time up to a month before you travel, and we will build it around the week you have already chosen.
