Thistle & Flame
A week honouring the women accused of witchcraft in Fife and East Lothian
East Lothian, Scotland
4 to 10 October 2027
For women only, 18 and over. Entirely alcohol free.
Between the late sixteenth and early eighteenth centuries, around four thousand people in Scotland, most of them women, were accused of witchcraft. None of them were witches. Most were poor, all were ordinary, and a quarrel, a curse or a sick cow could be enough to convict them.
Thistle & Flame walks the ground where they were tried and burned, tells their story properly, and gives them back their names. Not about spells. Not a ghost tour. About finding your own voice, which these women were denied.
A donation will be made to The Witch Trials of East Lothian campaign after the retreat.
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What You’ll Do
(A peek at two days of this retreat)
The Flame: How It Began
A morning with a historian on how king and church turned folklore into fear, and the court records to prove it.
To Haddington and John Knox's kirk, then to the Sands where the town's accused were burned, to pay respects.
Across to Culross in Fife, one of the best-preserved burghs in Scotland, where the cobbled lanes and ochre walls look much as they did when the accusations were made.
In the afternoon, the North Berwick coast and a silent remembrance walk by the sea, a gentle somatic release on the shore, and a saining by nightfall. The ritual is modern and our own. None of it is claimed for the accused.
Day 1
Day 2
The Thistle: What We Carry Home
A wild walk into the hills in search of the thistle, a beautiful thing that keeps its own thorns for protection.
Broom-making to sweep away what no longer serves, and a fireside circle on voice and boundary.
The week closes with a feast and a closing act of remembrance: what you came to lay down left in the soil, their names spoken once more, and each woman sent home lighter than she came.
Also in the week: a foraging walk with botanist Sally Gouldstone of Seilich, gathering meadow herbs and flowers to make your own balms and teas, and a fire at the end of that afternoon where storyteller Amanda Edmiston tells the plantlore of this stretch of Scotland as the light goes.
Who You’ll Meet
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Tree Carr
Death doula, dream guide, priestess and author. Tree has written several books, given a TEDx talk, and been featured everywhere from The Guardian to The New York Times, with a monthly column in Woman & Home. She holds the ritual heart of the week: the opening circle, the fireside ceremonies and the saining.
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Hailey Beaupre, the Sassenach Historian
An American who followed her love of Scottish history across the Atlantic and stayed. With a background in history and museum studies, Hailey tells the story of Scotland's past, from castles and ruins to the witch trials, to a devoted following online. She is our historical anchor, the facts beneath the folklore.
Photo: Rebecca Atack
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Marie Gilroy Macpherson
Haddington’s own historian and novelist, author of the acclaimed Knox Trilogy and a past president of Haddington’s History Society. With fellow local author and historian Natalie Wheelan she co-founded and initiated The Witch Trials of East Lothian, the local campaign to research and remember the women accused in the county and to see them given a memorial. Marie is at work on a novel about the East Lothian witch hunt. She walks us through the real history, on the ground where it happened.
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Amanda Edmiston, of Botanica Fabula
A storyteller working in plantlore, the old knowledge of what grows around us and the tales that have grown up alongside it. Amanda joins the foraging afternoon and stays for the fire, where she tells the plant stories of this part of Scotland as the light goes. It is the point in the week where the herbs in your hands stop being ingredients and start being characters.
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Rebecca Atack, Holeyn Heritage Photography
Rebecca is a Scottish photographer and visual storyteller, and the creative force behind Holeyn Heritage Photography. She lives in the heart of Scotland, where the Lowlands meet the Highlands, and her work is shaped by a deep love of Scottish history, heritage and a slower way of living. Her style is raw, moody and a little cinematic. She wanders out into the glens and the wild places and turns fleeting moments into story-driven art, images that feel romantic, authentic and timeless. What she loves most is helping women feel comfortable in front of the camera, and celebrating those special moments so they never fade.
Rebecca will join us on our day in Culross, where she will photograph a memory for any of you who would like to. Entirely optional, of course, but a lovely way to carry a little of Scotland home with you.
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Dr Sally Gouldstone, of Seilich
A botanist and ecologist who traded academia for a wildflower meadow in East Lothian. Sally founded Seilich to make skincare and herbal teas grown and gathered from her own restored meadows, biodiversity bottled. She leads our foraging walk and shows us how to turn what we gather into balms of our own.
This is tender ground, and we hold it gently.
This is tender ground and we hold it gently, but do not mistake it for a solemn week. The arc runs upward. First the history and the facts, then the remembrance, then what we carry home, with rest protected after the fuller days and a feast at the end of it.
There is laughter in this week, and singing, and a great deal of tea. Scotland at its most elemental: firelit evenings, big skies, and a house and a welcome to match.
Where you’ll stay
Six nights at Papple Steading, a beautifully restored Victorian steading beneath the Lammermuir Hills, built between 1860 and 1871. Restored with rigour, it keeps its pale stone ranges, cart arches, threshing barn and granary, and is deeply warm, with exceptional Scottish cooking, open fires and hidden nooks.
Once the country home of Prime Minister A.J. Balfour, Papple was also the birthplace of the Soil Association, where Eve Balfour pioneered organic and biodynamic farming.
Almost nothing is compulsory. Join what calls to you and leave the rest. An afternoon in the garden with a book is a perfectly good day.
For women only, 18 and over. Entirely alcohol-free. Small group. Moderate walking, with gentler options each day. Nearest stations: Drem or Dunbar. Nearest airport: Edinburgh. Transfers arranged.
FAQs
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Because of what the week is about. We are walking the ground where women were accused, tried and killed, and giving them back their names. The circles and the ceremonies need a room where women can say things they might not say otherwise.
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Same reason. This week asks you to be present for it, and going without for six days keeps everyone in the room.
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No. There is ritual, and there is reverence, but there is no doctrine and nothing to sign up to. Women arrive from every position on that question, including none, and all of it fits.
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No. You can sit in the circle and say nothing, or sit by the fire and watch, or take the evening off entirely. Tree is very good at making room for whatever you are able to give on the night.
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Often, yes, and some women come precisely for that. But it is worth a conversation first rather than a booking. Speak to us and we will talk honestly about whether now is the right time for you. Sometimes the answer is next year.
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Moderate. Coastal and hill walking on uneven ground, a few hours at a time, with a gentler option every day and a house to come back to.
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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 90 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 balance is paid in three equal instalments, due 150, 120 and 90 days before the retreat begins, along with any add-ons you have chosen.
If you 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; anything you have paid above the deposit is refunded. 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 14 days if we still hold your funds and otherwise within 30 days. The full terms are in the Retreat Agreement & Waiver you sign when you book.
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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.
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.
Join us for Thistle & Flame
