Rosslyn Chapel
Carvings, symbolism, and centuries of prayer still in the stone.
The Threads Between Us
An ancestral journey through Scotland
An intimate 10-day women's retreat
We come from stories that began long before us. Somewhere between what has been handed down and what is still waiting to unfold, we discover the life that is ours to live.
24 October – 2 November 2027 · Scotland · Limited to ten women
Perhaps this season is asking something of you
Perhaps you have reached a season when life is asking different questions.
Not simply, “What should I do next?” but, “Who am I becoming?”
You may have spent years caring, building, achieving, loving and carrying responsibility. Somewhere along the way, a quieter voice may have begun asking for room.
The Threads Between Us is an invitation to listen.
Two nights · Where the journey begins
Edinburgh
We begin in Edinburgh, where Scotland’s layers of story, faith and history are everywhere — in the closes of the Old Town, beneath the stones of the Royal Mile, in ancient chapels and in the stories of women whose names were almost lost.
For two nights, we begin to step out of ordinary life and into the journey ahead. We walk, explore, share our first meals together and begin asking the questions that will travel with us:
“Who came before me? What have I inherited? And what might this next season be asking of me?”
Edinburgh is not simply our starting point.
“It is the threshold.”
Kinnaird Castle. Photograph: Luhkyuht84, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Seven nights · An ancestral castle to call home
Kinnaird Castle, Angus
From Edinburgh, we journey north to Kinnaird Castle, where for seven nights an ancestral Scottish castle becomes our home.
This is not a castle hotel or commercial resort. Kinnaird remains an ancestral home — a living house, still connected to the family, history and land that have shaped it across generations.
There is something particularly meaningful about making our home here during an ancestral journey. We are not simply visiting history and leaving again at the end of the afternoon.
“For a week, we wake within it.”
Morning light at breakfast. Woodland beyond the door. Conversation around the table. Dressing for dinner. And time enough to wander the grounds, journal, or simply find a quiet window and watch Scotland beyond the glass.
“And woven gently through our days are moments of stillness and contemplative practice — space to listen to the sacred, to our own inner wisdom, and to whatever this journey may be awakening within us.”
But our journey does not remain within the castle walls.
“Kinnaird becomes the place we journey from — and return home to.”
From here, we venture into Scotland — to ancient stones and abbeys, woodland paths and places of remembrance, historic towns and landscapes where generations have walked before us.
There will still be much to experience, but we will not race from one attraction to the next simply to say we have seen it. We will choose our places carefully.
“We will give them time.”
Some days will take us further afield. Others will unfold closer to home. The rhythm is intentional:
“Experience. Space. Reflection.”
Time to let what we encounter settle, rather than rushing towards what comes next.
And perhaps, surrounded by a house that has carried its own story across generations, we begin to listen differently to the stories we carry too.
“For a little while, we don’t simply visit a Scottish castle. We live in one.”
And perhaps we leave knowing a little more clearly what we want to carry with us into the life waiting beyond its doors.
A journey of beauty, history and meaning
What awaits you
Places chosen for what they still hold — not for how many we can visit.
Edinburgh & the Royal Mile
Including the Witches' Well — a quiet remembering of women the city once condemned.
Clava Cairns
Standing among stones placed by hands thousands of years before ours.
Culross
Stepping into a village where Scotland's past still feels close.
The Hermitage
Walking beneath ancient trees with time to listen.
Culloden
Remembrance, loss, and the stories we inherit.
Scone Palace
The crowning place of Scottish kings — power, place, and what history chose to keep.
Glamis Castle
A house that has held family story for centuries.
St Andrews Cathedral
Once the heart of Scotland’s medieval Church — a place to consider the faith we inherit, the questions we ask, and what becomes our own.
This is more than a retreat. It is a remembering.
Wander. Reflect. Connect. Create. Rest.
Wander
Let the land speak to you.
Reflect
Listen to the wisdom within.
Connect
To your ancestors, your story, your soul.
Create
Experiences that awaken and inspire.
Rest
In beauty, comfort and castle time.
The feel of the days
Come walk where the stories still whisper
The threads you'll carry home
The retreat begins by asking who came before me. It ends by recognising: I am somebody's ancestor too.
The ancestral scarf
Received as you complete the Labyrinth of the Ancestors — a tartan or family-line gift for those who came before, walk beside you, and will come after.
The threads we weave
A bag made from Scottish textiles. What will you carry forward, and what are you ready to leave behind?
A scent to take home
Memory, a new season, the pause to notice what is blooming. What fragrance belongs to the woman you are becoming?
A letter to yourself
A Valentine from yourself, to yourself — for the woman you are becoming.
Why I created The Threads Between Us
Some journeys are meant to be taken in company.
I did not set out to create a retreat. I set out to listen — to the women whose names were almost forgotten, to the land that kept calling me back to Scotland, and to the quieter questions that arrive when a life has been well used.
I have walked parish roads and standing stones, sat with family stories, and held rooms where women tell the truth of what they carry. Again and again I have seen that a place can help us hear what matters.
The Threads Between Us grew from that listening. Ten days to walk slowly, to remember who came before us, and to notice the life that is still unfolding. I created it because I believe we are each somebody's ancestor too.
Imagine yourself here
Come walk where the stories still whisper.
- Morning light in a Scottish castle.
- Autumn paths beneath ancient trees.
- A beautifully set table at the end of the day.
- Ten women, with space enough to become known.
- A scent, a scarf, a letter — something of the journey carried home.
What's included
24 October – 2 November 2027
Ten days in Scotland. Seven nights at Kinnaird Castle. Limited to ten women.
- Accommodation for the retreat, including seven nights at Kinnaird Castle
- Meals as part of the retreat programme
- Planned retreat experiences and facilitated reflection
- Entry fees
- Private group transport during the retreat in Scotland
- The ancestral scarf, received at the Labyrinth of the Ancestors
- The Scottish textile / bag experience
- A scent to take home, and a letter to yourself
International travel to and from Scotland is not included.
Hosted by Lyn Baird. Operated by Life Bridge.
A first step
Register my interest
Bookings are not yet open. Register your interest to be among the first to receive full retreat details when places are released.
