Course Calender 2026
Gift vouchers available.
Phone: 0238847001
January
Please book directly through Niamh.
Email: [email protected]
Cost: € 80, Lunch included
10:30 am – 4:30 pm
To book please click here.
In this winter course we will focus on preparations made from herbs, spices and foods that are commonly found in a household .
We will explore how they can help us to get through winter colds, digestive upsets, cystitis, aches and pains, minor injuries and more.
We will also head out for a foraging walk to see what medicinal plants are available even in winter.
From cold- bannishing teas to flu-fighting soup, spice-infused oils and ointments for chilblains, sore muscles and joints, honey preparations for sore throats and other infections, remedies for indigestion and more.
Herbs have been used for promoting health since the dawn of humanity. Our modern society seems to have lost much of the knowledge about those remedies and is pushing us to hand over the responsibility for our health to the professionals. This course could be a beginning for you in taking care of your and your family’s’ health – while still getting professional help for more serious issues.
February
A Mindfulness Retreat in the Woodland Labyrinth
2:00 – 6:00 p.m. | Cost: €60
To book please click here.
Step out of your daily rhythm and into a deep, grounding experience in nature. Walking to Your Centre is a mindful half-day retreat designed to help you slow down, reconnect, and listen inwardly through the simple, ancient practice of conscious walking.
Guided by gentle mindfulness practices, you’ll explore the Hollies’ spacious woodland labyrinth—set between mossy rock outcrops and inspired by the 12th-century pattern of the Chartres Cathedral. Throughout the afternoon, we’ll weave together different forms of walking meditation, breath awareness, and silent reflection, inviting your body and mind to settle into a natural sense of clarity and ease.
Whether you’re new to mindfulness or returning to your practice, this retreat offers a serene, supportive space to recentre, restore, and come home to yourself—one step at a time.
One-Day Workshop for Families, Parents & Teens
Would you like more harmony, laughter, and ease in your family life?
This practical, heart-centered workshop offers simple tools to improve communication, reduce tension, and strengthen understanding — even when life gets stressful.
Learn approaches inspired by Nonviolent Communication (Rosenberg) and Restorative Practices to help you:
- Navigate disagreements calmly and respectfully
- Set clear, caring boundaries
- Bring more lightness and fun into everyday moments
Come on your own, with your partner, or bring your teenagers along — everyone is welcome!
Facilitator: Thomas Riedmuller
Date: Sunday 15 February
Time: 10 – 4
Location: The Hollies Centre for Sustainability
Cost: €80 per person (includes lunch, tea & coffee)
Family discounts available
Private family workshops can also be arranged by request.
Create more understanding. Build stronger connections. Bring more joy into your home.
To book please click here.
A small-group outdoor experience of reflection, awareness, and grounding
Step into a calm, restorative morning with horses in a peaceful natural
landscape of West Cork. In this small-group experience, you’ll have space to
pause, slow down, and reconnect with yourself through guided experiential
activities with the horses. As you spend time observing, engaging, and
reflecting, you are invited to notice changes, set intentions, and explore the
gentle rhythms of personal transitions. The horses’ presence offers a
grounding mirror for awareness, balance, and connection.
Tea, coffee, and homemade treats are included, creating a warm, nurturing
space to start your day with clarity and calm.
Facilitator: Selvi Iyilikci
Time: 10:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Group size: Maximum 6–8 participants
Price: €35 per person
Booking / Enquiries: www.thehollieshorsesense.com or Selvi: 0868729484
Please book directly through Niamh.
Email: [email protected]
March
Hands-on ‘ know-how- to’ workshop to get started growing your own veg.
Sunday mornings
Time: 10 – 2 pm
Cost: €60, tea/coffee/light snacks included
Facilitators: John ConwayThis practical workshop will get you started on transforming some of your garden into a productive vegetable
growing space. We start with exploring different methods of making beds, using mulching techniques or lazy beds with an emphasis on no-dig.
Permaculture perspectives will be demonstrated and discussed throughout the workshop. We will engage in skills, such as growing plants from start to finish, including seed sowing, transplanting, maintaining and harvesting a variety of easy to grow vegetables. Other topics include basic garden design, soil fertility, planting times and some pest and disease control.
To book please click here.
One-Day Workshop for Families, Parents & Teens
Would you like more harmony, laughter, and ease in your family life?
This practical, heart-centered workshop offers simple tools to improve communication, reduce tension, and strengthen understanding — even when life gets stressful.
Learn approaches inspired by Nonviolent Communication (Rosenberg) and Restorative Practices to help you:
- Navigate disagreements calmly and respectfully
- Set clear, caring boundaries
- Bring more lightness and fun into everyday moments
Come on your own, with your partner, or bring your teenagers along — everyone is welcome!
Facilitator: Thomas Riedmuller
Date: Sunday 15 February
Time: 10 – 4
Location: The Hollies Centre for Sustainability
Cost: €80 per person (includes lunch, tea & coffee)
Family discounts available
Private family workshops can also be arranged by request.
Create more understanding. Build stronger connections. Bring more joy into your home.
To book please click here.
Please book directly through Niamh.
Email: [email protected]
Cost: € 80, Lunch included
10:30 am – 4:30 pm
Going for a walk through the weeds we will identify and gather common, easy to find plants that are beneficial to our health and safe to use. We will then use what we’ve found for our medicine making.
In this spring course we focus on herbs and preparations that will help us to get going and renew our energy after the winter. We will make spring tonics and food medicines as well as preparing other medicines like teas, compresses, poultices and ointments.
This will enable you to start filling your kitchen and home medicine cabinet with home made natural products to promote general health as well as remedies for coughs, colds, digestive problems, skin disorders, fatigue and first aid.
The workshops later in the year will focus on some different preparations.
To book please click here.
Herbs have been used for promoting health since the dawn of humanity. Our modern society seems to have lost much of the knowledge about those remedies and is pushing us to hand over the responsibility for our health to the professionals. This course could be a beginning for you in taking care of your and your family’s’ health – while still getting professional help for more serious issues.
For anyone experiencing burnout, low energy, or fatigue — gentle
exploration with horses
Take a morning to slow down, reconnect with your body, and explore new
ways of feeling strength and presence. In this small-group session with
horses (no riding involved), you’ll engage in gentle, guided experiential
activities that encourage awareness, reflection, and shared conversation.
Together, we’ll explore themes of acceptance, resilience, and what it means
to honour your body’s rhythms.
Set in the peaceful, natural landscapes of West Cork, this session offers a
calm, supportive environment where you can pause, notice changes, and
leave feeling more grounded. Tea, coffee, and homemade treats are
included.
Facilitator: Selvi Iyilikci
Time: 10:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Group size: Maximum 6–8 participants
Price: €35 per person
Booking / Enquiries: www.thehollieshorsense.com or Selvi: 0868729484
Hands-on ‘ know-how- to’ workshop to get started growing your own veg.
Sunday mornings
Time: 10 – 2 pm
Cost: €60, tea/coffee/light snacks included
Facilitator: John Conway
This practical workshop will get you started on transforming some of your garden into a productive vegetable growing space. We start with exploring different methods of making beds, using mulching techniques or lazy beds with an emphasis on no-dig.
Permaculture perspectives will be demonstrated and discussed throughout the workshop. We will engage in skills, such as growing plants from start to finish, including seed sowing, transplanting, maintaining and harvesting a variety of easy to grow vegetables. Other topics include basic garden design, soil fertility, planting times and some pest and disease control.
To book please click here.
April
Building Connection at Home
A One-Day Workshop for Families, Parents & Teens
Would you like more harmony, laughter, and ease in your family life?
This practical, heart-centered workshop offers simple tools to improve communication, reduce tension, and strengthen understanding — even when life gets stressful.
Learn approaches inspired by Nonviolent Communication (Marshall Rosenberg) and Restorative Practices to help you:
- Navigate disagreements calmly and respectfully
- Set clear, caring boundaries
- Bring more lightness and fun into everyday moments
Come on your own, with your partner, or bring your teenagers along — everyone is welcome!
Facilitator:Thomas Riedmuller
Date: Sunday 12 April
Time: 10 -4
Location: The Hollies Centre
Cost: €80 per person (includes lunch, tea & coffee)
Family discounts available
Private family workshops can also be arranged by request.
To book please click here.
Create more understanding. Build stronger connections. Bring more joy into your home.
With John Conway
10 am – 2pm, tea/coffee, light snacks included
This half day course will be a practical look at how to maximise the productive output from your garden. The emphasis will be on natural ways to enhance the fertility of your soil for great veg; plus ways to promote biological and species diversity for a more nature friendly garden. We will discuss how to create a garden space that not only nurtures but also offers beauty for the senses.
3 – 5 p.m.
Cost € 30
This 2 hour walk at The Hollies will introduce you to a great variety of wild plants that are growing in this
season.
Thomas and Ulrike Riedmuller will give you information about safe identification and uses of these plants.
For adults who want reflection, gentle exploration, and quiet social
connection
Spend a gentle morning outdoors in the peaceful and natural landscape of
West Cork, engaging with horses in activities designed to build confidence,
explore movement, and practice relationship skills. In this small-group
session, you’ll have space to connect with yourself and the horses, notice
your presence, and reflect on your experiences. The horses offer a unique
mirror for awareness, boundaries, and communication, creating a safe and
supportive environment to explore social connection at your own pace.
Facilitator: Selvi Iyilikci
Time: 10:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Group size: Maximum 6–8 participants
Price: €35 per person
Booking / Enquiries: www.thehollieshorsense.com or Selvi: 0868729484
10:00am – 4.30pm
Cost: €80 (Lunch included)
To book please click here.
This course is a hands-on introduction to cob-building. If you’ve heard about cob and want to find out whether cob is something you’d like to build your house (or other structures) with, this course will give you a clear idea of what’s involved, an enjoyable first experience and loads of valuable information.
You will learn about the specific properties of cob, how to find suitable materials, mix cob and build walls and sculptural details with the material you’ve produced. You will also be able to see and experience the wide range of cob structures here at the Hollies.
10.00 am- 4.30 pm
Cost: €80, includes a wild food lunch.
To book please click here.
Food foraging is a powerful way to re-awaken your senses, to re-connect with nature in a powerful way, giving us a deep appreciation of the land and our place in the natural cycles and rhythms of life.
From seaweeds and coastal plants to fields, hedgerow and gardens -you’ll be learning to recognise the right plants and experiencing tasty ways to prepare and eat them.
We will be picking prime ingredients full of interesting flavours, packed with natural goodness.
We’ll also show you how to use specific plant identification books in order to deepen your learning and point out which plants are poisonous. You’ll also learn about some medicinal uses.
This course is mainly outdoors. If the weather forecast is particularly wet for the day we’ll postpone it and arrange an alternative day. To collect seaweed we’ll be walking between rocks at low tide.
Booking is essential, as we need to give you directions.
This course will inspire you to continue your path of food foraging.
To book a place click here
3 – 5:30 pm
Lifelong Learning Festival County Cork event
A free tour of several cob buildings with Thomas Riedmuller, co-founder of The Hollies Centre, demonstrating the benefits of building with natural, local materials including information about grey water treatment, composting toilets and efficient home heating.
May
A Mindfulness Retreat in the Woodland Labyrinth
2:00 – 6:00 p.m. | Cost: €60
To book please click here.
Step out of your daily rhythm and into a deep, grounding experience in nature. Walking to Your Centre is a mindful half-day retreat designed to help you slow down, reconnect, and listen inwardly through the simple, ancient practice of conscious walking.
Guided by gentle mindfulness practices, you’ll explore the Hollies’ spacious woodland labyrinth—set between mossy rock outcrops and inspired by the 12th-century pattern of the Chartres Cathedral. Throughout the afternoon, we’ll weave together different forms of walking meditation, breath awareness, and silent reflection, inviting your body and mind to settle into a natural sense of clarity and ease.
Whether you’re new to mindfulness or returning to your practice, this retreat offers a serene, supportive space to recentre, restore, and come home to yourself—one step at a time.
10.00 am- 4.30 pm
Cost: €80, includes a wild food lunch.
To book please click here.
Food foraging is a powerful way to re-awaken your senses, to re-connect with nature in a powerful way, giving us a deep appreciation of the land and our place in the natural cycles and rhythms of life.
From seaweeds and coastal plants to fields, hedgerow and gardens -you’ll be learning to recognise the right plants and experiencing tasty ways to prepare and eat them.
We will be picking prime ingredients full of interesting flavours, packed with natural goodness.
We’ll also show you how to use specific plant identification books in order to deepen your learning and point out which plants are poisonous. You’ll also learn about some medicinal uses.
This course is mainly outdoors. If the weather forecast is particularly wet for the day we’ll postpone it and arrange an alternative day. To collect seaweed we’ll be walking between rocks at low tide.
Booking is essential, as we need to give you directions.
This course will inspire you to continue your path of food foraging.
Testimonial:
Had a really lovely day today on a wild food foraging course at @The Hollies! Started with foraging for seaweed at low tide at Simon’s Cove stopping off at Ring, Gaggin and Enniskeane foraging for wild garlic, ground elder, three corner leek, sorrel and other wild delights before heading back to The Hollies centre for lunch prepared with these and other lovely things foraged – soups, quiches, fritters and salads and then heading out for a final walk through the lands of The Hollies digging for Pig Nuts and generally eating our way around the woods and gardens! Learned loads – there really is a world of free food out there! Thanks for a great day!
Kate Ryan, Clonakilty
With John Conway
10 am – 2pm, tea/coffee, light snacks included
This half day course will be a practical look at how to maximize the productive output from your garden. The emphasis will be on natural ways to enhance the fertility of your soil for great veg; plus ways to promote biological and species diversity for a more nature friendly garden. We will discuss how to create a garden space that not only nurtures but also offers beauty for the senses.
Please book directly through Niamh.
Email: [email protected]
10:00am – 4.30pm
Cost: €80 (Lunch included)
To book please click here.
This course is a hands-on introduction to cob-building. If you’ve heard about cob and want to find out whether cob is something you’d like to build your house (or other structures) with, this course will give you a clear idea of what’s involved, an enjoyable first experience and loads of valuable information.
You will learn about the specific properties of cob, how to find suitable materials, mix cob and build walls and sculptural details with the material you’ve produced. You will also be able to see and experience the wide range of cob structures here at the Hollies.
1pm to 6pm (due to low tide time)
Cost: €80, includes a wild food meal around 5pm.
To book please click here.
Food foraging is a powerful way to re-awaken your senses, to re-connect with nature in a powerful way, giving us a deep appreciation of the land and our place in the natural cycles and rhythms of life.
From seaweeds and coastal plants to fields, hedgerow and gardens -you’ll be learning to recognise the right plants and experiencing tasty ways to prepare and eat them.
We will be picking prime ingredients full of interesting flavours, packed with natural goodness.
We’ll also show you how to use specific plant identification books in order to deepen your learning and point out which plants are poisonous. You’ll also learn about some medicinal uses.
This course is mainly outdoors. If the weather forecast is particularly wet for the day we’ll postpone it and arrange an alternative day. To collect seaweed we’ll be walking between rocks at low tide.
Booking is essential, as we need to give you directions.
This course will inspire you to continue your path of food foraging.
Testimonial:
Had a really lovely day today on a wild food foraging course at @The Hollies! Started with foraging for seaweed at low tide at Simon’s Cove stopping off at Ring, Gaggin and Enniskeane foraging for wild garlic, ground elder, three corner leek, sorrel and other wild delights before heading back to The Hollies centre for lunch prepared with these and other lovely things foraged – soups, quiches, fritters and salads and then heading out for a final walk through the lands of The Hollies digging for Pig Nuts and generally eating our way around the woods and gardens! Learned loads – there really is a world of free food out there! Thanks for a great day!
Kate Ryan, Clonakilty
June
10.30am- 4.30pm
Cost:€80 Lunch included
To book please click here.
Going for a walk through the weeds we will identify and gather common, easy to find plants that are beneficial to our health and safe to use. We will then use what we’ve found for our medicine making.
In this summer course we will focus on herbs and preparations using the abundance of summer flowers and some other plants. We will make creams and tinctures as well as teas, compresses, poultices and ointments.
This will enable you to start filling your home medicine cabinet with home made natural products for coughs, colds, digestive problems, skin disorders, fatigue, first aid or simply promoting general health.
The workshops later in the year will focus on some different preparations.
Herbs have been used for promoting health since the dawn of humanity. Our modern society seems to have lost much of the knowledge about those remedies and is pushing us to hand over the responsibility for our health to the professionals. This course could be a beginning for you in taking care of your and your family’s’ health – while still getting professional help for more serious issues.
Cost: € 850 (including lunches and camping if you bring your own tent)
At the end of the course you will know all you need to be able to go off and build a cob cottage. This intensive course will be hands-on, and you will learn every aspect of the construction of a cob building. From locating and testing the right kinds of soils for cob, to different ways of mixing it, wall building techniques and all the sculptural details. Get practical experience with windows, doors, arches, niches and roofs. Lectures and practical exercises will cover siting, passive solar design, drainage, heating, plumbing and wiring, basic carpentry, natural roofing, and flooring.
Through the length and intensity of this course it tends to create a real sense of community between the participants and team, so if you are interested in building a house, and want a life-changing inspirational immersion into the world of natural building this really is a course not to be missed.
Concessions for group bookings are possible.
The Hollies team have built several family homes and other buildings with cob and have been teaching Natural Building with The Cob Cottage Company for many years.
To book a place click here
July
August
A 2 day course
Time: 9:30am- 5pm
Cost: € 150
To book please click here.
For great outdoor fun and the real Italian taste these wood fired Bread and Pizza Ovens built with Cob are hard to beat. Learn how to build your own in just 2 days from firebricks, clay, sand, earth and straw. After this course you’ll be equipped with enough skill to go home and build your own in the garden and cook in it.
These ovens weigh several tons and can usually not be moved. It is, however, possible to build similar ovens on car trailers and make them movable. Generally, an oven like this needs a stone plinth (to keep the clay off the splash water) and a roof. During the 2-day workshop we’ll concentrate on the oven itself. The plinth is built before the workshop. The roof can be built before or after it.
September
Please book directly through Niamh.
Email: [email protected]
Time: 10am – 5pm
Cost: €80 (Lunch included)
To book please click here.
This course is a hands-on introduction to cob-building. If you’ve heard about cob and want to find out whether cob is something you’d like to build your house (or other structures) with, this course will give you a clear idea of what’s involved, an enjoyable first experience and loads of valuable information.
You will learn about the specific properties of cob, how to find suitable materials, mix cob and build walls and sculptural details with the material you’ve produced. You will also be able to see and experience the wide range of cob structures here at the Hollies.
Cost: € 80, Lunch included
To book please click here.
In this autumn course we will focus on herbs and preparations that will help to get us prepare for the winter by boosting our immune function and filling our store cupboard with preparations that will help us get through the winter colds. We will make fermented foods, oximels and syrups, as well as tinctures and teas.
Going for a walk through the weeds we will identify and gather common, easy to find plants that are beneficial to our health and safe to use. We will then use what we’ve found for our medicine making.
This will enable you to start filling your home medicine cabinet with home made natural products for coughs, colds, digestive problems, skin disorders, fatigue, first aid or simply promoting general health.
The workshops later in the year will focus on some different preparations.
Herbs have been used for promoting health since the dawn of humanity. Our modern society seems to have lost much of the knowledge about those remedies and is pushing us to hand over the responsibility for our health to the professionals. This course could be a beginning for you in taking care of your and your family’s’ health – while still getting professional help for more serious issues.
October
Please book directly through Niamh.
Email: [email protected]
10 – 4 pm
Cost: € 80 Venue: The Hollies Centre
Tutor: Thomas Riedmuller
To book please click here.
A One-Day Workshop for Families, Parents & Teens
Would you like more harmony, laughter, and ease in your family life?
This practical, heart-centered workshop offers simple tools to improve communication, reduce tension, and strengthen understanding — even when life gets stressful.
Learn approaches inspired by Nonviolent Communication (Rosenberg) and Restorative Practices to help you:
- Navigate disagreements calmly and respectfully
- Set clear, caring boundaries
- Bring more lightness and fun into everyday moments
Come on your own, with your partner, or bring your teenagers along — everyone is welcome!
10:30 – 16:30
Cost: € 80, Lunch included
To book please click here.
In this autumn course we will focus on herbs and preparations that will help to get us prepare for the winter by boosting our immune function and filling our store cupboard with preparations that will help us get through the winter colds. We will make fermented foods, oximels and syrups, as well as tinctures and teas.
Going for a walk through the weeds we will identify and gather common, easy to find plants that are beneficial to our health and safe to use. We will then use what we’ve found for our medicine making.
This will enable you to start filling your home medicine cabinet with home made natural products for coughs, colds, digestive problems, skin disorders, fatigue, first aid or simply promoting general health.
The workshops later in the year will focus on some different preparations.
Herbs have been used for promoting health since the dawn of humanity. Our modern society seems to have lost much of the knowledge about those remedies and is pushing us to hand over the responsibility for our health to the professionals. This course could be a beginning for you in taking care of your and your family’s’ health – while still getting professional help for more serious issues.
November
A Mindfulness Retreat in the Woodland Labyrinth
2:00 – 6:00 p.m. | Cost: €60
Step out of your daily rhythm and into a deep, grounding experience in nature. Walking to Your Centre is a mindful half-day retreat designed to help you slow down, reconnect, and listen inwardly through the simple, ancient practice of conscious walking.
Guided by gentle mindfulness practices, you’ll explore the Hollies’ spacious woodland labyrinth—set between mossy rock outcrops and inspired by the 12th-century pattern of the Chartres Cathedral. Throughout the afternoon, we’ll weave together different forms of walking meditation, breath awareness, and silent reflection, inviting your body and mind to settle into a natural sense of clarity and ease.
Whether you’re new to mindfulness or returning to your practice, this retreat offers a serene, supportive space to recentre, restore, and come home to yourself—one step at a time.
A One-Day Workshop for Families, Parents & Teens
Cost: €80 (Family discounts available)
Private family workshops can also be arranged by request.
10 – 4 pm
Venue: The Hollies Centre
Tutor: Thomas Riedmuller
To book please click here.
Would you like more harmony, laughter, and ease in your family life?
This practical, heart-centered workshop offers simple tools to improve communication, reduce tension, and strengthen understanding — even when life gets stressful.
Learn approaches inspired by Nonviolent Communication (Rosenberg) and Restorative Practices to help you:
- Navigate disagreements calmly and respectfully
- Set clear, caring boundaries
- Bring more lightness and fun into everyday moments
Come on your own, with your partner, or bring your teenagers along — everyone is welcome!
Create more understanding. Build stronger connections. Bring more joy into your home.
Please book directly through Niamh.
Email: [email protected]
Household remedies for common ailments.
Cost: € 80, Lunch included
10:30 – 4:30
To book please click here.
In this winter course we will focus on preparations made from herbs, spices and foods that are commonly found in a household .
We will explore how they can help us to get through winter colds, digestive upsets, cystitis, aches and pains, minor injuries and more.
We will also head out for a foraging walk to see what medicinal plants are available even in winter.
From cold- bannishing teas to flu-fighting soup, spice-infused oils and ointments for chilblains, sore muscles and joints, honey preparations for sore throats and other infections, remedies for indigestion and more.
Herbs have been used for promoting health since the dawn of humanity. Our modern society seems to have lost much of the knowledge about those remedies and is pushing us to hand over the responsibility for our health to the professionals. This course could be a beginning for you in taking care of your and your family’s’ health – while still getting professional help for more serious issues.
