Embercombe

Inspired by nature Embercombe is a place to reconnect to your wild authentic self, resourcing you to live a passionate and purposeful life, in service of a flourishing world for all species.

 Embercombe is a beautiful 50 acre rewilding estate on the edge of Dartmoor. It is a place to find deep connection with nature – wild nature around us and wild nature within us. 

We run various programmes, courses and events each year, all of them experiences from which you will gain new skills, acquire knowledge, and find deeper connection with yourself, nature, and community. It is a place to breathe, to reconsider, to regenerate and to develop resilience. It is a place where practical action sits alongside spiritual deepening.

Our land

The upland valley of Embercombe is very beautiful and as every year passes it becomes more beautiful still. Amounting to 50 acres in total the land includes a lake, mature woodland, scrub, meadow, and orchards. Generations of badgers, foxes, birds, snakes, rodents, trees and wild flowers call this home. We feel the same way. For as long as we co-steward this land we will do everything we can to enable all to thrive – humans and the more than human. There are places on our land that have become seen and experienced as shrines – places where awe and wonder, gratitude and sorrow can find a home. Such places include the well garden, the lake, the stone circle, the cairn, and the mound. There are many more and perhaps in time we’ll be unable to distinguish between them. No higher or lower, no better or worse, just the delight of difference, the parts making the whole. We think this is the natural order of things.

Our Founding Principles 

The Children’s fire is the heart-song of Embercombe; it is a song of love, to life. It is a commitment to the responsibility carried by each successive generation to safeguard the vitality and regenerative capacity of the earth. It is a mind-set, culture, philosophy and design principle. It can and must be observable within politics, religion, art, business, education, health services, economics and our daily lives. It is the foundation of all we do at Embercombe and is our founding principle. The story of the Children’s Fire was passed to our Founder Mac Macartney by his indigenous mentors on a moonlit night in the winter of 1984 and is a central principle of Embercombe’s work in the world. The story goes that the elders of a long-gone people came to understand that human institutions needed to reflect the balance and wisdom observable in nature. They made a pledge to the young of all species:

No law, no decision, no action of any kind shall be permitted that will harm the children, now or ever.

Embercombe’s programmes draw upon a cornucopia of riches, sometimes offered singly, sometimes blended. These riches include nature connection, natural science, indigenous wisdom, practical skills, ceremony, courageous conversation, nature restoration, story, council, and voice/bodywork. Holding all of these elements and threaded amongst them are trees, birdsong, weather, warm fires, good food, and companionship.

We invite all who visit us to participate generously and appreciate the inner journey as much as the outer, the outer as much as the inner – to join us in walking the Twin Trail of inner growth and outer action in the world.