Little Lanterns: A Winter Solstice Gathering with Kerri ní Dochartaigh

Join writer Kerri ní Dochartaigh at Yarn this December for a winter solstice gathering: a weekend of words, ritual and creative practice. We’ll be coming together to mark the turning of the year and honour the slow, still beauty of winter.

The gathering takes place across the weekend, Friday 19th - Sunday 20th December:

Friday Evening

We begin together with a shared welcome dinner and drinks. Afterwards, we’ll gather in circle, inviting each guest to bring a favourite winter poem or short excerpt to share as an introduction. We’ll make paper window stars while Kerri shares reflections on light, darkness and the quiet glimmers that sustain us through winter. We’ll close the evening in circle, drawing a seed card for the season ahead and journaling around a prompt.

Saturday

We’ll begin the morning with a sea swim and cacao. The day’s central workshop — Winter Light on Moss, Falling — is a two-hour creative session exploring poetry, memories and creative journaling.

Through writing prompts, readings and reflection, we’ll explore how to nurture a creative practice that carries us through winter and beyond. The afternoon will include moments of poetry and a solstice session marking this tender midpoint of the year.

Breakfast and lunch are included. Dinner on Saturday isn’t included, but Ursa Minor will be hosting a special Winter Solstice Feast that evening, open to all. We've reserved tickets specially for those who want to attend as part of our gathering. You can purchase one below with your ticket and join the group across the road for a beautiful shared meal.

About the Ursa Minor Winter Solstice Feast: "A multi-course, communal dinner in the bakery celebrating the best in season from local growers at Broughgammon and Rhee River Organics. Tickets include a welcome drink, and it's BYOB."

Sunday Morning

A slow morning with breakfast, coffee and tea. We’ll swim again and share cacao, followed by a listening and gathering exercise as a final reflection before we part. Before we leave, we’ll each roll a beeswax candle to take home —  a small light to carry into the darker months — and close around midday with a reading from Kerri.

What’s Included

• Guided workshops and creative sessions across 1x evening, 1x full day and 1x morning

• Welcome dinner and drinks on Friday, breakfast and lunch on Saturday, and breakfast on Sunday

• Morning cacaos and optional sea swims

• All materials for creative and journaling activities

• For those booking accommodation: a 2-night stay included

Tickets

• £175: Non-residential attendance (includes all sessions and meals from Friday dinner to Sunday morning)

• £375: Full attendance and a 2-night stay in a private suite (includes all sessions and meals from Friday dinner to Sunday morning, excluding Saturday evening)

• £475: Full attendance and a 2-night stay in Romy, our largest private suite

Our suites can accommodate double occupancy with a shared king-size bed. One suite (Romy) sleeps up to 4 people (one king-size bed and a sofa bed). If you wish to share a suite with a friend (or group of friends), please contact us to arrange.

Who is Kerri ní Dochartaigh?

Kerri ní Dochartaigh is a mother, writer, holder and grower. She is moved by the way we tend and attend: to ourselves; to one another; to the living world. She has written for The Guardian, BBC, RTE, The Irish Times and others.  She mentors and teaches worldwide.

Her work currently explores ideas of one-anotherness, interconnectedness and ecologies of care.

Her first book, Thin Places, was published by Canongate in Spring 2021, for which she was awarded the Butler Literary Award 2022, and highly commended for the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing 2021. Cacophony of Bone was published by Canongate in May 2023 and was longlisted for the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing 2023. Kerri lives in the west of Ireland with her family.