Back To The Land

Land Care and Embodiment Weeks at Quinta da Pomba, Portugal

Next dates: March 21-28 & October 31-November 7 2026

Here at our home, Quinta da Pomba, we are firm believers that time spent tending the land and stewarding nature for future generations is vital soul nourishment, bringing to us so many different benefits, including grounding, better health and fitness, renewed vitality and inspiration, a calmer mind, a sense of purpose and well-being, and a more balanced nervous system.

With this in mind, and following many requests from visitors, we now run retreats here that carry an element of being on the land each day, tending to the gardens, the trees, harvesting and processing produce and whatever else needs doing, dictated by the season.

Alongside the land care, each day includes offerings of meditation, yoga and Tai Chi, a daily sharing circle and free time to self-organise other activities as a group and share our gifts with each other if we wish, or just relax and rest. Evenings often involve time around the outdoor fire under the stars, sharing stories, live music, songs and chat.

Breakfasts and lunches are self-service, with a work-team dedicated to making a delicious lunch each day. Wholesome, hearty dinners are cooked for us by our in-house chef each evening, ensuring we can rest and unwind our bodies and feel utterly nourished by the day.

Our land, Quinta da Pomba, is a beautiful eleven hectare piece of forest, gardens and pasture in a peaceful valley in the remote mountains of central Portugal. We are mostly off-grid and try to live as sustainably with nature as possible through natural buildings, forest regeneration, creation of a food forest and organic gardening. We have planted hundreds of trees over the last decade, with more going into the ground all the time, and our gardens, following permaculture principles where we can, are gently expanding and ‘bedding in’ each year. It’s a lot of work and we absolutely love it when visitors come and help us on the land – land stewardship is our passion and life choice, and it’s so much more fun doing it in a group! You can read more about our land at the Quinta da Pomba page or head to #quintadapomba on Instagram.

---

Approximate Daily schedule (can be tweaked depending on group needs)

7:30-8am	Unguided Meditation (We are happy to give some pointers early in the week)
8-8:30am	Tai Chi/Chi Gong with Trev
8:30-9:15am	Breakfast (Self-service)
9:15-9:45am	Morning Check-in
10am-11:30am	Land Care
12-12:30pm	Morning Break
12:30-2pm	Land Care / Lunch Prep
2-3pm	Lunch Provided by the group on a lunch-team rota.
3-5:30pm	Free Time
5:30-7pm	Yoga with Becky
7pm	Dinner
After Dinner	Free Time Optional activities such as creative writing, dance wave, live music, chai and chat around the outdoor fire provided, depending on the group’s wishes.

Our intention is that we explore and enjoy living communally for this week, and to support this we have a rota for setting out breakfast, making lunch, washing-up, supporting the evening meal chef and keeping communal spaces tidy and clean. These tasks are not onerous, and contribute to a feeling of group cohesion and connection through the week as we enjoy caring for each other and the space that is holding us. 

Please note that this is not a high-end luxury retreat! We live simply and close to nature here. The toilets are dry compost loos, the shower is wood-fired and the heating in the accommodation is all through wood burners. We are on hand to support with lighting fires and chopping wood, although learning to do this yourself can also be an empowering journey to go on if you’d like to – we will happily be your fire guides! The benefits of living close to nature and getting back to basics are huge, especially in these turbulent times, so if you are keen to reconnect to your roots then this is the week for you. And, don’t worry, if basic living feels like an ‘edge’ for you, you will be looked after very well and we will do our utmost to make you comfortable, well-fed, warm/cool and meet your needs.

Accommodation options include two large, one medium and one small caravan, two geodesic domes, two campervans and a basic room (not yet fully converted) in our house, plus comfortably equipped bell tents if the weather is appropriate. September is a mellow, bountiful time of year, often still very hot, with the grape harvest possible during our week. November is often still a beautiful month here, with plenty of warmth in the sun, produce still coming from the garden and the olive harvest beginning in our local area. That said, it can also be wet and/or cold – we live in the mountains and the weather is notoriously unpredictable here, with rain and wind always possible, and cool evenings a certainty. More detailed information can be provided about what clothes to bring on booking.

---

Costs:

Inspired by the generosity of the land itself, we offer our Back To The Land retreats on a sliding scale basis, to hopefully enable them to be accessible to all who feel drawn to attend, to both give to and receive the medicine of the land. We ask for a minimum exchange of €150 within the sliding scale range of €150-€250, for those on a low income so that we can at least cover our costs from the week. The standard price, for those who can manage it, is €200, which contributes to the ongoing expenses of running our project. Then there is the ‘pay it forward’ price of €250 for those who are able, to help us continue to invest in upgrading our facilities for guests (for example we have plans to create a sauna and a wild swimming pool when we receive the financial means) and expanding our land regeneration efforts. And, of course, you are welcome to donate above and beyond this scale if you resonate with what we’re doing and wish to support us further.

You can be sure that any money you invest in this week will be put straight back into the project, benefitting future retreaters and, we hope, future generations too. Our passion is tending the land, ourselves and each other with continuity of care, to ensure a healthy, vibrant future for our beautiful planet and all species, not just human. We wish to ‘be good ancestors’ in the words of the inspiring Manda Scott.