Back to Nature
A Return to the Scottish Highlands — and to Yourself
Reserve Your Place$3,599 per person · $600 deposit holds your place
I grew up a few miles from where we'll be staying. This one is personal.
There's a loch in Argyll that I've known since I was seven years old. Loch Awe. When the mist sits low across the water in the early morning and the hills are just beginning to catch the light — there are no words for it in English. In Gaelic, they might say it fills your soul. That's where we're going this July.
I was born and raised in the Scottish Highlands, and I've spent years taking my fiddle around the world — from the jungles of Sumatra to the Australian Outback. But there's nowhere quite like Argyll in the summer. It's ancient. The standing stones at Kilmartin Glen are over five thousand years old. The air smells of heather and sea. And when you hear a fiddle echoing off those old stone walls, something shifts in you.
This retreat is run by my dear friends Michele Dante of Inner Vision Yoga in Arizona and Heath and Nicole Reed of Living Metta — people who have been leading transformational retreats for over twenty years. They asked me to join as co-host and to bring the music of Scotland to life for the group. I said yes before they'd finished the sentence.
If any part of you has ever felt the pull of Scotland — whether it's in your blood, your imagination, or simply a quiet longing you can't quite explain — I'd love for you to join us. This is not a tour. This is a homecoming.
Come and let the Highlands hold you for a while.
▶ Watch
Places are limited — don't let this one slip away.
Reserve Your PlaceTen days of immersion in the soul of Scotland
Every day has been designed to bring you deeper into the land, the music, and yourself.
A Day in Edinburgh
Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Mile, Arthur's Seat, and your own private ceilidh in the evening — the perfect opening chapter before we head into the Highlands.
Stirling Castle — Tea & Tour
Afternoon tea and a guided tour of Stirling Castle, where Mary Queen of Scots was crowned as an infant in 1543. History you can touch, on the road west to Argyll.
Live Celtic Fiddle with Colin
Morning and evening performances, tune circles, and storytelling from a Highland-born musician who grew up in this very landscape. Music as it was always meant to be — live, by ear, and from the heart.
Daily Yoga, Qigong & Yogassage
Morning and evening sessions led by Michele, Heath and Nicole — yoga, Qigong, and Yogassage woven through the week. Suitable for all levels. Three extraordinary teachers, one extraordinary landscape.
Kilmartin Glen & Standing Stones
Guided walks through one of Scotland's most sacred landscapes. Over 800 prehistoric monuments — standing stones, cairns and hill forts that pre-date the pyramids.
Inveraray Highland Games — July 21st
Pipe bands, heavy events, Highland dancing — and a personal welcome arranged for our group from the committee. Colin will be playing. One of those days that stays with you.
Mull & Iona
A guided ferry journey to the Isles of Mull and Iona — the spiritual heart of Celtic Christianity. Ancient spirituality you can feel in the air.
Village Gathering
An evening with local musicians and artisans — storytelling, music and dancing beneath the Highland skies. A genuine gathering of the kind that has happened in Argyll for centuries.
Accommodation, Meals & Transport
Double occupancy on the shores of Loch Awe. Three daily meals with vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options. Round trip transport Edinburgh Airport ↔ Highlands included.
Nature, Stillness & Free Time
Time to gaze at the loch, hike, explore or simply rest. Long golden evenings, birdsong, heather. Time to simply be somewhere beautiful.
Argyll, Scotland.
Ancient, wild, and impossibly beautiful.
Argyll sits on the west coast of Scotland, where the land breaks apart into sea lochs, islands, and hills shaped over millennia. People were raising standing stones here four thousand years before the Romans arrived.
We'll be based near Loch Awe — Scotland's longest freshwater loch, with the ruins of Kilchurn Castle reflected in the water. Nearby is Kilmartin Glen, a valley so dense with prehistoric monuments that archaeologists still don't fully understand it. And an hour's drive brings us to the ferry to Mull and Iona.
Inveraray, the historic county town of Argyll, is where I grew up. It sits on the shores of Loch Fyne and has barely changed since the 18th century. On July 21st, the Inveraray Highland Games take over the town — and our group has a personal welcome from the committee.
This is the Scotland that most tourists miss. The real one.
Brought together by a shared love of Scotland and what it does to people
Colin MacLeod
I started playing the fiddle at seven years old in Scotland and I haven't stopped since. I grew up near Inveraray in Argyll — a few miles from where we'll be staying — and I spent my teenage years competing and performing at ceilidhs across Scotland before taking the music out into the wider world.
I'm the founder of the School of Celtic Fiddle Mastery and I teach the art of playing by ear — the way the music was always passed on in the Highlands, without sheet music, from heart to heart.
Coming back to Argyll with a group of people who love the music and the land — this is one of the most meaningful things I do.
Michele Dante
Michele Dante has been teaching yoga and leading international retreats for over twenty years. She founded Inner Vision Yoga in Tempe, Arizona, and she has the rare gift of making a room — or a hillside in Scotland — feel like the safest place in the world to let your guard down.
She doesn't do ordinary. This retreat reflects everything she values — authenticity, depth, and the transformative power of being somewhere truly beautiful.
Heath & Nicole Reed
Heath and Nicole Reed are the founders of Living Metta and experienced retreat leaders in their own right. They bring a distinctive blend of yoga, Qigong, and Yogassage to the daily practice — working with what the group brings each day and meeting people exactly where they are.
Together with Michele, they create a teaching team with extraordinary depth and warmth. You'll feel it from the very first morning.
Not every day is planned. That's the point.
What follows is a flavour of the week. The best moments will be the unplanned ones.
Day One — Edinburgh
Edinburgh Castle in the morning, the Royal Mile winding through centuries of history, Arthur's Seat if your legs are willing. Then in the evening, our own private ceilidh. By the time you go to bed, you won't feel like a tourist anymore. You'll feel like you've arrived.
Day Two — Stirling Castle, Then West to Argyll
We travel west and stop at Stirling Castle — one of Scotland's greatest fortresses, where Mary Queen of Scots was crowned as an infant in 1543. Afternoon tea inside the walls, then on through Loch Lomond country and into Argyll. We arrive at Loch Awe as the evening light is doing what only Highland light does.
First Morning at Loch Awe
You wake up on the shores of Loch Awe. Yoga begins overlooking mist-kissed water where the stillness feels almost sacred. The rhythm of the week takes hold — mornings of movement and breath, days in the landscape, evenings of music and conversation.
Kilmartin Glen
We walk through Kilmartin Glen. I'll tell you the stories of the stones — what we know, and what remains a mystery. There's something profound about standing where people stood five thousand years ago, doing something not entirely different from what we're doing now.
Inveraray Highland Games — July 21st
The Games come to town. Pipe bands, heavy events, Highland dancing, the whole spectacle — bagpipes echoing off the hills of Loch Fyne. We have a personal welcome from the committee, and I'll be playing. It's one of those days that stays with you.
Mull & Iona
The ferry to Mull, then the crossing to Iona — the spiritual heart of Celtic Christianity. Ancient spirituality you can feel in the air. We spend the day on the island, some of it together, some of it alone. Both matter.
Village Gathering
An evening with local musicians and artisans — storytelling, music and dancing beneath the Highland skies. A genuine gathering of the kind that has happened in Argyll for centuries. The fiddle will be out. The craic will be good.
Last Evening — Farewell to Argyll
We gather one final time around the music and the stories. A dram of whisky, the fiddle tuned for the last time on Loch Awe. The kind of ending that doesn't feel like an ending. More like a beginning.
This is the Scotland trip you've been waiting for.
Reserve Your Place"What a delightful and memorable trip to Scotland we had with Colin and Kevin. The history of the land from castles to ancient sites, Colin's fiddle music, the stories of the landscape, the welcome and hospitality really captured our imagination and hearts. Looking forward to the next trip!"Mary Mayer — Virginia, USA
Reserve Your Place in Argyll
Places are limited. This is an intimate retreat and we want to keep it that way.
- 10 days — Edinburgh day + 9 days in Argyll (July 18–26)
- Day one in Edinburgh — Castle, Royal Mile, Arthur's Seat & private ceilidh
- Stirling Castle — afternoon tea & tour en route to Argyll
- Double occupancy accommodation on the shores of Loch Awe
- 3 daily meals — vegan, vegetarian & gluten-free options available
- Round trip transport — Edinburgh Airport to the Highlands and back
- Daily yoga, Qigong & Yogassage with Michele, Heath & Nicole
- Live Celtic fiddle sessions and storytelling with Colin
- Guided tours — Kilmartin Glen, Isles of Mull & Iona
- Inveraray Highland Games — personal group welcome July 21st
- Village gathering with local musicians, storytelling & dance
- Single occupancy available at additional cost
A $600 non-refundable deposit holds your place. Balance due prior to departure.
Travel insurance is required. International flights not included.
Questions? Email Colin: [email protected]
A few things people ask
Do I need to be a yoga practitioner to come?
Not at all. The yoga sessions are welcoming to all levels — from complete beginners to experienced practitioners. Michele, Heath and Nicole are skilled at working with whatever you bring. You're not being assessed. You're being held.
Do I need to play fiddle or know anything about Scottish music?
Absolutely not. The fiddle sessions are for listening, storytelling, and the joy of live music — not performance. If you want to try a few notes, wonderful. If you just want to sit with a cup of tea and let the music wash over you, that's perfectly right too.
I've always wanted to go to Scotland but never quite made it. Is this the right way to do it?
I think so, yes. You won't be on a coach with forty strangers. You'll be in a small group, in one of the most beautiful corners of Scotland, with time to actually feel where you are. That's the difference.
Do I need Scottish ancestry?
Not at all — everyone is welcome. But if you do have Scottish roots, I can tell you from experience: standing in the place your ancestors came from does something to you. Especially when the fiddle is playing.
What's the accommodation like?
Double occupancy on the shores of Loch Awe — comfortable, warm, and thoroughly Scottish. Single occupancy is available at an additional cost. Full details on room options are provided on booking.
How do I get there?
Flights are into and out of Edinburgh Airport. We begin with a full day in Edinburgh before travelling west. Round trip transport between Edinburgh Airport and the Highlands is included in the retreat price — you don't need to arrange your own way to Argyll.
Is travel insurance required?
Yes — travel insurance is required for all participants. We recommend policies that include cancel-for-any-reason cover. Full guidance is provided on booking.