Join the Quests and Retreats team in one of Scotland’s beautiful forests and hills to go in search of a Unicorn. The Unicorn Quest involves journeying into the forest on a Quest to find our Unicorn.
“Creatures of the world’s deepest forests and jungles, the unicorns are among the most noble and beautiful. They are guardians of the wood and glen, high-spirited with white fur and horns which mark them as highly spiritual beings linked to the light of the Moon. Notoriously shy of humans and wary of predators they have to be approached with kindness and empathy.”
Jan Hogarth told DGWGO “ Like many people who have been fortunate enough to grow up in the Dumfries and Galloway landscape, I love the land with all my heart and soul and know it to be a place of healing, I want to work with others to celebrate this incredible place, its people, its culture and its potential, helping people to reconnect with nature.”
“Our Unicorn encourages us to go on an adventure in the landscape, forests and countryside, he helps us fall in love with nature. He inspires us to walk up hills and through forests to find him, stimulating our imagination and sense of creativity as we go exploring.
The Unicorn Quest uses creative activities, such as storytelling, drawing, digital photography and social media to celebrate the profound experience of spotting a Unicorn. This Quest reconnects our imaginations with landscape and the Unicorn shows us that the real world is as playful and exciting as the digital world.“
Upcoming Quests:
Join us on a Quest exploring some of the South of Scotland’s most beautiful and enchanted ancient woodlands to help us explore with the Unicorn as ” A Disappearing Species”.
Theme: Disappearing Species, has the Unicorn disappeared? or has he just been hiding for 100s of years? Why has he comeback now? Are there more Unicorns out there in the world? or is Scotland the only country on the planet to have a Unicorn?
Who: Targeted at kids ages 4-14 years but open to anyone who loves Unicorns, kids must be accompanied by an adult.
When and Where: We will be running two Unicorn Quests over the Easter School holidays:
Sunday 9th April – Meeting at 2.00pm in the car park opposite Woodcock Air Wood, Hoddom, (where the B725 meets the B723) close to Annan and Lockerbie.
Monday 17th April – Meeting at 2.00pm at Caerlaverock Nature Reserve car park Castle Corner, Shore Rd, Dumfries DG1 4RQ
Guides: Jan Hogarth (Environmental Art), Unicorn Guardians, Charlotte and Beck.
To Book and fee: Contact Jan Hogarth [email protected] tel.07801232229 to book, £10 per person (1 adult goes free with kids).
Quests and Retreats
Quests and Retreats is an innovative new project designed by arts and place-making organisation, Wide Open, in response to a desire to imaginatively reconnect people to landscape places for wellbeing and vitality and helping everyone to “fall in love” with nature.
A Quest is a cultural adventure based in the regions atmospheric landscape. We work with artists, academics, geographers, geomancer, and/or ecologists to create these unique experiences. Each experience is imaginatively designed for each particular location, immersing participants in natural beauty, culture, uncovering a sense of place and encouraging participants to re-connect with their senses and enjoy relaxed stimulating conversations linked to landscape stories and themes often contemplating the past and re- imagining the future.
We also plan to run Retreats, our Retreats will incorporate a balanced programme to nurture the mind, body, heart and soul, including combinations of physical, creative, intellectual and holistic well-being activities. They will take place in beautiful country houses hidden away in the hills or wild camping in nature. We aim to create an inspiring non-competitive atmosphere which creates a relaxed feeling of “family” brought together by shared interests. Individually everyone will have the opportunity for silence and reflection. A typical retreat may include: Guided journeys into the landscape with artists, scientists and intellectual thinkers; reflection, discussion, writing and storytelling; mindfulness meditation; world-class art and music; quality, locally-produced food.
Wide Open is a social enterprise and hopes to build a sustainable cultural tourism project which, with the support of partners, offers Quests and Retreats to young people encouraging them to digitally detox and become custodians of the landscape and nature in the future.
We are passionate about landscape and its potential as a place to escape the stresses of life in order to reflect and rebalance.
The following two Quests are coming up in April and we are planning more Quests over summer including Quests that help reconnect people with landscape through dowsing, drawing, science and wild food foraging.Quests are regularly updates on our website, www.questsandretreats.com
