Date/Time
Date(s) - 23 Nov 2025 - 28 Nov 2025
4:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Location
Scout Adventures Youlbury
Boars Hill
Oxford
OX1 5HD
United Kingdom
About the Retreat
Guided by Ajahn Brahm and Ajahn Candā, this retreat will take you on a gentle journey into the mind, helping you to discover deeper layers of joy beneath the tiredness and tension that can build during everyday life.
With wisdom and warmth, our highly experienced teachers will show how we might relate to the universal experience of suffering in a way that opens our hearts to ourselves and others, rather than closes us down in fear. Grounded in reality and with virtue as our shining light, a quiet happiness will begin to develop that radiates the transcendent qualities of love and compassion, and that gradually matures into lasting peace.
Set in Oxfordshire’s serene woodlands, this retreat provides an inspiring space to quiet the mind and open the heart. Suitable for beginners and experienced meditators alike, there will be teachings from the Early Buddhist Texts, silent and guided meditations, Dhamma talks and Q&A sessions. The schedule will be relaxed and flexible and you will have use of the main hall, dining room and beautiful forest.
We are excited to host our retreat for the first time at this venue. The facilities are clean, basic and operate on a self-service basis. You will need to bring essentials like a sleeping bag, pillow, and all other items listed below.
During this retreat you will have the opportunity to serve in the kitchen, helping each others’ practice by preparing nourishing meals whilst also developing the essential qualities of generosity and harmony that will enrich your own meditation.
Location & Venue
Scout Adventures Youlbury is set in 42 acres of beautiful woodland in rural Oxfordshire. The beautiful, forested environment is very conducive to peaceful meditation practice and if you bring walking boots you can go on lovely walks (without getting too muddy!). With a maximum 50 people in this retreat, we will have sole use of the centre.
The venue is comprised of two main buildings: Centenary Lodge and Bear’s Den. Each building has accommodation blocks and a hall, one of which will be used for meditation and the other for dining. There is a short walk between the two so please ensure you have good outdoor shoes and rain gear.
A map of the forest can be found here.
Accommodation & Facilities
Please note that the venue is a Scouts Centre and not a hotel, so the facilities are basic and clean.
1. Bedrooms & Bathrooms
Please be aware that NO BEDDING IS PROVIDED! Only a mattress (most of which are slightly narrower than the standard size i.e. 75cm x 189cm) is provided. YOU MUST BRING YOUR OWN PILLOW, SLEEPING BAG & any other covers you may need.
Shared rooms are allocated at our discretion on a same-sex basis, with consideration given to health and age. In order to support stillness and investigation of one’s own inner world, family members, friends and couples will not be able to share a room.
Most of the rooms have two or three bunk beds. To avoid overcrowding we are filling to half capacity by only using the lower bunks, so there will be no more than three people in a room.
All rooms have an en-suite bathroom with shower, toilet and sink.
There are two accessible twin rooms (i.e. with wheelchair access).
2. Meditation Hall
The meditation hall is located in the Centenary Lodge building. Bright and and spacious, with floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the forest, this hall exudes peace and tranquillity.
Mats and basic chairs will be provided for sitting, but please bring your own cushions. You are welcome to practice walking meditation on one of the many forest paths or the grass lawns around the buildings.
3. Dining Hall
The kitchen and dining hall are located in the Bear’s Den building, another bright and spacious room where you can enjoy a relaxed meal. There are also picnic tables outside where you are welcome to eat if weather permits.
Hot water, tea and milk will be provided in the dining hall during mealtimes and you are advised to bring a thermos or takeaway cup if you think you may like to have tea in between meals.
4. Food & Drink
During this retreat you will have the opportunity to serve in the kitchen, helping each others’ practice by preparing nourishing meals whilst also developing essential qualities of generosity and harmony that will benefit your meditation practice. Our volunteer kitchen manager, Camille, will be running the kitchen and there will be a roster for retreatants to help them with meal preparation and washing up each day, as part of a small team. You will be asked to serve in this way a couple of times each, during the five day retreat.
Camille will be preparing vegetarian lunches and simple breakfasts, but no evening meals (except a light soup on the first evening). If you have a medical condition which requires you to eat in the evenings, you are welcome to bring something with you which does not need cooking and can be kept with you and eaten discretely. Hot water for tea will be available throughout the day.
ALLERGY DISCLAIMER:
Please be advised that nuts, gluten and other allergens will be present in the kitchen and on the serving counter. We cannot guarantee that meals will be completely free from cross-contamination. Please inform us in writing at bookings@anukampaproject.org if you have any serious allergy or concerns.
What Will I Need to Bring?
- Sleeping bag or duvet & bed sheet!
- Pillow!
- Bath towel!
- Toiletries (i.e. shampoo, body soap, toothpaste, hand wash/soap for the sink)
- Meditation cushion(s)
- Flask (for hot water/tea) and water bottle
- Torch/flashlight
- Comfortable clothes and a shawl
- Warm jacket & a raincoat/umbrella
- Outdoor boots & indoor slippers
Tentative Retreat Schedule
Sunday 23rd November:
16:00 – 17:00 Arrival & settling in
18:00 – 19:30 Soup or own snacks
19:30 – 20:00 Orientation talk (silence begins!)
20:00 – 21:00 Dhamma talk & Guided meditation (Ajahn Brahm)
Monday 24th-Thursday 27th November:
06:00 – 07:00 Meditation
07: 00 – 08:30 Breakfast & wash up
08:30 – 10:00 Teaching & guided meditation (Ajahn Brahm)
10:00 – 12:00 Personal practice and/or lunch preparation (rostered)
12:00 – 13:00 Lunch
13:00 – 14:00 Rest and/or lunch wash-up (rostered)
14:00 – 15:00 Rest and/or personal practice
15:00 – 15:45 Guided meditation (Ajahn Canda or Ajahn Brahm, alternately)
16:00 – 17:00 Word of the Buddha Class (Ajahn Brahm or Ajahn Canda alternately)
18:00 – 19:00 Tea break (wash your own cups)
19:00 – 19:45 Group Meditation
20:00 – 21:00 Q&A
Friday 28th November:
06:00 – 07:00 Meditation
07:00 – 08:30 Breakfast & pack up personal belongings
08:30 – 10:00 Closing talk & metta meditation
10:00 – 11:30 Lunch preparation
11:30 – 12:15 Lunch
12:15 – 13:00 Lunch wash up
Departures by 1:00pm
Retreatants must pack up on the last day of the retreat at 8:30am and leave promptly by 1:00pm.
Getting There
Youlbury Scouts is only a 20 minute taxi ride from Oxford Railway station. There is an hourly bus that stops at Wootton Village, but it is about a 40-minute walk so we recommend travelling by taxi.
The taxi company we regularly use is 001 Taxis, Oxford. You can book by phone, on WhatsApp, online or download their app to arrange a pickup.
Parking is available for those who are driving. When using GPS, you must enter “Scout Adventures Youlbury” instead of using the post code.
We will provide a ride-share spreadsheet so you can arrange to offer a lift or share a taxi with fellow retreatants.
Cost
The total amount for the residential retreat is £430 per person.
This fee covers food & drinks, lodgings and exclusive hire of the venue.
No fee is taken for the invaluable teachings! The retreat is run entirely by volunteers to keep costs as low as possible.
Ajahn Brahm is kindly coming all the way from Australia to England to help support Anukampa Grove Bhikkhuni Monastery and there will be opportunity to donate towards the running costs and projects at the end of the retreat.
If you would like to contribute to sponsoring accommodation for Ajahn Brahm and Ajahn Candā, please donate here, reference: ‘monastic costs.’
We may be able to offer some financial assistance to those of limited means through our bursary fund, collected entirely through the generosity of others.
You are welcome to donate to our bursary fund here.
Application Procedure
Congratulations, you made it here!
Next steps:
1. Please ensure you have read all the above information carefully first and then fill in the application form below. At this stage you will not be required to make a payment.
2. After submitting your application form, within five minutes you should receive an email confirming that we have received it. Please check your junk mail inbox if you do not receive it. We advise you to add our email address bookings@anukampaproject.org as a contact, to prevent our emails going into your junk folder.
3. In most cases, we will approve your application within two weeks. Once your application is approved, you will be required to settle the full payment to secure your place. Please check your email regularly to make sure you don’t miss it.
Cancellation Policy
Due to the cancellation policy at the Scouts Centre, the registration fee is refundable minus £150 until 20th June 2025 only.
After 20th June, no refund will be given, unless someone on our waiting list is able to take your place. If your ticket can be taken by someone else, you will be refunded minus £150. Whilst we will make every effort to offer your ticket on, we are sorry that this cannot be guaranteed.
Health and community care: Please do not attend if you feel ill (e.g. if you have any symptoms of Covid or any other viral infections).
All ticket proceeds go toward covering venue hire and other arrangements. Any excess will go toward general running cost of Britain’s first monastery for bhikkhuni, “Anukampa Grove Bhikkhuni Monastery.”
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