SAVE THE DATE!
REGISTRATION DETAILS ON THE ESSENCE OF MULRANNY WEBSITE COMING SOON!
Our amazing host for the week, Lora Murphy, walking the Essence of Mulranny labyrinth
Join me at the beautiful Essence of Mulranny Retreat Center on Ireland’s wild west coast — a sanctuary of creative exploration overlooking magnificent Clew Bay and the sacred mountain Croagh Patrick.
This retreat invites you into a creative pilgrimage inspired by Ireland’s ancient landscape of circles and spirals. Through exploring the surrounding land, walking the labyrinth, and playing with the circle as a container for art, we journey inward toward the deep center of the creative soul. Layering paint, text, stitching, and sacred symbols, we allow intuition and movement to guide our unfolding.
Ireland is a land where imagination is alive — home to poets and fairies, storytellers and stone circles. We’ll let these energies percolate and seep into the creative cauldron we form together. Ritual and contemplation will attune us to the mystical spirit of place as we walk the ancient-stone labyrinth at Essence of Mulranny.
Alongside our studio sessions, our week includes a day trip to Achill Island, a half-day excursion to local sites including the town of Westport, and gentle time in the village of Mulranny. We’ll visit holy wells, castles, and ruins, wander along the coastline, picnic in the heather fields, and gather inspiration from the outer landscape that mirrors our inner one.
Each day, we’ll walk the labyrinth and translate our experiences into layered artwork. The labyrinth awakens the artist within — each turn a reminder to trust the unfolding of imagination. A living metaphor for the creative process, it teaches through movement, rhythm, and return. It mirrors the creative cycle itself: beginning, wandering, losing direction, finding center, emerging transformed. It invites us to move fluidly between making and reflecting, walking and creating, inner and outer worlds — a liminal space that holds both surrender and emergence.
In Ireland, the labyrinth belongs to a lineage of spiral stones, circular wells, and sacred pathways. I have found it to be my creative muse — a spiral that loosens ideas, lifts images, and brings forgotten fragments of self to light. The labyrinth reminds us that creativity is never linear; every step is a conversation with mystery.
Working with circles as our visual and spiritual framework, we’ll create art that honors the dance between inner and outer worlds, rediscovering the creative pulse that lives at the center of everything. Each circle becomes a mandala of presence — a visual prayer, a map of becoming, and a reflection of the living rhythms that connect us to earth, cosmos, and one another.
No art experience is necessary — only a willingness to explore, experiment, and listen to the wisdom that arises from within.
Let the mystery and beauty of this landscape awaken your senses and your soul. This unspoiled land — its ocean edges, mountain tops, grasslands, and heathered hills — offers a safe, inspiring space to stretch into your creative edges and remember your belonging to the great circle of creation.
INCLUDED IN THE RETREAT:
Workshop instruction and supplies
Seven nights lodging and all meals except for one lunch and one dinner
Transportation from Westport to the Studio (it is recommended to fly into Dublin airport and get a train to Westport where you will be met and transported to Mulranny)
All tour and excursion fees
NOT INCLUDED IN THE RETREAT:
Airfare and travel costs
Passport fees, photos and processing where applicable
Additional nights lodging
GETTING TO THE RETREAT CENTER
The retreat hosts will collect you at the Westport Train Station at 4pm on Saturday, May 4th and drive you to Mulranny, which is about 30 minutes from Westport. Our hosts are eager to assist you with any travel questions you may have. Email lora@essenceofmulranny.com with any questions.
COST OF RETREAT
$3,950 for a private bedroom and bathroom
This workshop serves as a Qualifying Workshop for anyone who might decide to attend a Veriditas Labyrinth Facilitator Training in the future. No previous experience of either the labyrinth is required to attend.
