Start Your Memoir Writing Journey

Six-Day Writing Retreat at The Cottage at Clifden in County Clare.

Ideal for memoir writers at any stage of their memoir; beginning, middle or near the end. Retreats are individually designed for your needs. Before booking Breda will look at where you are on the memoir writing journey and design the retreat around the specific inspiration, writing or editing help you require. If you have a finished manuscript or have a work-in-progress, Breda is happy to receive a copy to meet your writing in advance of your arrival and to have time to examine how she can best design your memoir retreat.  

She incorporates two hours creative memoir writing classes each day with ad-hoc memoir writing discussions by the fireplace, in the sun or beneath the rain on long walks in bucolic countryside through quiet paths and woodland trails on farmland abundant with nature and absent in tourist congestion. Morning or afternoon excursions to some of Clare’s natural wonders of the world like Mullaghmor, The Cliffs of Moher, the sea at Doolin, Kilkee or Lahinch or the wild less travelled Loop Peninsula to the Lighthouse at Loop Head, are part of all retreats at The Cottage at Clifden, as well as literary excursions to locations like the castle at Thoor Ballylee where William Butler Yeats once lived and wrote: here you can witness his writing desk at a window with a view over a river meandering through serene woods or a visit to Holy Island on Lough Derg where Clare born prolific, brave and exceptional writer Edna O’Brien is buried in monastic majesty or The Flaggy Shore at New Quay where the light and the movement of swans inspired Seamus Heaney to write ‘Postscript’. Excursions depend on weather and season but there will always be excursions to places that inspired great artists, and to explore some of the magical terrain of County Clare. Ad-hoc journey suggestions are welcome. Contact Breda at thecottageatclifden@gmail.com to arrange a free consultation or retreat dates.

*Flights to Ireland not included.

**Transportation to The Cottage at Clifden will be arranged upon request.

***Airport pickup only available for Shannon Airport.