St Marks Stays

16/03/2025

There are many aspects you can gain from a retreat, other than health and wellbeing:

New friendships & laughter
Space to breathe
Inspiration
New Knowledge
Nature's Therapy
New menu ideas and nutrition advice
Calm mind and peace
Chance for your inner voice and soul to come out

15/03/2025

Love seeing the studio set up for other things. Our group of sewing ladies are here for the weekend filling the house with laughter, joy and creativity.

What would you and your friends use the studio for in the day?

14/03/2025

Soul Yoga with Leise is coming to us with her retreat in April

The Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse on March 14, 2025, is set to bring major shifts in career, love, and health for all zodiac signs. This rare celestial event in Virgo will push individuals to reflect, adapt, and transform. While some will experience breakthroughs, others may face challenges demanding introspection.

During this eclipse:
🪐 Let go of control-trust that the universe is realigning things for your highest good.
🌿 Release what no longer serves you -old habits, fears, or anything weighing you down.
🫶 Rest, reflect, and allow change-this isn't a time for manifesting, but for trusting the process.

Eclipses remind us that some endings
are actually divine redirections. Surrender to the flow and let the moonlight guide you.

eclipse

14/03/2025

Coming here in April.
True Wealth Good Health who is Kindred Spirit run amazing fasting retreats.
Soul Yoga with Leise for your restorative weekends

We only have two retreats in April, as we have other groups in celebrating Easter, friendships, reunions and get togethers. As you know, the house is available for anyone to book, so you don't have to be a retreat to stay here and we are dog friendly.

Lots of info on our website about the house if you are intrigued to stay.

13/03/2025

If you are interested you an follow Joanne's photography over at Joanne Withers Photography on Facebook and Instagram

12/03/2025

Please plan your schedules around these times for check in and check out.

I know where we can be flexible we have allowed chefs in to the kitchen, or retreat organisers in to the studio an hour earlier, but please don't assume this can always be the case and build that time in to your schedules. We feel awful when you ask and we say no, but to be honest, a 3pm check in is what you book and most properties are 4pm check in and 9:30am check out, so we are generous.

If you do not book an early check in, the diary is open for bookings. So if somebody books in before you, they will only check out at 10:30am the same day.

Unless we increase our prices to allow for a bigger cleaning company to come in, we need every minute between 10:30am and 3pm to move beds to new layouts, remake fires, tidy the studio, scrub fridges and ovens and much much more as you can imagine. We are a small team and Joanne has recently had to step back in to the cleaning team.

Even if you want to be in just one section of the house, we are consistently back and forth through the studio, because of our storeroom, the hallway gets cleaned last, so if you arrive and put your things there, it is in the way, the kitchen takes the longest because unfortunately not everyone leaves it is a great state and our priority is food hygiene cleanliness for you here.

All of this also applies if you don't all check out fully by 10:30am.

Hate to ramble on, but we are consistently feeling guilty that you are asking beyond what is possible, or booked. Please understand and plan accordingly xx

11/03/2025

Great opportunity here from Kendal Mountain Festival and Kandoo Adventures

🏔️ WIN a mountain extravaganza with Kendal Mountain Festival and Kandoo Adventures 🏔️

We're offering one lucky winner not one, but two amazing experiences!
Enter before 31st May 2025 and you could win:

🏔️ A full weekend experience at the 2025 Kendal Mountain Festival
🏔️ A 2026 trip of a lifetime to Everest basecamp with Kandoo Adventures

For full T&Cs and to enter, visit - https://forms.monday.com/forms/166f15630ad069e3bab4b094b0c6ad45?r=use1

10/03/2025

Are you feeling ready for a break?
Ready to get the family, nanna, dog and whoever off to somewhere new to escape the hamster wheel of life!

We have availability around the Easter holidays if you are quick. 8 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, 2 lounges, kitchen and garden in the countryside gives you all space to breathe.

Monday 31st March to Friday 4th April £2,169.20

Monday 14th April to Thursday 17th April £2,028

08/03/2025

On International Women's Day, I am grateful for a lot and saying thanks:

To the females who have cleaned and completed building work here.
To the women who run retreats here.
To the girlfriends who come to stay here to cherish their friendships.
To the ladies who book on to retreats here.
To the women in business I get to network with.
To our suppliers with female entrepreneurs.
To the generations of females who celebrate special anniversaries and birthdays here with their families.
To the women in my life that support and inspire me.

To the guys that support women in the workplace, their personal and family lives and that includes Mr Withers, who has always championed everything I do.

Most importantly, having travelled, I am always reminded how exceptionally fortunate I am, as a female, to have been born in this place and time, with the family I have, because I have so much more than others in the world.

I have rights, equality, love, support, education and choices. It is the women (and people in general) in the world that don't have these, that we need to support.

06/03/2025

Interesting read, even if an old study that is only on a particular demographic.
No date confirmed yet for the arrival of our sauna but looking like beginning of April at the latest.

Saunas are a hot topic at the moment. With a myriad of health claims attached to them, we investigate the research to see if they are deserved.

05/03/2025

To everyone who stayed and looked after our home whilst we were away, thank you. So pleased you all had a great time.

Many of you already visit India with your own retreats, so you will know what we experienced. We fit in so much and the photos aren't ready to bore you with, but there will be new artworks coming to the walls of the house when we find the opportunity.

Back at the desks now for anyone that has been waiting to catch up with us about your stays going forward.

05/03/2025

You can add your name and email address in to the keep up to date section on our website home page and you will hear about our cancellations.

Make sure our email is in your address book so we don't go in to your spam folder. We send out any cancellation notices via our newsletter before we list them on socials.

After signing up, also feel free to drop us an email to say you are interested in any 2025 cancellations so we can make sure the newsletter goes to you.

03/03/2025

It is said your life is shaped by your choices. What books you read, people you hang out with, foods you eat, habits you adopt, media you consume, beliefs you hold, or locations you hang out in.

So what are you choosing today?

01/03/2025

March is National Craft Month.

Did you know we have tables and chairs that can be popped in to the studio if you want to run an artist retreat, crafting, sewing, creating vision boards, painting, or whatever your creative ideas are.

26/02/2025

February's New Moon this week is called the Snow Moon. Even if you don't follow the lunar cycles, you can still sit out by our firepit and often see the stars due to the house being in an actual Dark Skies location.

23/02/2025

Easter Weekend is only 2 months away to get booking as a group holiday. You can book direct from our website.

21/02/2025

Did you know it is now cheaper than previously to book a third night, because lots of people tell us they realise that two nights goes too quickly by the time they check in and out and they wished they'd booked a longer weekend.

Even on retreats, you could book an extra night and go out for dinner with whoever decides to stay because they can head to work on flexi time the next morning.