Creating the Write Environment

SUE WILSON samples the creative opportunities on offer at Glencanisp House Writers Retreats in Assynt

THE SINGLE-TRACK road to Glencanisp Lodge leads for about a mile inland from Lochinver, winding through tracts of gorse and heather alongside Loch Druim Suardalain, the hills rising ahead towards the looming double-humped mass of Suilven.

There’s not a building in sight, nor scarcely any other sign of human presence: it appears an altogether unlikely spot to find a 14-bedroom, 19th century mansion – but then you round a final bend, cross a cattle grid and suddenly there it is, nestled amid a stand of mature trees, grey stone walls adorned by a venerable climbing rose, lawn stretching down to the edge of the loch.

This splendidly isolated, stunningly scenic setting is a key element in making Glencanisp Lodge the perfect location for a writers’ retreat, of which several have been run there by local author and poet Mandy Haggith, since the Assynt Foundation acquired the building – together with 44,500 acres of spectacular surrounding countryside – in a landmark community buyout two years ago.

“I’d recently finished a Masters in creative writing at Glasgow University, and had moved back up to the north-west,” Haggith explains, of the retreats’ inception. “After having those two years of intensive camaraderie on the course, I knew there was a danger of starting to feel quite lonely and isolated quite quickly. But rather than having to go to the cities to find that sense of community, I was partly looking for a way to generate it up here. At the same time, I know what a hugely inspiring environment this is, and I wanted to share it with other writers.”

Clearly, that aforementioned “creative hub” is well under way, with other ideas recently floated including some kind of writer-in-residence scheme

Unlike the variously themed Arvon writing courses held at Moniack Mhor near Inverness, most of the Glencanisp retreats so far have been entirely unstructured. They run from Sunday to Saturday, and how you divide that time between communing with your muse and gleaning inspiration from the surrounding landscape is entirely up to you – although the Sutherland weather will likely ensure a goodly proportion of writing.

The exceedingly modest fee for the week not only covers all meals – breakfast and lunch on a help-yourself basis, with a three-course dinner cooked for you each evening – but a single room for each participant.

“I did quite a lot of informal research, talking to other writers about retreats and courses they’d been on,” Haggith says, “and that was the key thing that kept coming up: having a room to themselves would be a real treat. It’s a long way for people to come, and I think that aspect adds an extra incentive.

“I was also very keen to keep the cost down, as most of the writers I know are living more or less in penury, and thankfully the Assynt Foundation have been really supportive right from the start, primarily by letting me hire the building on a non-profit basis. From their point of view, the retreats are a new local enterprise that’s helping to form a creative hub in the area, and attracting new people to come here.”

The visitors’ book from previous writing weeks contains a succession of glowing testimonials – all eloquently composed, of course – to the combined creative benefits of breathtaking scenery, faraway remoteness and undisturbed time. (There’s no mobile phone reception at the Lodge, although wireless internet is available.)

Even without a car – Lochinver being accessible by public transport – the finest of walking country stretches in almost every direction, and if you do have wheels, umpteen beauty spots beckon within a few miles’ drive, from dramatic waterfalls to pristine white-sand beaches.

For the more ambitious, a climb up Suilven is often a highlight of their stay, or there are the varying challenges of the three other celebrated mountains within the Assynt Foundation’s domain: Canisp, Cul Mor and Cul Beg.
In an exception to the retreats’ non-structured rule, one held last month was themed around the poetry of Norman MacCaig, well known as a lover of the Assynt landscape.

“That was kind of an experiment, but it worked really well,” Haggith says. “We had guided walks around some of the places MacCaig wrote about, with one of the local Rangers, and there was something really special about reading his poems in the exact spot which inspired them, as well having someone on hand who knew all about the environment and the local wildlife.”

I was at Glencanisp during the fullest, lushest flush of the northern Highland spring – primroses and violets everywhere, rhododendrons flowering in a panoply of colour, trees and grass showing every verdant shade of green, interspersed with the gold of riotously blooming gorse.

While it’s hard to imagine a better seasonal stimulus for those creative juices, retreats have also been held in the very depths of winter, during early January, by all accounts to highly productive effect.

Often fired by New Year resolutions, participants have reportedly relished the confinement imposed by the fiercer weather, writing away all day in their respective rooms before gathering for dinner, then whiling away the rest of the night around a roaring fire in the amply proportioned drawing-room.

Though structurally sound, Glencanisp Lodge is currently in a somewhat run-down condition, with the windows in particular urgently needing replacement – no small job in a house of such stately dimensions, including nursery wing, three large reception rooms and seeming countless bathrooms, as well as the main guest bedrooms.

Having been entirely gutted, barring carpets and the odd original light-fitting, by its previous owner, the Vestey family – magnates of the Fray Bentos empire – it’s now furnished throughout with items donated by Assynt Foundation supporters.

Fond as visiting writers seem to be of this mix’n’match balance between faded grandeur and homely comfort, the house’s main business is holiday lets and deer-stalking parties, and – as a centrepiece asset in the foundation’s property portfolio – it’s slated to undergo a major refurbishment this winter, subject to the necessary £1 million or so being raised.

Haggith has already been assured, however, that her cut-price rental deal on the house will continue, and, indeed – given the growing market in this kind of cultural tourism – there are plans afoot to expand the programme of creative retreats, with one of the Assynt Foundation’s board members, local bookshop owner Agnes Dickson, currently examining the possibilities for visual artists and craftspeople.

With their offices now housed in the Lodge’s former stable block, the foundation operates an open-door policy on ideas for using the other outbuildings. One is already occupied by a local potter, Fergus Stewart; another is to be kitted out as a recording studio.

Clearly, that aforementioned “creative hub” is well under way, with other ideas recently floated including some kind of writer-in-residence scheme, perhaps in the erstwhile servants’ quarters, and the promotion of Glencanisp as a film and TV location.

“I think there’s a kind of critical-mass thing that happens when you get a whole bunch of creative activities together in the one place,” says Haggith. “All sorts of cross-fertilisation starts sparking off, and I’d really like to see the writers’ retreats being part of that process here.”

As a first tangible fruit of her efforts so far, Haggith hopes later this summer to publish a pamphlet of work either written during or inspired by its authors’ time at Glencanisp.

Other projects in the Assynt Foundation’s pipeline include the leasing of the Lodge’s extensive walled garden to a local organic grower, and a community-owned wind farm project that’s currently the subject of lively debate, following an initial feasibility study.

A second such study is about to begin into the critical issue of affordable housing, the construction of which was a central condition of the foundation’s hefty grant from the Scottish Land Fund, at the time of the original buyout. The creation of new crofts is yet another objective in their sights.

“Looking back to when we’d first acquired the estate, I’d say we’re more or less exactly where we hoped we might be by this stage,” says the foundation’s director Claire Belshaw, reflecting on this month’s two-year anniversary.

“Obviously we’ve got some pretty major challenges ahead, but we’ve achieved a lot so far, and there’s such a terrific team spirit behind this organisation – it’s just such an exciting thing to be involved in.”

The next writing retreat at Glencanisp Lodge takes place 27 October – 3 November, 2007. Contact Mandy Haggith at hag@worldforests.org or 01571 844012

© Sue Wilson, 2007