Welcome to The Warren Forest Garden and Eco Cabins, Clive and Julie’s ecological household, garden and woodland on the beautiful Black Isle, 13km north of Inverness in the Highlands of Scotland. As well as being our home, we offer eco friendly accommodation and creative residencies. Our focus is Permaculture, gardening with nature, arts, crafts, creativity and living lightly on the planet..
The household and gardens here are being nurtured using design and techniques to create a balanced ecosystem for people, plants and animals while also adapting to the unfolding climate and ecological crisis. We have a mosaic of meadows, forest gardens, mixed woodland, wildlife ponds and bog garden, a kitchen garden growing vegetables, salads, herbs, fruit, polycultures of wild flowers for insects and pollinators, all on 2.5 acres (1 hectare). Organic and no dig methods create healthy soil and closed loop systems ensure nothing is wasted, for example composting, wormeries, mulching, reusing/upcycling materials, and wood processing for firewood and construction.
We’ve been a part of the network of Permaculture LAND (Learning Action Network Demonstration) Centre, under the name Black Isle Permaculture & Arts, since 2018. A LAND centre is a place where guests and visitors can see how the ethics, principles, nature connection and design processes which make up ‘Permaculture’ have been applied to the physical site and how we try to live more lightly on the planet here.
OUR ACCOMMODATION
We invite you to stay in one of our cosy and comfortable woodland eco cabins, which we self built as we wanted to make them unique, sustainable and somewhere that we would love to stay ourselves! Combining environmentally friendly features, artistic touches and rustic charm, the Green Tourism Gold rated cabins are ideal for eco conscious travellers who want to experience simple living! We have two self contained cabins sited in our small woodland, called Siskin and Coll Cabin. The names are derived from the place and nature around them. Siskin is a small bird which is common around the woods. Coll is Hazel in the Ogham ancient medieval tree alphabet, and in Celtic mythology Hazel is associated with wisdom, creativity and knowledge.
SISKIN CABIN
Siskin Cabin sleeps two in a double bed, and is a compact, cosy space with a woodburner, dining/seating area, cooking facilties in a small kitchenette, a bathroom with bucket shower and compost toilet, and a tranquil outdoor deck looking over the woods and fields. Siskin cabin opened in August 2020.
Coll Cabin is our slightly larger space, and was completed in March 2022. It also sleeps two in a comfortable double bed, with a bucket shower and compost toilet in the bathroom. This cabin has a larger living space and kitchen with fridge and cooker, a woodburner and also a desk/workspace area if you are looking for a relaxing and creative space.
The cabin was in a lovely private area and was very comfortable. We were doing the NC500 and it was a good base to go and see the things we wanted to see. The host was very accommodating, and offered some great suggestions for sight seeing and places to eat. I would certainly recommend staying here!
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Richard
16 Aug 2021
Such a sweet and cosy cabin. We loved staying here and Clive was a great host! 🙂
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Jane
09 Aug 2024
Clive was a great host. Very attentive. The cabin was very nice and the location was fantastic and very easy to find.
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Nik
02 Jun 2024
Clive and Julies cabin is a beautiful place to stay in a great location. Communication was fantastic and were there if we needed anything! Will definitely be back!
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Emily
18 Jul 2021
We had a very lovely stay at Siskin woodland eco-cabin, which was/is exactly how described and quite idyllic. We dealt mainly with Clive during our stay and he was very friendly and approachable. He also answered lots of questions that we had, about the cabin and about where he & Julie live and the ethos behind their place. We also met Julie very briefly and she too was very approachable and friendly. In short, the couple are lovely and inspirational people and what they have done to their home and gardens, in terms of ‘gardening’, ecology, and protecting this precious planet, is amazing. Their home and grounds are beautiful, the wider Black Isle & Highlands surroundings are spectacular, and the cabin itself is incredible. Clive & Julie clearly spent lots of time planning its construction and carrying out their plan. It is immaculate and we were extremely comfortable, but it also provided a wonderful and different experience. We loved the 'naturalness' of it all and particularly enjoyed the bucket shower. During our stay, we chose to buy the breakfast hamper from Clive & Julie and weren’t disappointed with its contents: Organic, healthy, breakfast cereal, wonderful home-made bread, and milk and margarine to meet our vegan dietary acquirements. They also encouraged us to pick raspberries from their garden, which we added to our breakfast with great pleasure! To conclude, we had a lovely time and our only ‘negative’ is that we didn’t choose to stay for longer on that particular element of our Scotland holiday. We very much hope to visit again in due course.
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Keith
01 Aug 2021
An incredible location and a beautiful, well thought out, off grid cabin. The breakfast hamper is well worth the extra too! A great place to take stock of your environmental impact and re-evaluate your daily life.
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Matthew
05 Jun 2022
This is a unique and inspirational place to stay, where hosts Clive and Julie are truly putting into practice their permaculture/eco-living vision! The cabin itself is set in private woodland and has been beautifully crafted, with the hosts thoughtfully paying attention to every little detail. Would definitely recommend for an off-grid, eco cabin experience, plus it's in a convenient location on the Black Isle to get to other parts of the Highlands too.
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Rose
20 Aug 2021
This cabin is truely beautiful. A very good break from the standard hotels with a very cozy cabin in the woods. The host was very helpful and made sure we were right at home.
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Joel
07 Jun 2024
We absolutely loved our stay here- it is truly magical and Clive and Julie were wonderful. It’s all the little touches that make the stay from the flowers and mint tea to the gift for Andy’s birthday. And definitely order the hamper!! It was so tasty. What a lovely spot- we will definitely be back! 😉
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Sarah
01 Oct 2020
We loved every bit of our stay. Communication was quick and easy, Clive met us for our check in and was very kind in showing us around and explaining how everything worked as well as giving many great tips and recommendations for walks and activities around the area. The cabin itself was super cosy and had everything you needed for a few days away from the stress of bigger cities, as well as being in a lovely area for walks and exploring Black Isle. A great way to make you think about living more sustainable and appreciating our comfort within our own homes!!
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Elena
25 Aug 2022
Skøn bolig, ren, æstetisk, smuk og inspirerende.
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Merete
31 Jul 2023
"Siskin", the woodland eco-cabin was charming, well equipped, comfortable, a perfect location for varied walking- hill, coast, river bank .Clive and Julie are very kind, attentive hosts.
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David
12 Apr 2022
We also welcome visitors by appointment, drop us an email if you are interested in visiting [email protected]
