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.
I could not imagine a more perfect eco cabin. Within the lovely woodland the accommodation is cosy with lots of beautiful and quirky details, some interesting books (also about permaculture), pictures, a whole folder with friendly information, the place is interesting and calm. Clive could not have been more friendly and helpful.
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Kerstin
18 Mar 2024
Beautiful eco cabin in a beautiful part of Scotland!
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Carolyn
18 Aug 2022
Clive and Julie provided us with not just an opportunity to recharge, but a chance to learn and think, and completely on our own terms. A beautiful space, exactly as advertised, which I would highly recommend.
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Kenny
18 Jul 2022
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
Very clear instructions were much appreciated. Nice little woodland area - great if you want a camping lifestyle in luxury.
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Aimée
20 May 2024
Such a beautiful cabin, with thoughtful touches. Perfect place to explore from, our use as a cosy cabin to hide away and relax. The woodburner keeps you lovely and toasty. Close to Inverness, we used as a stop off on our NC 500 trip. Clive was so accommodating and helped us out. We cannot recommend enough!
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Faye
27 Oct 2020
La casita y el lugar son geniales! Una experiencia única, totalmente recomendable
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Elena
08 Jul 2022
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
Such an incredible stay in this very unique place. Hosts were amazing, very personable, helpful and thoughtful throughout. Whole stay so comfortable and very relaxing and looks even better than pictures! Will be back
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Emily
29 Aug 2020
We absolutely loved our stay at Siskin Eco Cabin - it was the perfect getaway for us. The site is located in a great location to explore the Black Isle. The cabin is full of charm and so cosy during the evenings, especially with the wood burning stove and radio on. Clive was very accommodating and gave us an excellent tour of the permaculture design incorporated within the site. The breakfast hamper was also a perfect treat, especially the strawberry and blackcurrant jam!
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Priya
25 Jun 2021
Thoroughly enjoyed our stay! All the tips that Clive and Julie suggested were great to explore too. The best part however was staying cosy in the cabin. Loved the book selection and games provided. The breakfast hamper was delicious too! Makes you ponder on how you can live your life more sustainably, so thank you for sparking some creative ideas!
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Georgia
07 Jul 2024
Very welcoming host. Super cozy and warm space. Great location.
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Léa
14 Aug 2023
We also welcome visitors by appointment, drop us an email if you are interested in visiting [email protected]
