We’re Clive and Julie, and The Warren is our home and permaculture homestead on the Black Isle. Here, we run a small eco cabin business and enjoy a slower, creative life rooted in the land. We came here looking for a life that allowed time and space for growing food, making with our hands, and exploring gentler, more connected ways of living. Clive is an artist and Julie a maker, and together we focus on nature, wildlife, permaculture gardening, and sustainable, creative living.

We’ve always aimed to live as lightly as possible. However, we felt the growing urgency to shift toward a more sustainable and regenerative way of life. Something that aligned with our values and responded meaningfully to the climate and ecological crisis.

Our journey

In 2013, we made a major change and set off from London on a journey of learning and exploration. We travelled through the UK and Scandinavia, combining WWOOFing with artist residencies, and shared the experience through a blog. (You can still read about our journey here). Along the way, we stayed with many inspiring people and dosicovered stunning places. All the while gathering skills, ideas, and clarity about the kind of life we wanted to build.

We wanted to combine our shared love of landscape, ecology, art, science, food, gardening, and design. Our goal was to make this part of both our lifestyle and livelihood.

Our home

We eventually found our home here on the Black Isle in 2015. Since then we’ve been developing our space and creating a resilient livelihood. This invloved nurturing spaces for people, plants, and wildlife to thrive.

In 2017, we launched Black Isle Permaculture & Arts (BIPA)—the umbrella for the diverse, poly-income activities that take place here. Over the last 10 years we’ve poured our energy into site-based projects. These include building our off-grid eco cabins and realising our design vision for the house and gardens. With much of that now established, we’re beginning to ease off a little and return our focus to our creative practice. Staying in the cabins supports our livelihood, and the business itself is deeply personal and rooted in the same values that shape how we care for the land

Connect with us

If you’d like to follow along with what we’re up to, you can sign up for our Substack newsletter