DIY Peak District Retreat, Staffordshire. England May 2026.

This year is going to be an expensive year for me, as my expendable income will be tied up in a counselling training course i am starting soon, so unfortunately I couldn't stretch to one of Tristans wonderful retreats this year (however if you get chance to go, I definitely recommend one of Tristans retreats!).

So that being said, I had to find some way of going on retreat that was more affordable for me given my current situation. The idea came to mind to organise a non-profit, collaborative retreat. Obviously this is not a new idea, but we all felt that this retreat went particularly well, so i thought i'd share some details on how I organised it, and how the retreat went, with the hope that I may inspire others to do the same.

So i decided that this retreat would be leaderless, 'the guru is in you' right? From the word go I decided that I didn't want any ownership of the retreat, I just wanted others to show up and everyone to 'muck in' together. Well, it wasn't totally leaderless, If you have been on an AYP retreat before, you know the practices, the routine etc... so I planned to encourage everyone have a turn at leading the practices. This worked great in practice as there were some participants who either had been practicing a while and wanted to try leading practices to see if they liked it, and it was also good for those who have a yoga teacher qualification who hadn't yet managed to set up a group and wanted to sharpen their skills.

I was happy to foot the cost of the accommodation, work out a menu and figure out a shopping list, collect supplies and provide local knowledge for walks in the area. The participants refunded me once i knew the total cost.

I had been on a couple of AYP retreats before so had some people to contact about the idea, word spread through whatsapp, and thats how i found participants. I also posted about it on the forum.

The Accommodation

This was our yogi-cave. An old converted cow barn in the Staffordshire Peak District. The barn is usually used by groups of walkers, and the description said that it was capable of sleeping up to 12 people upstairs. When i saw a picture of the upstairs room, i immediately thought that it looked like a good place for yoga.

The upstairs room of the barn.

The space upstairs was ideal for six people to practice in, eight at a push. A few of us also slept here, stacking our sleeping equipment away in a corner ready for practice in the morning. Some participants chose to stay in camper-vans which were parked outside, and one stayed in a tent. As you can see, there is a flue from the fire downstairs that comes up through the floor, we didn't need the fire as the weather-gods were extremely kind to us!

FOOD!!

Cooking

For the food side of things I checked with the participants wether there were any special requirements, allergies, intolerences etc... Then looked for meals that were 'One pot" style, and had simple recipes which could be cooked in around half an hour. I ordered the supplies online from Sainsburies and picked them up on the way to the retreat so i knew they would be fresh as possible.

I made a large vegetable curry at home the night before (Which ended up doing two nights), we did a vege Paella and a pasta dish. Some of the participants also brought home made cakes and other treats which was also really great to have. I also bought a large fruit box from a local grocery store, this was great for breakfasts, snacks and for desert.

Everyone helped out with the preparing food and cleaning afterwards, so that was the karma-yoga taken care of.

For breakfast/brunch I bought a simple selection of food - museli, yoghurt, berries, honey, bread, jam etc.. Plus there was the fruit box to dip into.

Yoga.

The retreat was based on a standard AYP retreat, with two pratices in the morning and one in the evening, with grounding walks in the middle of the day around the beautiful local countryside of the Peak District. We even maganged a swim in the river below. The participants who were most interested in leading the sessions were free to be creative with the asana sessions, and it was nice to change things up now and again.

Without Tristans amazing evening talks, we had to entertain ourselves, that meant a light stroll after dinner, followed by either a sound bath (one of the participants brought one of her gongs!!) , a special candlegazing practice, or singing bajans on top of a nearby hill whilst the sun went down......Bliss!

DIY Retreat Team

Conclusion

So, all in all a really great little retreat of 4 nights, which wound up costing £150 each including food and accommodation.

Improvements for next time? There wasnt much to improve on really, but the one thing that let the accommodation down was the lack of showering facilities. Although, i did enjoy walking into some nearby woods with a solar shower and getting nudy with nature on a sunny summer evening, so its personal preference really!!

The main reason the place was cheap was because of the lack of electricity, so refridgeration was a slight issue, but i found that a standard cool-box did the job for a few days.

I personally really enjoyed organising this reatreat, all the participants really helped out and we all made it a success together and i'd definately do it again and I encourage all to give it a shot.

The Guru is in you!