Q. What are accommodation and food like?

A. If your course is in The Park, at Findhorn, you would live in a single-storey wooden house shared with a few others. Cluny Hill, 5 miles away in Forres, is a gracious old hotel, where you would share a room and facilities. NewBold House, also in Forres, is a beautiful Victorian mansion, again with shared rooms and facilities. Main meals at all venues are eaten communally and are vegetarian, using mostly organic ingredients including many fresh vegetables grown in the community.

The Findhorn Foundation is a working community, so you will be asked to help with clean-up after meals and other tasks.

Depending on your course, you may join a work department (kitchen, garden or homecare) for part of the week in order to get direct experience of the community and our way of life.

Q. What’s the Community like?

A. The Community consists of 4 - 500 people from over 20 nations and more than 30 organisations, of which the Findhorn Foundation is the largest. The Park, site of the evolving ecovillage, is set in beautiful gardens developed from the original sand dunes. Facilities include :

•	The Community Centre with kitchens, dining space and a meeting room
•	The Universal Hall, a major regional theatre complex
•	Art and craft studios
•	Four meditation sanctuaries
•	A small library
•	A great community store
•	Many ecological buildings, as well as old caravans (trailer homes)
•	A windmill and ‘living machine’ sewage plant.

The Park is 15 minutes walk from a beach and the traditional Scottish village of Findhorn - which had the name first, so locals call the Community ‘The Foundation.’ The village has a pretty harbour, some cafes, two traditional pubs that serve food, and a small shop.

On the down side, the Park is near a military air base and on the few occasions when the wind blows the wrong way, the smell of aircraft fuel drifts over. The planes also make a lot of noise at times but you do get used to it after a while!

The Park is connected by regular Foundation buses to Forres and Cluny Hill College. Forres is a charming old town, with many small shops in its traditional High Street where most essentials of daily life can be obtained. Cluny Hill College used to be one of the grandest hotels in the town, and is set in lovely gardens on the edge of Cluny Hills, with a view over a golf course to the hills beyond. It is home to about 30 community members and up to 100 guests on Foundation programmes and College courses.

Q. What’s there to do besides my programme?

A. Don’t come looking for lively nightlife because there’s not much of that. There are one or two nightclubs in Forres. The pubs are pleasant and local people generally friendly, but we are talking small town life here. The cities of Inverness and Aberdeen are 27 and 77 miles away respectively and can be reached easily from Forres by train or bus.

There are many evening classes in the Community - art, pottery, dance, yoga etc. - for which you will have to pay a charge. There are some shows in the Universal Hall ranging from touring theatre to stand-up comedians, bands, and community ‘sharings’ - cabaret-style shows that feature local talent. Creating events yourself is big here - many people do it and others are glad of it.

For the sports minded, there is a keen group of tennis enthusiasts in the village club who will welcome you as a visitor. Volleyball is popular on the village green in summer. There is great golf to be had, and the occasional scratch game of soccer. There is good running almost everywhere and the air is usually pure and sweet.

The great outdoors offers many goodies - beautiful walking country, a gorgeous river - the River Findhorn - with hiking trails, the Cairngorm mountains an hour to the South (skiing in winter), and beautiful coastlines around the Moray Firth. Organised hikes can be arranged to local beauty spots and sailing, horseriding, and canoeing can also be arranged.

Q. What are the values and aims of the Findhorn Community?

A. Most people come here with the hope of finding new and better ways of living as a co-creative community. Although a body of diverse opinion provides the community with that creativity, there is a general agreement to live more lightly on the earth and a commitment to sustainable living practices. The community wrestles with many issues related to the social spectrum of an ecovillage, such as meaningful work, decision-making, and financial sustainability, to name a few. Many people have also founded independent charities as a result of living and working here. Trees for Life works to restore the native Caledonian Forest; Ekologia works with Russian orphans; the Nepal Trust builds health centres in Nepal.

We are a spiritual community, although the community promotes no specific religion or single set of beliefs. We do believe that each person should cultivate his or her own spiritual connection, and we believe that everyone should discover what’s right for his or her life through a process of individual attunement. Group meditation times are offered three times a day for those interested. Service is important here, and “work is love in action” is an aphorism often quoted. We like to think of ourselves as a centre of transformation, because many people who come to live or spend time here find their own growth processes accelerated. Living in such a place – where everyone is open to change and trying to better their lives and the world around them – is a very powerful experience for most people.

But please don’t expect a utopia. The community is far from perfect and we learn from our mistakes. There are many things about life here that leave room for improvement and maybe you will be able to make positive suggestions yourself - certainly you and your group’s feedback will be valued at the end of your course. People here are similar to people anywhere, we have our own foibles and frequently disagree - despite similar aims we may have very different ideas on how to achieve them. Know that this is an experimental place and know that you don’t have to like it all!