A 6-day cultural immersion in Language, Land, Lineage & Belonging.
Rooted in the West Coast of Ireland and guided by a host of trailblazing artists, activists and wisdom keepers from Ireland and beyond.
Common Knowledge Centre
The Burren, Co. Clare
Supported by Foras na Gaeilge
Founded in 2020, Hedge School | Scoil Scairte has been at the heart of the resurgence of the Irish language creating immersive online learning experiences that have connected over 5,000 people across Ireland and the global diaspora to living cultural heritage.
Now, we are bringing it home.
This summer we will gather in person, on the land during the ancient fire festival of Lughnasa.
Our Summer School is a six-day immersion for adults who feel the pull of Irish cultural heritage and want to experience it from the inside out.
꩜ Part rewilding Summer School
꩜ Part adult Irish College
꩜ Part Creative Retreat
꩜ Part spiritual Homecoming
Together, we gather as a meitheal immersed on the land in deep time to learn the language and live the culture. We will share ancestral wisdom and cultural practices that help us to reconnect with ourselves, with each other, and this wild place we call home.
Language as medicine. Culture as lived practice. Land as teacher. Community as kin.
The Wild Spirit of Ireland is calling.
If you feel the pull, this is your invitation.
Something is stirring.
Across Ireland and throughout the 80+ million-strong global diaspora, people are searching for deeper roots and the right relationship with the web of life.
You may recognise yourself here:
꩜ You learned Irish in school but never felt it in your body.
꩜ You carry Irish ancestry that feels unresolved.
꩜ You yearn for belonging that is experienced, not imagined.
꩜ You sense that Irish culture is more than heritage, it is a way of being.
If you feel called to deepen your connections to culture, kin and ancestry then this immram, or wonder voyage, is for you.
“We are, after all, ‘forest people’ or ‘wild men’… that is what ‘Gael’ means. It's our dark secret, that we are in fact bushmen, not bogmen”
-Manchán Magan
Our Summer gathering is not just a language course. It is a transformational immersion rooted in the psyche and soul of a resilient people and a storied land.
We blend tradition with innovation by honouring the old ways in new ways. This cultural immersion builds a bridge between the island of Ireland and our global diaspora family. We will gather to celebrate and participate in a powerful living culture.
Scoil Scairte is soul retrieval. We don’t just teach Irish, we rewild what it means to be Irish.
You will strengthen your relationship with an Ghaeilge, reconnect with ancestral wisdom, and step into shared story and song, creativity and community with like-hearted people from all walks of life.
Through embodied, ecological and somatic learning, we revive ancestral memory, awaken the body, rewild the imagination and decolonise the mind. Alongside artists, activists and global wisdom keepers, we tend the living edge of cultural healing.
In a world shaped by rupture and forgetting, Scoil Scairte is an act of cultural repair.
This is for those who feel the pull.
People on the island of Ireland, the global diaspora and anyone drawn to Irish culture.
Diaspora communities seeking reconnection that is real, reciprocal and rooted.
People who carry questions about ancestry, identity and belonging.
Adult learners of An Ghaeilge who are seeking a living language that's rooted in place, carried in the body and aligned with seasonal living.
Irish people renegotiating their relationship with their mother tongue.
People exploring decolonisation and rewilding as practices of repair.
Anyone longing for deeper belonging with clan and kin.
Our world-class faculty will join us to live, work and collaborate for 2 days before students arrive. On the final day, the local community will be invited to attend performances and events at Common Knowledge.
At its heart, Scoil Scairte offers a supportive, soulful environment to reconnect with yourself, others and the living world through the potency of this ancient language.
“To write in Irish is to listen at the back door of the house of memory.”
- Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill
Our approach is holistic, trauma informed, somatically sensitive and created to suit diverse learning styles and needs.
You don’t need perfect Irish, just courage and curiosity.
Please arrive with an open mind and an open heart.
꩜ Greater confidence speaking and using Irish
꩜ A felt connection to land and ancestral memory
꩜ Deep cultural literacy rooted in place
꩜ Creative inspiration and activation
꩜ Lifelong friendships and kinship networks
꩜ A renewed sense of belonging
꩜ A felt sense of right relationship with language, land and lineage
Long seen as the home of traditional Irish music, County Clare is quietly becoming the hub of a grassroots revival of other skills and an inspiring example of ecotourism along Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way.
Our gathering takes place at the Common Knowledge Centre, on 50 acres of native forest and regenerative farmland, in the heart of the Burren & Cliffs of Moher Geopark. Step into the wild beauty of North Clare, where limestone landscapes meet the Atlantic coast, a setting designed for experiences deeply rooted in Irish heritage, nature, and sustainability.
The Common Knowledge Centre is itself a living embodiment of the sustainable practices taught in the Centre’s world-renowned skill-sharing courses. Your home away from home is shaped by intentional craft and held by the wisdom of the land.
Recognised by Condé Nast as one of the “Best Places to Go in Europe” and named among Ireland’s most beautiful stays, Common Knowledge is more than a venue. It is an award-winning, non-profit social enterprise dedicated to regeneration, land stewardship, and skill-sharing. Guests participate in a vision of a more sustainable, connected, and empowered Ireland, learning, practicing, and weaving together ecology, craft, and community.
Their resident chefs bring passion and care to every meal, creating dishes that are both wholesome and deeply satisfying. Guided by the Centre’s ethos of sustainability, the Ottolenghi-trained chef draws from local, seasonal, and organic produce whenever possible including fresh ingredients harvested from the Centre’s own permaculture gardens. A thoughtfully chosen selection of natural and organic wines is available to accompany the meals, offering a gentle complement to the flavors of the season and the spirit of the place.
“And if there ever is gonna be healing
There has to be remembering and then grieving
So that there then can be forgiving
There has to be knowledge and understanding”
- Sinéad O’Connor
Scoil Scairte is an immersion in the psyche and soul of a powerful people and place, guided by Kathy Scott and a collective of bilingual artists, activists, educators, culture bearers and indigenous wisdom keepers.
Ajeet, Dónal Ó Céilleachair, Annemarie Ní Churreáin, Ceara Conway, Timmy Creed, Lucy O'Hagan, Siobhan O’Kelly, Diarmuid Lyng, Pat McCabe (Woman Stands Shining), Patrick McCormack, Niall Morahan, Jenny Ní Ruiséil, Seosamh Mac Seoin with more to be announced.
This is a world-class cultural faculty, the likes of which no other learning experience in Ireland offers. These respected voices across the arts and culture spectrum centre the Irish language and position everything else in relationship to it. Each guide tends the flame of tradition, honouring the old ways in new ways.
This faculty is united by a commitment to living language and cultural repair.
We have curated a list of accommodation in the region that caters to all from camping to local hostels, guest houses and award winning hotels
The Common Knowledge Centre is located in Kilfenora. Nearby villages include Ennistymon, Lisdoonvarna, Lahinch, Liscannor and Fanore. When searching for local accommodation, we recommend including these locations in your search.
Three campervan spaces are available on site.
There is also space for some tents. Please contact us if you would like to camp and we will send you a form to fill.
Please note that campervan and camping spaces contact us must be booked separately and will incur an additional cost.
The doors are now closed. Please contact hello@thetrailblazery.com for any enquiries.
“I am deeply grateful to The Trailblazery’s Hedge School for bringing together those who wish to question the kind of world we inhabit and the future we wish to create together.
I thank you for all that you do to not only imagine but to realise a better world.”
Michael D Higgins
Uachtarán Na hÉireann
Former President of Ireland
Kathy’s mentorship was instrumental to my journey and revolution of self. She professionally helped coach and guide me, which realigned me towards my soul work and greater purpose to serve my community. This has been one of the most rewarding investments I’ve made which came back full circle.
Clarissa Cervantes, City Councilmember, Riverside
I worked with Kathy over a period of about a year. The experience was always positive and inspiring. Connecting to my why was my biggest ‘aha’ moment I walked my talk as an artistic change-maker. The experience of making this happen is deeply meaningful to me and therefore incredibly satisfying and affirming. This work is perfect for artists and change-makers of all kinds, especially those with developing or strong connections to spirit and nature.
Vanessa Maguire
Kathy's mentorship programme is one of the best things I've ever done! Together we worked on clarifying my creative goals and structures, creating a healthy inner critic and building a safe environment for my artists practice and enterprise. I highly recommend this programme if you are motivated to unravel and recreate!
Aoife McAtamney
If you’re ready to get down to your real work, Kathy Scott is an excellent travel guide to get you going on the real journey. Although she has provided me invaluable roadmaps, tools, rest areas, and escorts to help me continue on my own, I have a feeling I’ll be checking back in with her in the future. This is a guide who understands the territory.
Ellen Reagan, Writer, United States
It was incredible to work with Kathy. She encouraged me to branch out into creative directions in my professional life and her mentorship nurtured my confidence in taking new steps in my career and curatorial practice. Her mentorship has nurtured a curatorial project that will result in an art exhibition opening in Spring.
Kristin Dowell, Associate professor of anthropology, United Stated
My mentorship programme with Kathy was really powerful and clarifying for my work. I left with a clearer sense of what I needed to do to elevate my work and to work towards financial stability in what I do. Highly recommended for those on a journey of bringing their gift to the world.
Niall, Mentor, Coach and Men's Work
Kathy provides the supportive, nourishing and creative feminine energy required when projects are still young, and the guidance, action and structured masculine energy for project completion. I can really recommend Kathy as a guide to help you fully realise and manifest your creation.
Marianne Marcote, Therapist
Kathy is the ideal person to support people that are bubbling with creative ideas but need support to manifest their ideas in the world. She is dynamic, energetic and balances linear and productive processes while sensitively navigating the creative dips and break-throughs along the way.
Lisa, Wellness Facilitator
We are living in bewildering times that are awakening a deep hunger for belonging, meaning and connection. Across Ireland and the 80+ million-strong diaspora, people are seeking deeper roots, kinship and right relationship.
Ireland has always been a beacon of culture and consciousness. From early monasteries to hedge schools tucked along hedgerows, fields, and rivers, knowledge and ancestral wisdom were preserved at the edges, wherever people could gather.
Scoil Scairte Rewilding Summer School is a soul retrieval for ancestors-in-training. We hold a space to remember our cultural inheritance and to stand as living bridges between past and future generations.
No shamrocks or shillelaghs required.
“Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam.”- Pádraig Pearse
The resurgence of An Ghaeilge is more than language revival.
It is an intergenerational movement of cultural healing. Every person who participates in this movement is rewilding what it means to be Irish and an ancestor-in-training.
Our Summer School aligns with the ancient harvest festival of Lughnasa, a time of celebration, wildness and community. We will gather in the ancient spirit of meitheal where the community comes together to work for the greater good of all.
Enrolment opens on March 30 and closes on April 19.
Once doors close, the journey begins and spaces are capped to protect the integrity of this experience on the land.
This is a golden opportunity to be with us in kinship this summer.
Thousands of people worldwide have joined our learning community and rekindled their sense of belonging, reclaimed their cultural heritage and tended to their deep longing for connection and kinship.
Our guarantee is that, over 6 days:
“Unless there is wildness around you, something terrible happens to the wildness within you.”
-John Moriarty
5,000+ participants | 8 editions | Award-winning model
Scoil Scairte is an award-winning contemporary hedge school, an initiation into the path of becoming ancestors-in-training. Here, we gather to return to land, language, lineage, and lore.
Founded in 2020, we have connected more than 5,000 people across Ireland and the global diaspora. Through immersive cultural learning, we weave the Irish language, folklore, creativity, and indigenous wisdom with personal, social, and ecological wellbeing.
This summer school is an immersive experience brought to you by The Trailblazery.
Through this gathering, we intend to:
꩜ Explore the indigenous wisdom of our Celtic ancestors, alongside other wisdom lineages from around the world
꩜ Learn, practice and experience the power inherent in our native language, culture, and traditions
꩜ Be inspired to take action as local and global citizens and as ancestors-in-training
This is not just a summer school.
It is a wild initiation.
We invite you into a journey that roots you in the land of Ireland, in our native language, in ancestral wisdom, and in the living culture that continues to shape us.
To become fully human is to reclaim your dúchas and reweave yourself into the web of life.
Dúchas is our living inheritance. It resides in the soil and the seasons, songs and stories of this island.Reclaiming dúchas roots us in belonging, even when we are a long way from home. It is to recognise yourself as an ancestor-in-training: a living bridge between past and future.
The land is always speaking to us. Memory lives here, in wind and water, in riverbeds and roots. In fields and famine roads, in bogs and woodlands. In sacred sites and stone circles. In language, lore, and music passed ó ghlúin go glúin—from generation to generation.
An Ghaeilge is one of Europe’s oldest living vernacular languages. For thousands of years, she has shaped how people here understood reality and relationship, how they marked time, and how they met birth and death, beauty and loss.
When a language dies, we do not just lose words. We lose worlds.
And yet, like the delicate, resilient wildflowers rooted in the limestone fissures of the Burren, An Ghaeilge endures.
She carries memory. She holds a worldview that nourishes the soul, awakens the imagination, and restores our bonds with kin and kindred.
This is an invitation to speak, to sing, to dream in a language that holds both the heart of the people and the spirit of the land.
Together, we will participate, practice, and play reweaving ourselves fite fuaite back into belonging.
We will gather at Lughnasa, as the ancients once did, to honour a culture that is not lost, but living.
This is your call to reclaim your dúchas and to step, consciously, into your role as an ancestor-in-training.
We are no longer bewildered.
We are remembering.
We are reweaving.
We are rewilding.
May the force be with us
Beir bua,
Kathy.
Supported by Foras na Gaeilge
“Not to learn Irish is to miss the opportunity of understanding what life in this country has meant and could mean in a better future.”
- Seamus Heaney
We understand that you may have more questions to support you to feel secure about making your decision to join us. Here are a selection of practical and logistical questions to answer you queries so you can be informed and assured.
You will find here different accommodation options which you can book at your own discretion, ranging from hotel stays and guesthouses to camping and campervan facilities:
Yes, you can purchase more than one ticket at the rate of your choice by selecting the quantity at checkout.
For the most easeful arrival, we recommend flying into Shannon Airport (SNN), which is a scenic 50-minute drive from the summer school base at Common Knowledge Centre.
Dublin Airport (DUB) offers more international flight options, and it is approximately a 3-hour drive. If you plan to travel in Ireland prior to our gathering, you may choose to fly into Dublin and either drive to the Common Knowledge Centre or take a bus or train from Dublin to Ennis.
You will be responsible for your own transportation to the venue. From Shannon (SNN): The easiest route is via car rental or a pre-arranged car service (approx. 50 mins).
From Dublin (DUB): You can rent a car and enjoy the cross-country drive (approx. 3 hours) or take a high-quality bus or train to Ennis, followed by a taxi ride to the Centre.
Detailed arrival instructions and a ride-share coordination sheet will be provided to all participants who wish to avail of this.
We recommend monitoring flights now and booking between February and May 2026. This "sweet spot" typically offers the best balance of price and availability for July travel.
Arrival at The Common Knowledge Centre is at 12:30pm on Tuesday, July 28. We recommend that you arrive in Ireland (or locally) a day early and check in to your accommodation so that you are well rested for our Orientation Session at 1pm.
We are happy to offer the option to pay in three monthly instalments to help make this immersion more accessible. The remaining balance payments will be due in advance of the gathering start date and must be completed by June 26, 2026.
Irish weather can be unpredictable. Warm sweaters, hiking gear, rain gear and swimming costume to cover all bases! We also recommend you bring a towel, new journal, blanket and any special objects you wish to bring for ceremonial purposes. We will send more correspondence closer to the time.
If you cancel:
Instalment Plan Payments
If you choose to pay in instalments, the first instalment payment of €233 (Early Bird) or €266 (Full Price) is non-refundable.
Cancellations made more than 60 days before the start of Scoil Scairte Summer School (Tuesday, July 28, 2026), will receive a refund of all payments made beyond the non-refundable deposit of €233 (Early Bird) or €266 (Full Price).
Cancellations made between 60 and 30 days before the start of Scoil Scairte Summer School will receive a refund of 50% of the total amount paid, minus the non-refundable deposit of €233 (Early Bird) or €266 (Full Price).
Cancellations made within 30 days of Scoil Scairte Summer School beginning are non-refundable, as our operational costs will have already been committed.
Paying In Full
If you pay in full, €233 (Early Bird) or €266 (Full Price) of your total payment is non-refundable.
Cancellations made more than 60 days before Scoil Scairte Summer School begins will receive a refund of the remaining balance beyond the non-refundable deposit.
Cancellations made between 60 and 30 days before Scoil Scairte Summer School begins will receive a refund of 50% of the total amount paid, minus the non-refundable deposit.
Cancellations made within 30 days of Scoil Scairte Summer School beginning are non-refundable.
We strongly recommend purchasing comprehensive travel insurance to protect your investment.
If we cancel:
Should Scoil Scairte Summer School be cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances we will do our utmost to reschedule. If it is not possible to postpone or reschedule the programme, we reserve the right to retain the non-refundable deposit to cover costs already incurred. Any payments made beyond the non-refundable deposit will be refunded.
In the case of postponement, your booking will automatically be transferred to new dates. If you are unable to attend the rescheduled programme, you will receive a refund of any payments made beyond the non-refundable deposit.
To protect your purchase, we strongly recommend purchasing comprehensive travel insurance to cover such circumstances.
We will not be offering scholarship options for this gathering. Participants are welcome to choose from a range of accommodation options to make the experience suit their own budgets.
Absolutely. The Common Knowledge Centre's kitchen specialises in local, organic and nourishing fare. Once the doors close, you will receive a form to list all allergies and dietary requirements (Vegan, GF, etc.) which our chef will hold with great care.
We will send out a detailed care package in advance of our gathering. If in the meantime you still have questions, you can contact hello@thetrailblazery.com
© 2026 The Trailblazery – Scoil Scairte
Contact us: hello@thetrailblazery.com
