Awakening Alchemy Retreat Centre
Your Journey - Your Sanctuary
Awakening Alchemy Retreat Centre
Your Journey - Your Sanctuary
The Retreat Centre · Midmar, Aberdeenshire
A private retreat centre in rural Aberdeenshire
A historic granite mill beside Midmar Forest, created for private one-to-one retreats, deep rest and carefully held inner work — the whole house, gardens and grounds held just for you.
Private & bespoke · One retreat at a time · Held personally by Dan & Tomaz
“A space where your nervous system can finally relax.”
Google review“The beautiful setting, serene rooms and nourishing food created a sense of deep calm and renewal.”
Google review“Tomaz and Dan’s warmth and genuine care made me feel deeply welcomed.”
Google reviewAt a glance
The retreat centre at a glance
Awakening Alchemy is not a hotel, spa, clinic or holiday rental. It’s a private retreat centre on the Hill of Fare, beside Midmar Forest — where the house, food, fire, garden and quiet all become part of the retreat.
Location
Midmar, rural Aberdeenshire, Scotland
The building
A historic granite mill dating back to the early 1800s
Retreat style
Private, personalised retreats for one guest, a couple or two participants where appropriate
Gardens & grounds
Ponds, a burn, bridges, lawns, a pine grove and views towards Bennachie
Guest spaces
Private lounge with wood-burning stove, dining room, retreat space and quiet corners
Accommodation
Three guest bedrooms, including a ground-floor garden room and an upstairs suite
Food
Freshly prepared meals, made from scratch and tailored to your needs where possible
Travel
Around 25 minutes from Aberdeen Airport and railway station
Best for rest, restoration, emotional healing, life transition, body-based support, spiritual deepening and private inner work. You don’t need to know exactly which pathway you need before enquiring.
Why the place matters
The place is part of the retreat
The retreat centre isn’t simply where you sleep between sessions. It’s part of how the retreat works.
The quiet when you arrive.
The fire in the lounge.
The meal prepared for you.
The private room where you can close the door.
The garden path after a conversation.
The feeling that you don’t have to hold yourself together for anyone else.
Many guests come because ordinary time away is no longer enough — exhausted, grieving, overwhelmed, in transition, physically tense, or simply aware that something within needs care. Before deeper rest or inner work can happen, the body often needs to feel it has arrived somewhere safe. That’s why the physical place matters.
Every room has been created to feel warm, personal and carefully tended rather than formal or anonymous, each with its own atmosphere inspired by the five elements — earth, water, fire, air and space. Much of the furniture is antique, restored or reupholstered by Tomaz himself.
Nothing here is designed to impress from a distance. It’s designed to help you exhale once you’re inside.
The house
A historic granite mill with warmth, character and quiet
Awakening Alchemy is a former mill, built from granite in the early 1800s. There’s a groundedness to the building that guests often feel before they can explain it: thick walls, quiet corners, a sense of shelter, and the feeling that the house has held many seasons and can now hold you too.
Inside, guests have a large, private part of the house to themselves — your own lounge, dining room, retreat spaces, bedrooms and quiet areas for rest and reflection. No corridors of strangers, no reception desk, no shared timetable, no need to perform a version of yourself. It feels more like arriving at a deeply cared-for private home that has been prepared for your retreat.
Sit by the fire.
Make tea.
Read quietly.
Watch the light change.
Take time between sessions.
Withdraw when you need to.
Inside
Inside the retreat centre
The guest spaces are arranged so you can have privacy without ever feeling unsupported — a different room for whatever your nervous system needs.
The guest lounge
Warm and comfortable, with a wood-burning stove for slow evenings, winter afternoons and quiet moments by the fire.
The dining room
Where meals are served with care. Tea, coffee and snacks are always close at hand, so small comforts never need asking for.
Yoga & sound healing space
Soft and atmospheric, with cushions, warm light and salt lamps — room for meditation, sound work, rest and gentle practice.
The library
A small collection of books on holistic health, meditation, wellbeing and inner exploration.
The morning room
Upstairs, a peaceful place to read, journal or sit in natural light, looking across the courtyard to birdsong in warmer months.
Quiet corners
A fire-lit room when you need warmth, a private nook when you need space — places that give your nervous system choices.
Where you rest
Bedrooms for rest, privacy and integration
Your bedroom is part of the holding environment — where you arrive after a session, wake slowly, rest between conversations, sleep and return to yourself without needing to be available to anyone. There are three guest bedrooms available for private retreats.
The garden room (Prithivi)
Inspired by the element of earth. A superking bed, French doors opening onto the garden, and a washroom alongside. Ideal if you’d rather reduce unnecessary stairs.
The Upstairs Suite
Two bedrooms, a bathroom with shower and bath, and the private morning room, with views across the garden and towards the wider Scottish landscape.
Comfortable, individual and quiet — not hotel rooms, but places to rest, sleep and let the retreat keep working gently in the background.
Food & fire
Food, fire and the rhythm of being cared for
Food is part of how the retreat holds you. Meals are freshly prepared from scratch using fresh ingredients, organic wherever possible. Before you arrive, Dan and Tomaz ask about allergies, intolerances, dietary needs, likes and dislikes, so everything can be tailored with care.
Many guests eat privately, giving them time to reflect, digest and integrate without needing to make conversation — especially valuable after emotional work, body-based sessions or deep rest.
Homemade bread.
Fresh vegetables.
Warming dishes.
Herbal teas.
Something sweet, made with care.
Tomaz is a skilled cake baker, continuing a family tradition with his own lighter, healthier twist. The point isn’t indulgence for its own sake — it’s the feeling of being quietly and attentively cared for. After dinner, evenings are left spacious: rest by the fire, read, journal, sleep early. Sometimes the most important part of a retreat is realising that nothing more is required.
Outside
Gardens and grounds that help you slow down
The gardens aren’t decoration around the retreat centre — they’re part of the experience. Water, trees, paths, lawns, ponds and open sky create space around whatever you’ve brought with you.
A large pond sits in front of the house, bright with water lilies in summer. Higher in the garden, the original mill pond has a swing seat nearby for listening to the burn. Three small bridges cross the water, and guests often pause there without needing to do anything at all.
This isn’t manicured spa landscaping. It’s a living garden — weather, birdsong, insects, seasonal colour and quiet corners that invite you back into your body.
Scots pine grove
Seating among Scots pines, with a small stone circle in the grove.
Meditation seat
A seat on the hill with views across the countryside towards Bennachie.
Burn & bridges
Three small bridges over the burn, and a tree-stump seat beside the stream.
The lawn
A soft lawn where you can lie down and look up at the sky.
The courtyard
A sunlit courtyard for morning coffee or a cool homemade elderflower spritz.
The pond
Water lilies, irises, rhododendrons and a Japanese acer, with frogs and dragonflies in warmer months.
Privacy
A private retreat, inside and out
Privacy isn’t an added extra here — it’s part of the retreat. During your stay, the guest areas, gardens and grounds are held for you, rather than shared with a group of strangers. You’re not expected to process personal material in a circle, move through a public wellness venue, or manage how you appear to other guests.
Supported, but not crowded.
Cared for, but not watched.
Private, but not alone.
Dan and Tomaz live at the retreat centre and hold every retreat personally — guiding the enquiry, preparing and serving the food, providing the sessions, and adapting the rhythm as your needs become clearer. For many guests, this is what finally allows them to stop holding themselves together.
Private and confidential · No obligation · Dan and Tomaz reply personally.
Your hosts
Held personally by Dan and Tomaz
Awakening Alchemy is held by the two of us. We live at the retreat centre and personally guide the whole process from enquiry through to your stay — shaping the rhythm, providing the sessions, cooking and serving the food, and adapting the support as your needs become clearer. The retreat centre is never managed remotely.
Dan
A grounded, body-aware approach to retreat support — meditation, Alexander Technique-informed work and restorative practice — helping guests who’ve been living with tension, over-effort or disconnection slow down enough to reconnect with themselves.
Tomaz
Deep experience in Ayurveda, meditation, retreat environments, Soul Alchemy Coaching and IFS-informed inner work — supporting guests to meet what they carry with compassion, steadiness and respect for their own pace.
Warm, careful, unhurried
A retreat that can meet both the need for rest and the deeper layers asking for attention. You won’t be passed around a team of facilitators — you’ll be looked after by the two people who live here and pay attention to the details.
Getting here
Hidden in the countryside, but easy to reach
Awakening Alchemy sits in Midmar, near Inverurie in rural Aberdeenshire, on the Hill of Fare beside Midmar Forest — above quiet farmland, rural lanes and woodland edges, with old stone circles and wide open skies around you.
It feels peaceful and tucked away, but it isn’t hard to reach. Aberdeen Airport and Aberdeen railway station are both around 25 minutes away by car, and taxis can be arranged on request.
Some guests prefer not to leave once they arrive. Others like knowing the wider landscape is close by: Midmar Forest, Midmar Kirk Stone Circle, Castle Fraser, Crathes Castle, Drum Castle, Banchory, the Falls of Feugh and Bennachie.
Through the year
A place that changes with the seasons
Each season brings a different kind of retreat. There’s no single best time to come — only the question of what kind of support your system is asking for.
Light and renewal
Blossom appears and the gardens begin to lift again. The air feels lighter and the grounds carry a sense of renewal.
Warmth and space
Long days, the pond alive with lilies and insects, and evening light lingering late across the garden.
Harvest and reflection
Reds, golds and browns move through the trees. The atmosphere becomes quieter, more reflective and inward.
Fire and hibernation
The garden sleeps, evergreens stand against pale skies, and the fire becomes central as the house draws you inward.
Setting & pathway
How the setting supports each retreat pathway
The pathway helps name why you’re coming. The retreat centre helps hold what unfolds. You don’t need to choose perfectly before enquiring — it can all be explored with Dan and Tomaz.
Rest & Restore
Warmth, sleep, nourishing food, quiet evenings and space for the nervous system to settle.
Explore Rest & Restore →The Healing Path
The privacy of the centre and gardens gives tender emotional work somewhere discreet, contained and carefully paced.
Explore The Healing Path →Life Reorientation
Views, the morning room, garden seats and a reflective rhythm create space for slower questions about what comes next.
Explore Life Reorientation →From Pain to Peace
Comfortable rooms, body-based support and gentle garden walks help you relate to your body with more patience and kindness.
Explore From Pain to Peace →Conscious Deepening
Meditation spaces, trees, water and quiet create a grounded environment for inner practice without striving.
Explore Conscious Deepening →Sacred Allies
The privacy of the centre supports preparation, ceremony, rest and integration with care and discretion, where suitable and legal.
Explore Sacred Allies →Good to know
Practical details, gently held
You don’t need every practical answer before enquiring, but it can help to understand the shape of the retreat environment.
Guest spaces
Private lounge, dining room, retreat space, bedrooms and quiet areas for reading, journaling and rest
Bedrooms
Three guest bedrooms, including one on the ground floor
Bathrooms
Showers including a ground-floor option; the upstairs bathroom also has a bath
Food
Freshly prepared, tailored to dietary needs where possible. Tea, coffee and snacks always available
Gardens
Private to you during your retreat
Held by
Dan and Tomaz personally, from enquiry through to your stay
Length of stay
Most retreats are between three and seven days
Travel
~25 minutes from Aberdeen Airport and railway station; taxis arranged on request
Accessibility
A historic mill, not wheelchair accessible. A ground-floor bedroom and bathroom are available; some treatment spaces need one flight of stairs. A carer is welcome where appropriate
In their words
What guests often notice first
The peace when they walk through the door. The quiet. The beauty of the interiors. The comfort of the beds. The care in the food. Some guests say they don’t want to go home — and a few ask, half joking, whether they can move in.
What they’re responding to isn’t only the building, the garden, the meals or the treatments. It’s the feeling of the whole place working together — and two people holding the retreat personally, with attention and kindness.
“The house is so beautiful and individual… you can only feel totally relaxed in this setting.”
Google review“Every detail, from the peaceful surroundings to the carefully curated practices, felt deeply intentional.”
Google review“The gardens and surrounding landscape are somewhere you can totally immerse yourself.”
Google reviewQuestions
Frequently asked questions
Where is Awakening Alchemy Retreat Centre?
Is the retreat centre private during my stay?
Is this like staying in a hotel?
Can I come just to rest?
What rooms can guests use?
What bedrooms are available?
Are meals included?
Can I come alone?
Is the retreat centre accessible?
Do I need to know which retreat pathway I want before enquiring?
How do I get there?
Begin gently
Begin with the doorway that feels closest
You don’t need to know exactly what you need before you enquire. You may simply know that you’re tired, grieving, overwhelmed, in pain, in transition, spiritually seeking, or ready for something to shift.
The retreat centre is here to hold the wider experience — the quiet, the rooms, the garden, the food, the fire, the privacy and the care. Send a private enquiry and let Dan and Tomaz help you explore what may be most appropriate.
Your enquiry is private, gentle and there’s no pressure to book.