Do your outdoor adventures – running, hiking and/or climbing, on foot, or with mobility aids – tell a story? 

Have you thought about writing about these activities and do you need some inspiration to get started? 

Are you already engaged in writing about running, walking or climbing, and would you benefit from fresh ideas about themes, perspective, language and form?

So many stories are woven into our outdoor adventures. Through those activities, many of us undergo physical and emotional transformations. We meet new people, learn new skills, explore unfamiliar environments and immerse ourselves in strange and wonderful forms of the natural world. We step outside of our comfort zones, experience new bodily sensations and challenge preconceptions of our capabilities, finding versions of ourselves that we barely knew existed. Whether we’re disabled or non-disabled, we might become aware of engaging with the landscape differently from in our everyday lives, utilising senses, muscles and movements that usually take a back seat. We might measure ourselves against other adventurers’ achievements, and explore what concepts such as progress, success, satisfaction, pain and failure mean to us, personally. We see role-models, past and present, who are mostly white, male and non-disabled, and we may reflect upon how we relate to such figures. Outdoor adventure often involves fear and anxiety, and we all reckon with those fears in our own ways, weighing up the joys derived during our outdoor adventures against the anxieties they provoke.    

All of these experiences are richly deserving of being written about.

Perhaps you wish to write about an epic achievement and how it changed you. 

Perhaps you have in a mind a writing project about an unsung runner from history. 

Perhaps you’d like to challenge some mainstream notions associated with outdoor adventure and to give voice to experiences that are less often discussed. 

Perhaps you’re not quite sure yet exactly what you want to write about and are seeking a space to sift through your ideas. 

The STEP BY STEP Writers’ Retreats will encourage you in making leaps and bounds in your writing.

Level of writing experience: 

The retreats are suitable for all, from beginners to published authors. It isn’t necessary to be engaged in a work-in-progress, but you might find it helpful to bring along notes regarding your outdoor adventures.

Genre of writing: 

The focus will be on non-fictional prose, but poets, writers for stage and screen and fiction-writers are all welcome, and many of the exercises and discussions will be transferable.

Level of running/hiking/climbing experience: 

Suitable for all, although participants should have amounted enough experiences of outdoor adventure to be possessed of sufficient material to work with. The trail-run(s) and night-hike can be arranged according to ability.

Retreat One: 11 November – 13 November 2025. The retreat begins at 11.15am on Tuesday 11 November 2025 and ends at 12pm on Thursday 13 November 2025 (there is also an optional trail run (free) and visit to Harrogate’s Victorian Turkish Baths (£27) on the afternoon of the 13th, after the retreat has officially ended). This retreat is FEMALE ONLY.

Retreat Two: 7 – 9 January 2026. The retreat begins at 11am on Weds 7 January 2026 and ends at 12pm on Friday 9 January 2026 (there is also an optional trail run (free) and visit to Harrogate’s Victorian Turkish Baths (£27) on the afternoon of the 13th, after the retreat has officially ended). This retreat is open to everybody.

The two retreats will be organised very similarly, and most participants will only sign up for one. However, you are more than welcome to enrol in both! 

£490 per person. (50% required on booking; 50% to be paid by 1 October 2025).

This includes all the elements of a three-day writing retreat: all meals and refreshments, 2 nights accommodation, 8 workshop sessions, 1 run/walk (all abilities catered for), 1 night-walk, 1 optional trail run (free). If you wish to take part in the optional visit to Harrogate’s glorious Victorian Turkish Baths on Day Three, this will cost an extra £27 pp. Please click here for more information about the Baths. The price grants entry to the Baths for a 90-120 minute session, but does not include any treatments. If you desire treatments, you can arrange and pay for these by contacting the spa directly. The price of the retreat does not include travel to/from Harrogate, which guests will organise themselves. 

I am delighted to be able to offer a 15% discount (worth £73.50) on the retreat fee (not incl. the spa booking) to anyone who is an annual or founding member of my Substack newsletter, Small Revolutions, Every Day. An annual subscription usually costs £80, so, if you’re not already a paid member, taking out a membership prior to purchasing the place on the retreat and then claiming the 15% discount means that you’ll essentially be getting an annual subscription to my writing for only £6.50.

There are 15 spaces available on each retreat, which, in my experience, is the ideal size to foster free, open, and supportive discussion between participants. 

I (Rachel Hewitt) am a best-selling, award-winning author of four non-fiction books, with a focus on writing about ‘the great outdoors’, and I am an experienced trail-runner and long-distance walker.

My first book, the bestseller Map of a Nation, traced the history of Britain’s national mapping agency, the Ordnance Survey, and how its maps have shaped our interactions with the outdoors.

My book In Her Nature: How Women Break Boundaries in the Great Outdoors shines a light on women’s experiences of outdoor adventure from the nineteenth century to the present, and was Highly Commended in the Sports Book Awards 2024. In Her Nature incorporates a memoir-based narrative of running while grieving, and a story about the remarkable life of Lizzie Le Blond, a trail-blazing Edwardian mountaineer.

My most recent book, The Last Bastion: A History of Women in Sport 1984-2024, celebrates the forty-year history of the charity Women in Sport, and the progress – and reversals – that have taken place in women’s sport since the 1980s.

I am a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and I have taught creative-writing workshops and masterclasses for well over a decade, to the general public and to students from undergraduates to PhD, at the Universities of Oxford and Newcastle.  

The workshop which runs from 11-13 November 2025 is FEMALE-ONLY and will incorporate discussions about the relationship between outdoor adventure and the female body, and about writing and abuse and trauma.

The workshop from 7-9 January 2026 is OPEN TO EVERYBODY.

The Old Swan hotel welcomes guests with disabilities and special needs. All staff are fully trained to assist disabled guests, and the hotel has suitable facilities. Dietary requirements can be catered for. Guide dogs are welcome. 

The outdoor activities on the retreat can be tailored to guests’ physical requirements. Please email me for more information. 

The Turkish Baths have an access ramp to the entrance, disabled changing toilets (including wet room) and ground floor treatment rooms.

I can provide information and hand-outs in large print and/or on coloured paper, and I can provide audio files with prior notice. The retreats’ focus is on creative reflection, not grammatical precision, spelling or hand-writing, and guests with literacy difficulties are very welcome. I will endeavour to create a calm, distraction-free creative environment, with rests and solitary time built into the schedule. Anyone who requires further downtime or rests are welcome to take them whenever they please. 

There are 15 spaces available on each retreat, which, in my experience, is the ideal size to foster free, open, and supportive discussion between participants. 

The retreats will take place in the beautiful North Yorkshire spa town of Harrogate, which is close to the lush landscapes of Wharfedale, Nidderdale and the Washburn Valley, and well-connected via public transport, less than three hours from London (often via direct trains). There will be opportunities to explore the nearby countryside on foot: running (all abilities/paces catered for) and/or walking, including a night-hike. There is also an opportunity to visit the Harrogate spa for an extra fee on the final day of the retreat. 

The retreats will be held at The Old Swan Hotel, Harrogate HG1 2SR. The hotel is four star, and all rooms are solo occupancy and en-suite. If driving, you can purchase a parking permit from the hotel; and there are four designated disabled spaces.