Wood Party on Erraid
Interview with Jonathan Caddy and Christine Lines by Britta Schmitz
Erraid is a small tidal island on the west coast of Scotland, off the Isle of Mull, where part of our community lives and works in harmony with land and sea. This January. Christine Lines, former Guest Department Manager of the Findhorn Foundation Trust, and Jonathan Caddy, son of the Findhorn Foundation’s co-founders Peter and Eileen Caddy, went out with a group of seven volunteers from the Park Ecovillage Findhorn. They supported our small island community to prepare firewood for their wood burning stoves, which will heat the cosy island cottages during the coming season of our new Experience Weeks, Love in Action Weeks, Retreats, and Celtic Festival Weeks on Erraid. Upon their return I interviewed Jonathan and Christine to hear about their experiences.
Erraid members and the Findhorn wood party on the pier at Erraid. From left to right: George, Elizabeth, John, Jonathan, Sylvia, Chloe, Martha, Kegan, Christine, with Magnus in the back and Misha the dog in the front.
Isle of Erraid and Findhorn Foundation connection
In 1978, the Dutch family Van der Sluis, owners of the Isle of Erraid, contacted Jonathan’s father Peter Caddy to offer the custodianship of Erraid to the Findhorn Foundation. At the time, Jonathan was working at Cullerne, the food production garden at the Findhorn Foundation on the north-east coast of Scotland. The strong garden team of 15 at the time had a dream of working on a proper farm, including looking after animals, food preservation, spinning, knitting etc. So taking over custodianship of the Isle of Erraid was taking a step in this direction.
Four of the garden team members, including Jonathan, ventured out and took on the challenge of looking after the old lighthouse keeper’s cottages from the 1870s and especially focused on cultivating the five acres of garden land. Jonathan lived there for three years in the group known as the ‘Erraid pioneers’.
Ever since then, members of the Findhorn Foundation Community have looked after the island for eleven months each year, and for one month every summer the owners visit for their summer holidays.
Jonathan shares about the old and the new
‘The houses hadn’t been lived in for 17 years and only had summer occupants at times, so when we started to put some heat into them, water would run down the walls for the first year as all the moisture had been kept inside the plaster over the years.
Fast forward to last week: It has all changed. There are big wood stoves in the houses now, which are connected to the hot water for the showers and radiators. That is quite different. And the kitchens have all been done up and there is instant hot water. Who would have imagined that?
We had a solid fuel Aga that heated up the water tank next to it and then we would get honey buckets to take the water from house number 2 into house number 1 where the bath was, and then you would get into a puddle of water to have a bath and put your clothes in for washing …
So now it is very different from before. Over the years the Dutch owners have put in a huge amount of time and money to repoint the walls, slating the houses, creating new kitchens and bathrooms, and really caring for the place.
And of course these stoves need a lot of wood to heat up the water. As the community on Erraid is quite small at the moment we came over to help with the wood.’
Christine’s wood party journey
‘In December Terry (CEO of the Findhorn Foundation) reached out to Jonathan and asked if he would be willing to help out with the wood on Erraid. He immediately said ‘yes’ and I said “I’d love to come too!” I offered to help split wood, prepare meals and be there in a community support role. Jonathan reached out to his chainsaw crew and they all agreed to join the adventure. George and his wife Heather, who is the lichen expert, Chloe, who did her chainsaw course last year, and John and Sylvia, long term residents of the Park Ecovillage Findhorn, came along to join the work party too.
We went over on Saturday and stayed for a week. The bus was loaded up with all the gear: the chainsaws, the helmets, the boots and the crate for Misha, my dog. We started early and it was really cold, but we made it over in good time despite the snow and arrived in daylight.
Magnus was the first person to welcome us from the Erraid community. We really went over with the intention to support in as many ways as possible as we brought all these years of community experience and a mix of skills between us. We all embraced the opportunity to enjoy an active week on the Island. Each couple stayed in our own cottage. It was lovely to have the wood burning stoves and to relax in front of the fire in the evenings and then to be outside and enjoy the ruggedness of Erraid during the day.
Erraid cottages
Meeting the island community
It was a rich experience to connect with the residents on the island. There were the five community members, plus a volunteer who is a vegan chef, one retreat guest, and then down in the croft – which is the only building that isn’t part of the community, yet closely connected – there were a couple of people too who were hen-sitting for Judy who usually lives there. We really blended as a group.
On a few evenings we all met up and talked about the history of the community, about how Erraid came to the Findhorn Foundation in the 1970s, and how it was in the early days. Then we fast forwarded to where we are today and focused on the now. We talked about Experience Week starting on Erraid this spring and what that might look like. The importance of the Findhorn-Erraid Connection emerged. Findhorn is in the north east of Scotland and Erraid is around six hours by car and ferry away on the west coast. People were really interested in exploring the connection and there were many questions we explored together.
New Rhythms as we are getting ready for Erraid Experience Weeks
It was also the first week they were trying out the new rhythm on Erraid, which will allow them to move smoothly into accommodating guests for Experience Week. They started to shift little things, like meal times, and the times for their morning circle and attunement. The team were getting used to the new rhythms in this period of transition.
And it is not like the plan is to just lift up the Findhorn Foundation’s core programme Experience Week as it used to be when we held it in the community at Findhorn, and then plant it exactly as we knew it on Erraid. Back then it grew out of what the need was at the time then and there. On Erraid, Experience Week will be growing out of the rhythms of the island and the nature of the island and the questions are: what does it want to be now and how is the community going to be involved in that? And transformation is inevitable. Community life is a living project that is always going to be changing …
The Erraid group found it really helpful to get more of a sense of the different elements of the week and all the little things, like when the participants attune and feel into the different areas they would like to support during their stay, eg. the kitchen, gardens, maintenance …
And Experience Weeks will be only one of the things they are going to be offering. They will also keep running their regular Experience Weeks, Love in Action Weeks, Retreats, and Celtic Festival Weeks.
The Wood Project
And of course we came to help with the wood, to really work with the island community and support them. Not going there and doing a job for them, but working with them as a team. During the week we blended into one group - the islanders and their guests.
As Erraid is a tidal island, at low tide you can go over to the Isle of Mull with the tractor to go and bring the wood over. The way the tides were timed during the week we spent there the wood team had early starts. They were going over at 8am and stayed over all day. There was a lot of work to do at the log pile, where whole tree trunks arrive from the Isle of Mull. The logs then need to be chainsawed and taken over to Erraid to be split into the right size for the wood burning stoves in the cottages. There were two tractor runs per day to bring the wood across and our team worked together with the Erraid residents. Local farmers helped us bring extra loads across. We got a lot of wood over to Erraid during that week.’
Terry filmed the wood burning stove on Erraid whilst on a call with Britta. Can you hear them talk?
Island time
We enjoyed the morning circle each day, listening to the daily guidance received by Eileen Caddy, Jonathan's mother, then we had a check-in round and a sharing round where we stated our intentions for the day. In the mornings I joined the first bit of the ‘Love in Action’, where we help out in the community, and then at tea break I would walk my dog Misha over to the woodworkers on Mull to see how they were getting on.
Misha the dog helped with the wood too
We enjoyed wonderful food all week. On Sunday morning we got a tour of the community, joined the start of the week meditation and then a group walk to explore the island. It was lovely to be a little Findhorn group going over and strengthening the Findhorn-Erraid Connection. It felt really tangible and the islanders really welcomed strengthening this. I also loved to see how everyone cared for each other, the island, and their guests even though they are only a small group at the moment. It was a great experience of a working week and there was also a lot of social time. I loved the new bathrooms and kitchens and seeing all the changes. It felt very comfy and a full, nourishing week and the weather was very kind to us too.’
With Gratitude from Britta
Thank you so much to the wonderful Findhorn team coming over to help with the wood and to strengthen the connection between these two community hubs on the east and west coast. It looks as though our participants will be kept nice and warm in the cosy cottages this year – through the physical warmth of the fires, and through the emotional warmth and loving care of the island community.
If you would like to be a part of the magic – come and visit the Isle of Erraid for our new experiences and retreats! Please find more information here:
Come volunteer with us!
Would you like to volunteer in our small island community on Erraid? If you ever dreamt of living on an island at the end of the world, working in harmony with land and sea then this might be for you?
Nic is keeping our community kitchen warm whilst baking bread.
Volunteer with us
We are looking for long term volunteers to join our Isle of Erraid community this spring. In exchange for your help with our daily community tasks like cooking, gardening, splitting wood and hosting our island experience, we offer you accommodation in our cosy light house keeper cottages and fresh community meals from our organic gardens. You’ll also be invited to take part in our daily meditations and group sharings, our seasonal Celtic celebrations, and you’ll have plenty of opportunity to spend time in the stunning landscape of the west coast of Scotland.
If you are interested, please get in touch
