Cullerne House – two words that evoke infinite memories for the hundreds of people who passed through its doors in the 1980s and 1990s, whilst it was owned by the Findhorn Foundation (FF).

The FF sold Cullerne House to long-term community member Marion Leigh. It was her family home and the operational base for the Findhorn Flower Essence business between 2000 and 2020. Marion’s family sold the house in 2022 to a group of more than 50 investors connected to the Findhorn Foundation and Community.

For the last three and a half years this group has been holding Cullerne House with the initial aim of saving it for the community as it was in the process of being sold on the open market. It was a rescue mission, and we thought that within a couple of years we’d have our vision for what the best and highest use of the house would be. Of course, in 2022 we didn’t anticipate the closing of the FF Trust and the huge implications for the community that would have.

Whilst its long term use is still being considered, the investors agreed to let it serve immediately as a Bed and Breakfast (B&B) to cover all our operating costs and to make some minor improvements. This we have been able to do quite successfully, making a small surplus every year.

We are now moving from a rescue mission to a business – the business being to offer a high-quality beautiful space for groups, workshops, special events, and especially for youth programmes. Last year we applied to Gaia Trust for funds to make that transition. We were generously given a £50k grant and have now started the work.

Not our choice, but one of the first things we had to do, as required by the local Council, was to expand the parking – and if you’ve walked down the drive during October you would have seen Ed Bichan and some large machines beavering away.  The next things will be new windows, insulation and more improvements to the kitchen.

Re-establishing Cullerne House as a prime multipurpose venue represents, for us, a significant step forward in restarting our educational impulse in the community. We are keen to work collaboratively with other organisations in The Park, especially the Education Circle, who we’ve been able to host for the last year, as well as Ecovillage Findhorn Community Benefit Society (EF CBS), the Findhorn Foundation SCIO, and others.

At the same time, we can’t do this alone, and the feeling is we really need to reach out and have Cullerne House embraced by our wider community, local and global. All of us that are currently involved have a deep love and connection with the house, either having lived there in the past, or done workshops or just enjoyed the garden around the house.

The business plan we have developed shows it is very feasible to make it work in a way that will provide a good return.

I’ve had some feedback that our timing isn’t great when, as a community, we’re looking at the viability of the Universal Hall, the distribution of all the FF Trust’s assets (all of which seem to be needing investment of some kind) not to mention many other community projects also looking for funding.

Unfortunate it may be, but it just is the timing. So the Cullerne House reality is that we will need to roll over some of our investment in the next 2-6 months to the tune of about £200k. This is in order to free up some of our members’ capital for other things. In fact, some of those things may be other community projects that are being discussed now.

The business plan that we’ve developed shows that with a 50% occupancy we can generate a surplus of £150k+ per year. Cullerne House has the advantage of being able to offer catering for workshop participants from our own kitchen, one of the biggest barriers to restarting education at The Park.

The house is too small to offer much accommodation and so we will never be a stand-alone operation, nor do we want to be. So we will need to collaborate with other accommodation providers like EF CBS, Findhorn Bay Holiday Park and all the bed and breakfast operators in the community. To reach anything like 50% occupancy we will also need to be part of a unified community effort for developing programmes that will provide what the world needs now, and then marketing them.

A new Community Centre is years away, and there is an urgency to come together to begin our next educational journey; as a Centre of Light, Love, Transformation and Hope that the world so desperately needs. The Findhorn Community is needed.

Cullerne Garden and House drawing by Harley Miller for Sights&Insights

So, we are asking for those of you that feel drawn to supporting Cullerne House staying in the community and fulfilling its future purpose, to come forward and join our merry band. We are open to donations but are really looking more for investment. The value of the house is our security and we believe it will have increased in value in the years that we’ve owned it. Should we be forced to release it, we would be able to repay everyone. More importantly, however, we think that with our current business plan we will be able to generate enough surplus to repay investors over a relatively short time frame, and then transfer to bona fide community ownership.

A final thought. I think we need to challenge ourselves about our mindsets around money, abundance, and the lack of it. As someone who has raised many millions in aid of ecovillage projects here and elsewhere, I have seen the magic happen when we are are aligned with our world work and purpose.

This is Findhorn 101~! Here’s to abundance and the start of a new cycle.

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Photo credits: Thank you to Will Russell for his wonderful photographs.

John Talbott

Came to Findhorn for the full curriculum and found my life’s work on developing sustainable regenerative human settlements through the ecovillage movement. Lived in Findhorn for more than 26 years.