Thin places - Clandon Wood Natural Burial Reserve

Clandon Wood natural burial reserve is a thin place in the making. It nestles in the Surrey Hills just outside Guildford and covers two huge meadows with room, ultimately, for about 20,000 interments.

Its primary role is to provide families with a beautiful and natural place to celebrate the life of a loved one in a way that works completely with the grain of nature rather than against it. So, while there are some restrictions that don't apply in churchyards (for example, no brass handles on coffins, no varnished wood that might adulterate the natural ground water, no motor vehicles on site), there are also none of the other limitations that people increasingly find more difficult. You can, for example, have any kind of service at all (Christian, pagan, humanist, spiritualist, whatever) and use any kind of form that you care to. You could, if you wish, do the digging yourself, if that was authentic and meaningful for you, or you could spend the day there with a picnic.

Graves are marked only by simple clay tablets, and the intention is to manage the whole place as a permanent nature reserve in conjunction with local environmental trusts and charities in order to create a wildlife preserve. A large glass pavilion will hold services unless you prefer to be outside, and soon it will be possible to transmit services via the web so that people don't have to travel if they are too far away or are old and infirm.

Already the feel of a sacred space is starting to gather there. When you know that people are nearby under your feet, it has a marked effect. It's too soon for it to feel ancestral, but that will come.

The website is here.

Thin Places - Llansor Mill, South Wales

Another thin place - Llansor Mill, near Caerleon in South Wales. My partner and I attended an Enneagram workshop there two weekends ago, which was eye-opening on its own, quite apart from the stunning location.

It's only a ten-minute drive from the M4, so easy to get to, and nestles in the most beautiful landscape - not wild, but very hilly and green and has a lovely feeling of privacy.

We stayed in the old mill house which Stephen and Mary Ashton have converted into a very comfortable meeting room-cum-holiday home. There's more accommodation in another old stone house, plus space for camping down nearer the Sor brook that gives the place its name. 

There's something very healing simply about being in nature, but here they also run a programme of events to nurture body, mind and spirit, or simply let you come and stay and soak up the tranquil atmosphere. The sun came out for us too, so we saw it at its best.

The website can be found here.