Kelston Roundhill and Roundhill Barn

Roundhill Barn is a non-demonational space where people of all faiths or of none, as well as any gender race or orientation are welcome.

Roundhill Barn is a non-denominational space ideally suited to retreats, reflection and spiritual refreshment.

One way or another Kelston Roundhill has always been and will always be a sacred spot. We’re not aware of any records surviving from Celtic or Roman times, but in recent years we’ve welcomed CofE groups for awaydays and evensong, Quaker days of quiet, school Ascension Day assemblies, Buddhist monks and Rastafari.

They come either informally as walkers on the hill, or by invitation and booking in advance for awaydays, worship and memorial events in the Old Barn. Pilgrims are always welcome. And it’s a perfect location for private reflection of all sorts.

But we must first remind visitors to seek permission in advance for any proposed group event. That isn’t simply as a matter of courtesy; bear in mind this is a working farm on private land.

Second: we’re very open to hosting multi-faith and interfaith events, and welcome people of any faith or none. But Roundhill Barn has a certain ethos with which fundamentalism, evangelism or missionary zeal are not compatible. If you practise intolerance or discrimination of any sort – including on the basis of gender, faith, ethnicity or sexual orientation – please find a different venue.

And – as for each and every visitor – leave no trace.

Pride Month banners provided by Bath Quaker Wren Sidhe.

Poems, stories, picnics and a Barn Dance on Fri 21 June

This year’s Bard of Bath – Conor Whelan – is organising a summer solstice celebration on Kelston Roundhill. Poems, stories, barn dance/ceilidgh. Bring a picnic if you want, or food may be available if numbers warrant it. Cash bar.

Tickets £8 available from Komedia box office (click here, call them on Bath 489070 or drop in in person and save the booking fee).

The Bard of Bath invite. Photo by Matt Prosser

The Old Barn recovers after a wedding weekend.

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Another superb eco trend from Sweden (reports Reuters). Plocka (to pick up, eg litter) plus jogging makes plogging.

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The Bathscape advisory group sharing ideas about how best to preserve and enhance the landscape surrounding the city in a meeting held at Bath CC.

The Bathscape project is great forum to meet across disciplines, overcome suspicion and misunderstandings. Kelston Roundhill lies within the Bathscape area. The project promises a range of benefits including improved grasslands and flower-rich meadows, 30 assessed and managed view points, greater numbers of volunteers and visitors and a walking festival.

Our input to the meeting: first do no harm. Let’s not municipalise our rural countryside. Let’s include the sacred dimension, art and storytelling. Also we must work hard towards diversity (see pic above #QED).

Mary and William test out the new bench cut today by Richard (c)

Kelston Records is putting on the first Concert for Aural Diversity (6 July at the Old Barn on Kelston Roundhill).

A concert for aural diversity entails music specially composed and performed for people with different states of hearing, including various stages of deafness.

Andrew Hugill talks about Menieres disease, deafness and work for aural diversity in a short film made by GN Resound.

It’s a project by the composer Andrew Hugill, recently of Bath Spa University. Prof Hugill himself suffers from deafness and other symptoms associated with Meniere’s disease. The programme is supported by the specialist Danish hearing aid supplier GN Resound.

We look forward to welcoming composer, musicians and guests to this important event, and look forward to helping make it a beautiful and memorable occasion.

Our neighbour Gerald did some beautiful cutting and laying over the holiday period. Thisnis mainly ash, so may well be susceptible to dieback and may not last. So we plan to check out the sales with a view to underplanting with some more hedge shrubs.