Beginnings

The Findhorn Community was begun in 1962 by Peter and Eileen Caddy and Dorothy Maclean. All three had followed disciplined spiritual paths for many years. They first came to northeast Scotland in 1957 to manage the Cluny Hill Hotel in the town of Forres, which they did remarkably successfully. Eileen received guidance in her meditations from an inner divine source she called ‘the still small voice within’ and Peter ran the hotel according to this guidance and his own intuition. In this unorthodox way - and with many delightful and unlikely incidents - Cluny Hill swiftly became a thriving and successful four-star hotel. After several years however, Peter and Eileen's employment was terminated, and with nowhere to go and little money, they moved with their three young sons and Dorothy to a caravan in the nearby seaside village of Findhorn.

Feeding six people on unemployment benefit was difficult, so Peter decided to start growing vegetables. The land in the caravan park was sandy and dry but he persevered. Dorothy discovered she was able to intuitively contact the overlighting spirits of plants - which she called angels, and then devas - who gave her instructions on how to make the most of their fledgling garden. She and Peter translated this guidance into action, and with amazing results. From the barren sandy soil of the Findhorn Bay Caravan Park grew huge plants, herbs and flowers of dozens of kinds, most famously the now-legendary 40-pound cabbages. Word spread, horticultural experts came and were stunned, and the garden at Findhorn became famous.

A community is born

Other people came to join the Caddys and Dorothy in their work and soon the original group of six grew into a small community, committed to their spiritual path and to expanding the garden in harmony with nature. A slim volume of Eileen's guidance entitled God Spoke To Me was published in 1967 by the community's newly formed Findhorn Press and word of this strange but wonderful community spread yet further. Significant friends and supporters of the community in these early days included English new age pioneer Sir George Trevelyan, scottish esotericist R Ogilvie Crombie and Richard St Barbe Baker, ‘the man of the trees’. New community members lived in caravans beside Peter and Eileen's and in specially built cedarwood bungalows which still house guests and workshop participants today. In the late 60s the Park Sanctuary, the largest of our meditation sanctuaries, and the Community Centre, where the community still eats and meets, were built by Peter and community members in accordance with Eileen's guidance.

In 1970 a young American spiritual teacher named David Spangler arrived in the community and with his partner Myrtle Glines helped to define and organise the spiritual education processes that have been a central pillar of the Findhorn community ever since. A curriculum was established and the work of the ‘University of Light’ began. David and Myrtle lived in the community for three years, during which Findhorn Press published many of David's visionary writings. Today we run almost 200 week-long courses every year as well as conferences, trainings and our busy Outreach programme of educational workshops taken around the world by our workshop leaders.

In 1972 the community was formally registered as a Scottish Charity under the name The Findhorn Foundation and in the 1970s and 80s grew to approximately 300 members. In 1975 the Foundation purchased Cluny Hill Hotel as a centre for its educational courses and for members' accommodation, renaming it Cluny Hill College. In the late 70s the Universal Hall, our centre for the arts, was built by volunteer work. Behind its fantastic stained glass facade are housed a modern theatre and concert hall, a holistic café, dance and recording studios, and offices.

Throughout the 1970s and 80s further volumes of Eileen's and Dorothy's guidance were published including Eileen's best seller, Opening Doors Within, a collection of daily inspirations which has been translated into more than 30 languages. Dorothy's autobiography, To Hear The Angels Sing, was published in 1980. In 1982 the Foundation bought its home, the Findhorn Bay Caravan Park. Also acquired in the 1980s were neighbouring Cullerne House, whose gardens became the centre of organic vegetable production, and Drumduan House in Forres, where community members established the Moray Steiner School. Eileen's autobiography, Flight Into Freedom, was published in 1989.