About us

What is Carraig Dúlra?
It is a non-residential organic small holding where we facilitate individuals, children and families reconnecting with nature and creative living. In Irish, Carraig means rock and Dúlra means nature. There are many associations to those words, and many of them fit, but in particular we like the strength, solidity and timescale evoked by Carraig, and the softness, flexiblity, and the elements, within Dúlra, and the beauty and profundity in both. 

Why we are doing this?
Despite living close to and frequently spending time in the mountains and by the sea walking and camping, we needed our own nature refuge, an Tearmann. We found it and now we want to share it. We hope to let our family and others who come to Carraig Dúlra recover from what some call N.D.D. (Nature Deficit Disorder) and experience the "good life" as an aspirational/inspirational holiday break from what ever life we are all living. We are particularly concerned with having time with our own children in nature and we are discovering others who come are gaining something from the land and the natural environment around us. We can then take this: the experiences and learning, to wherever we might be living: town, city, mountain, woods, to our wider families and communities where we hope it will ripple out. We would love to feel we can help counter the trend of progressive separation from nature, particularly for children, that we believe is so detrimental for both our's and the planets' health. We hope to include those already eco aware and swap ideas, but also be a bridge to those in the fast lane (perhaps of the N11 not far from us) to move down a gear and explore what slowing down might mean. Of course the only problem with being a bridge is we have to cross over ourselves too. We hope to create a living skills bank of traditional skills for current use in living sustainably and in better balance within ourselves, in connection with our communities and with nature.

Who we are
We are Mike and Suzie Cahn and are from New York and Ireland respectively. We have four children and like everyone we have a range of experiences which would be impossible to document in words and pictures alone, but here are a few snippets and you can look at our other websites in Web links for more.

Mike has been interested in environmentalism since he read Rachel Carson's Silent Spring back in the 1970's, but he has been torn between "having a traditional career" (he has degrees in computer science and business) and following his heart to work in radically different arenas. So for 15 or more years he moved back and forth between the two. Some years he's joined the rat race and climbed the ladder in software development and computer management; in others he has worked in broad areas: teaching non-mainstream kids in rural Vermont, living and working on a Schooner in Long Island Sound teaching environmental education, and managing a Traveller social enterprise start up. In more recent years he set up an organic and wholefood buyers group and has worked to expand this to include co-operative elements and alternative currency ideas. He ran an ethical market called WELCOME in Wicklow Town and along with Suzie and the kids he WWOOFed for six months while they gestated the ideas that were to become Carraig Dúlra and gathered skills to help it happen.

Since they met in the 80's it was natural that Mike influenced the development of Suzie's environmental tenancies. Suzie already had a deep connection with nature through a frequently unstructured natural childhood by the sea. She had also been exposed to a Steiner based philosophy through a strong family connection with the Camphill movement. (Her Grandmother was a founding parent of Camphill in Ireland) Without knowing it at the time, throughout her teens she was exposed to bio-dynamic agriculture, eco-building and intentional communities and the natural landscape. Now she is a mother, an Artist and a Art Therapist and is evolving into an Eco Psychologist. Suzie has a mission to reconnect people, especially families and children to the learning, healing and creativity found in both nature and art.

She has grown produce for her family since she had her first tiny plot on which to do so. Suzie has brought an organic and wildlife community garden and teaching program to Gaelscoil Cill Mhantain and gives workshops and lectures on many topics and in many settings: Hospice Foundation, art therapy training programs and others. She recently set up a group in Wicklow Town called Wicklow Community Gardening Group. She loved the family's six months WWOOFing on the road in Europe in her beloved 1971 VW camper "Living inside other peoples lifestyles was amazing and so helpful in choosing what to do ourselves after what I called our mid-life crisis gap year. After twenty years trying to live an ethical, eco life and to spread that ideal, we needed to recharge. It was becoming harder not to give in to hopelessness in the face of massive global environmental crisis' such as GMO, loss of bio diversity, global warming, and unimagionable levels of pollution from everything we do, even from our attempts at healing ourselves through medicine, not to mention running out of oil! We hope Carraig Dúlra continues to lift our spirits and do that for anyone else who comes."

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Carraig Dulra Ltd. is a limited company registered in Ireland no. 430659. Our registered office is 4 St Laurences Park, Wicklow Town, Co Wicklow.
The company directors are Mike & Suzie Cahn