The Living Lab
Bothy Garden Sessions for Team Away Days
Not just a garden. A growing place for ideas.
Imagine a day where nature is your workspace, creativity flows freely, and your team reconnects, not in a conventional meeting room, but within the quiet, historic walls of a Georgian walled garden.
Welcome to Bothy Gardens Sessions, where history, rare plants, and a restored Victorian greenhouse create a unique setting for transformative corporate experiences.
Nature as Your Whiteboard
The Living Lab is not just a workshop — it’s a journey. A full or half-day immersive session designed to inspire reflection, fresh thinking, and strategic collaboration, all rooted in the rhythms and wisdom of the natural world.
Led by horticulturist Mark Wheeler and/or hybrid designer Jules Gilleland, this unique experience invites your team to slow down, observe, and unlock ideas in a setting unlike any other. Learn More About Mark and Jules!
Why Choose Bothy Garden’s for Your Team Event?
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Historic Beauty & Rare Plants:
Explore a garden dating back to 1731, carefully restored to preserve its heritage and rare species. Your team will be immersed in a living landscape that sparks curiosity, grounding new thinking in a rich and storied environment.
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Private & Tranquil:
An exclusive space that offers privacy and calm away from the noise of the modern workplace. With no competing events or distractions, your team can focus fully, whether you’re reflecting, planning, or innovating together.
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Hands-On & Reflective:
Engage directly with plants, the landscape, and creative exercises that nurture innovation and connection. These moments in nature encourage open dialogue, clear thinking, and team alignment in ways boardrooms rarely allow.
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Expert Guidance:
Benefit from the knowledge and facilitation of two passionate experts, blending horticulture and design to deepen your experience. With decades of combined experience, Mark and Jules create sessions that are inspiring, insightful, and professionally relevant.
The Experience — Designed Around You
The Living Lab can be tailored as a half-day or full-day session, though most clients prefer the full-day option to fully immerse their teams in the garden’s atmosphere and activities.
Whether you’re aiming to spark creativity, build stronger teams, or shape future strategies, this session offers a fresh approach to professional development — one where the garden itself becomes a partner in growth.
Enhance Your Day
Every team is different — that’s why we offer optional breakout sessions from our resident creative studios to enrich your experience. These workshops are ideal for leadership retreats, innovation days, or teams in need of space to recharge and think differently. They can be woven into your Living Lab agenda or added as afternoon wind-downs or standalone morning energisers.
Think with Things:
This playful and thought-provoking workshop utilises everyday objects to unlock creativity, challenge assumptions, and foster deeper collaboration. It’s a hands-on method trusted by educators, designers, and innovation leaders across Europe. For corporate teams, it provides a dynamic toolset for brainstorming, empathy-building, and idea generation — all in a relaxed, tactile format that makes thinking visible.
Turtlewings Ltd:
Turtlewings offers art-based and wellness experiences designed to reconnect your team with themselves and the world around them. Workshops include nature-based drawing, creative journaling, and mindfulness sessions that blend beauty with purpose. These sessions are restorative and expansive — ideal for supporting well-being, reflection, and slow thinking in a high-pressure professional world.
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Ready to Grow Your Next Idea?
Whether you're planning a strategy retreat, energising your team, or exploring new ways to connect people and purpose — Bothy Gardens offers space, structure, and inspiration to help ideas take root.
We work with innovation teams, heritage leaders, business teams, educational institutions, organisations and design professionals to create meaningful offsite days grounded in nature and creativity.
Let’s shape a day that fits your goals.
We’ll listen carefully, tailor the experience, and provide everything you need — from facilitation to catering.
Get in touch to start planning:
Tell us your preferred date(s), group size, and team focus
Share any questions or ideas — we're happy to help
We’ll respond with a suggested agenda and quote
Or contact us directly:
Email: hello@bothygardens.com
Phone: +44 7799 049556
