I went to Lesley Giltenan's Radiance weekend — here's what I learned about women's retreats
Lesley Giltenan at Castlemartyr Resort. Picture by Noel Sweeney
By the time we sit for a half-hour meditation practice, the ice is already broken, our heart rates soaring, giddy from the exhilaration of jumping jacks and squat jumps.
We close our eyes for a guided practice, led by Niamh Browne from Mo Me [Moments for Me], and when we open them, it’s magic.
The room is connected.
Women who were slightly guarded strangers are now smiling openly. After this shared experience, there’s easy chat over a light buffet breakfast. By the time brand strategist Dee Corcoran takes the floor to facilitate a personal vision board, outlining our intentions for the year, there’s a rhythm to the room.
There’s laughter, and a lot of it, but also deep, raw honesty.
Women, while acknowledging how lucky they are to be there, talk fluidly and with ease about how hard it was to carve out time for themselves this weekend, as they juggled kids, jobs, and responsibilities.
There’s a camaraderie, a sisterhood, a kinship — a shared understanding.
We are here together, these 55 women and me, to experience Lesley Giltinan’s Radiance weekend at Castlemartyr Resort, one of a growing number of women’s retreats launching in Ireland and abroad.
The event opened with a keynote speech from women’s health advocate and former Operation Transformation expert Dr Sumi Dunne, followed by dinner and a fashion show from Marks & Spencer.
After a morning focused on the mind and inner wellbeing, and lunch at a communal table, there is a panel discussion in the afternoon with skincare expert Dr Mary Sheehan, hairstylist Sabrina Hill, and Ayu creator Suzie O’Neill.
There’s laughter and fun — at this stage of the weekend, friendships have been formed.
A gala dinner that night, and a goodbye gathering the next morning, seals the connections.
It’s hard to believe, we all agree, we were a room of strangers just two nights prior. We are recharged and reset for the week and the months ahead.
And this was exactly Lesley Giltinan’s objective when she organised Radiance.
“The team at the hotel asked whether I would be interested in doing a wellness weekend; I said I’d love to do it,” says Giltinan, the woman behind the hugely successful Lean with Lesley fitness app.
“I suppose my fear was [whether] people would stay for two nights because life is so busy, many of them have children. Children are demanding, life is demanding, so to escape from all of that for two full days... I know it’s very beneficial for us to do it, but it isn’t easy.
“But you can see all the girls have made friends here.
“I knew one thing for certain. People didn’t want to be working out for the weekend. They didn’t want to feel that there was pressure like, ‘Oh, you have to do this, and you have to eat well, and you have to get up to jog’.
“Really, we are just making time for ourselves, and making time for each other. One of the words I picked on was connection. And I think this is a great opportunity for connection, for community.”
The power of connection and community was first awakened in me 25 years ago. It was a retreat, not just for women, but for cancer patients. Living in Australia, and midway through a gruelling year of chemotherapy and radiation, I attended Petra King’s Quest for Life residential retreat.
Her holistic approach included meditation, walks in the wood, inspirational talks — but the most powerful unspoken takeaway was the realisation that everyone in the room had a shared experience. The chemo drugs might have been different, the prognosis miles apart, but all of us had heard the words: “You have cancer.” On my final day at the retreat, as I said an early goodbye to return to Sydney for work, we gathered in a circle. King asked us to close our eyes and visualise a rainbow projecting from their hearts to mine. I’ll never forget the physical sensation in my chest at the moment.
A short few years later, back in Ireland in a fast-paced job and then a lone parent, the lessons I’d learned were put on the back burner. Life was just too busy to stop, to pause and reflect. And then, this newspaper’s astute wellbeing editor, as though she could see inside my very soul, asked me to attend a retreat and write about my experience. This was a detox in Co Laois, a gathering of women coming
together for a few days to eat healthily, take walks in the outdoors, practice morning mediation. There were no rainbows this time, but again I felt the unmistakable power of connection. I came home
recharged, reset.
It was life-changing.
It was another few years before I would have the opportunity to experience another female gathering. This time it was Kathryn Thomas’ Pure Results bootcamp. It was a decade ago, and my job was just as busy, but now I had four kids at home. The two-day escape was fitness-focused, with education around food, healthy eating and wellbeing. Boxing and weights were interspersed with yoga and meditation, with talks from Gerry and Miriam Hussey. It was another reset for me. Thomas had a devoted following at Pure Results — most of the women signed up year in, year out. And I understand their motivation. Here we connected with like-minded people, laughed as we struggled with intense workouts, and shared our souls after relaxation sessions.
Kathryn Thomas was ahead of her time, bringing women together in a structured, safe space.
Ten years later, I returned to Pure Results, when Thomas had rebranded her gatherings — this wasn’t a bootcamp, instead it was a retreat. The format was similar, but there was a relaxed vibe. There was fitness, yes, but this was a space for women to relax, to reflect, to connect.
In recent years, especially since the pandemic, there has clearly been a growing desire for more in-person meet-ups — experiences that go beyond screens. In this time of acute loneliness, we’ve witnessed the rise of Millennial retreat culture — the idea that people prioritise experiences, coming together around shared interests and values. Communities form around common passions and local meet-ups as people yearn for meaningful connections.
We see it here in the — our Feelgood and ieStyle Live events sell out annually, with waiting lists for tickets.
The global wellness tourism industry continues to grow rapidly and is projected to reach around $1.35trn by 2028, according to Statista.
Miriam Hussey, the best-selling author of is a pharmacist and integrative health and wellness coach. She created Soul Space with her husband Gerry Hussey and they have been hosting regular retreats for nearly a decade now.
“People need the space to pause and reflect, to ask themselves is what I’m doing nourishing,” says Hussey, who hosts regular online sessions to focus on community and wellbeing via The Inner Circle on her Soul Space website.
“The core essence is time and space from the go, go, go, to pause and ask yourself what is working, and what isn’t. The nervous system needs to regulate — with deep rest come the answers and clarity. You can hear your heart. You can drop into it, live an integrated life. When I first talked about mind, body, soul people thought I was mad. It was all food and fitness. We just didn’t have the vocab. Now we know more. There is a new awareness.”
Lesley Giltinan acknowledges that most women spend their lives in emotional labour mode, managing relationships, anticipating needs, keeping the show on the road. And a retreat is one of the few places where no one needs anything from them.
They want to feel seen, to rest without guilt, to reconnect with themselves, and with other like minded people. Whether it’s book club or wellness focused retreats like Radiance, what women are really seeking, says Giltinan, is connection and community.
Pure Results, February 28 - March 1
Better Together, March 20-22
Yoga with Maura, October 10-16
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