Grounding the spirit and learning to love yourself

Dzogchen Beara is a welcoming retreat centre for anyone needing some direction in life, says Siobhán Cronin.

The upsurge in interest in Buddhism is no surprise to Matt Padwick, manager of the Dzogchen Beara retreat centre outside Castletownbere in West Cork.

Since Peter and the late Harriet Cornish bought 150 acres of rugged farmland on the Beara peninsula in the 1970s, and later donated it to a Buddhist trust, the numbers flocking to this special site, perched on a cliff edge, overlooking the Atlantic, have been steadily increasing.