Holistic Therapy Centre Open Days
Islands are often regarded as ‘special places’ both by residents and visitors, with a different atmosphere and way of life. It’s not unusual for visiting tourists to see Arran as an environment for recreation, rejuvenation and health. In older times, Arran was known to the Gaels as An t-Eilan Ubhalach, the Island of Apples, some say perhaps the ‘Avalon’ of the Arthurian legends.
Increasingly over the years, Arran has become a place for healers. Practitioners of massage and other holistic therapies have been working in hotels, clients’ homes, their own homes, and adopted premises, but often felt they lacked therapeutic space created explicitly for their purpose. Holistic services have been made available to some Arran residents on a basis of need and by GP referral through the work of ArCaS (for cancer patients) and the Mary Davis Trust (for carers).
In 2017, Malcolm Kerr and Susan Knox bought Heather Lodge in Brodick with the intention of developing a centre for holistic therapies. Set in the grounds of the historic Douglas Hotel (but with its own ‘secret garden’) the building, in Victorian times, was one of the ‘farm offices’, maybe a stable, of the Douglas, which was then a hunting lodge. For decades subsequently Heather Lodge was a private dwelling. 
Over the last year, work has been undertaken to satisfy planning conditions and improve disabled access. Several practitioners have already been working in the centre, providing a wide range of holistic and psychological therapies, predominantly on a ‘health’ rather than ‘recreational’ model. Space is provided for individual consultations and treatments and also for small group work.
More information is available on the centre website.
Or on the Heather Lodge Facebook page: @heatherlodgearran
To provide an opportunity for the community to see around the new facilities, and, if they wish, meet the therapists, there will be ‘Open Days’ on March 16th, 17th, 22nd, 23rd, and 24th. See the website for further details. Just drop in! Or let us know when you intend to visit via info@heatherlodge.scot.
