For all enquiries, please contact Gail Garrie via email on:

Booking the Hermitage	The Morning Star Hermitage is available for new bookings for individuals and group retreats and workshops that are compatible with our ethos of silence, stillness and spiritual contemplation. We respectfully request that those new to the Hermitage provide references at the time of booking to help us maintain the sanctity of this special place.

A small book of teachings by Sister Ruth / Kashin Sama is now available.

"The Way of the Cross and the Lotus," a small book of Sr Ruth's writings has been published to coincide with the second anniversary of her death / passing. The book aims to offer the reader an encounter with insights which emerged from Sr Ruth's many years as a hermit, plumbing the depths where the contemplative practices of Buddhism and Christianity could inform each other.

Published in pocketbook size and 84 pages in length, it costs £10.

"The Way of the Cross and the Lotus" is available online from book stores, including Amazon and Church House bookshop.

Hermitage News : Pond restoration

26.02.2026

The stone dam now rests quietly across the pond’s outlet, holding the water at a gentle, life-giving level. Porous and thoughtfully placed, it honours the rhythms of nature — allowing the rush of heavy rainfall to pass through without resistance, and keeping the waters from stagnating in the stillness of dry days. It does not attempt to control the flow, only to guide it. In this way, it embodies dharma — right relationship, right action — working with what is, rather than against it. The stones themselves carry memory. Gathered from the “old relic stones,” once a central feature of the Hermitage and now serving humbly as log storage, they continue their quiet service in a new form, reminding us of the state of impermanence in every moment.

Morning Star Hermitage: A sanctuary “beyond opposites”

Eithin Duon near Llandovery in mid Wales is a special place where silence, stillness and contemplation provide a sanctuary for the mind, body and spirit. You can feel it as you enter the five-and-a-half-acre hermitage site on a remote hillside overlooking the Western Fans of Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons). Above it there is a Celtic standing stone and burial mound named Garn Fawr. Mary’s Cairn is on a rocky shelf 25 metres from the stone. They are testimony to an ancient spiritual heritage overlooking the property. Eithin Duon is Welsh for ground of prickly black gorse. It was purchased and renovated by the Archbishop Rowan Williams Hermitage Trust which turned an old cowshed into a dwelling with a mezzanine chapel.

Sister Ruth Furneaux took up residence in 2010. She had been looking for a base where she could follow the Carmelite practice of solitude, contemplation and silent prayer. Her quest for a hermitage had taken her to four other locations before she found her spiritual “home”. Sr Ruth had lived in Christian and Buddhist monastic settings since the 1990s. She felt at home in both religions. She followed the Theravada tradition of Satipatthana having studied under the guidance of Zen master John Garrie Roshi. Her Buddhist name was Kashin Sama. She was also a Christian hermit in Anglican vows, which were held by Archbishop Rowan Williams. He was the Guardian of the Hermitage, and visited regularly, as did other Anglican priests, to preside at the Holy Communion. Sr Ruth kept the Reserved Sacrament in the chapel. Her Christian calling was not in competition with her Buddhist practice. She seamlessly integrated the two faiths into her spiritual life through prayer and meditation. She had previously trained as a Shiatsu practitioner; received regular treatments; exercised using Makko-Ho exercises from Classical Chinese Medicine and was an exponent of Zen calligraphy.

Sr Ruth died in April 2024. A group of enthusiastic supporters want to maintain the Hermitage as a sanctuary for cross faith practice built on her unique legacy “beyond opposites”. The Morning Star Hermitage group has been entrusted by the Trustees to demonstrate that their “vision” to maintain and strengthen cross faith practice between Buddhism and Christianity can be financially viable, not only to sustain the Hermitage but also to allow it to grow.

The Hermitage is open for solitary or group retreats, workshops, services and cross faith gatherings. Some accommodation is available on site or in nearby B&Bs. For an up-to-date schedule, a guide to donations, to make a booking or to organise an event compatible with our ethos, contact Gail Garrie via email on:

or call her on 07775 775 079.

Financial contributions are welcome from individuals, monastic and religious communities, institutions and companies to support the maintenance and development of this unique cross faith sanctuary.