More than 900 years ago, Roger Tempest’s ancestors came to England from Normandy during William the Conqueror’s 1066 invasion and were given the land that now houses Broughton Sanctuary in North Yorkshire.

When Tempest inherited the estate – which includes a Grade 1-listed stately home, cottages that once housed the estate workers and 3,000 acres of land – he might have been expected to look to the past. Instead, he used his privilege to create a sanctuary aimed at addressing some of the 21st century’s most pressing problems.

“We’re all about the future,” he tells me, when we meet in Avalon, Broughton’s new purpose-built wellbeing centre.

Tempest took over the running of the estate when he was 25, but it wasn’t until a couple of decades later that the idea of using it to create “a house of transformation, peace and safety” started to take shape.

“In my late 40s, I began to have a kind of awakening,” Tempest tells me. “I had a growing feeling that I wanted to contribute to the world.”

His quest to live a more meaningful life led Tempest to a series of experiences including the Hoffman Process in Ireland. The seven-day retreat proved profound for Tempest, helping him make sense of events from his past and freeing him up to live more fully – and to help others.

He adds: “Hoffman [also] taught me that creating transformative experiences needs the right environment and tools for the full potential of healing and change to occur.”

A new beginning
Together with his partner Paris Ackrill, who he has a four-year-old daughter with, Tempest began to think more deeply about how he could use the historic house and land he had inherited to instigate change.

“In our current civilisation, a lot is breaking down – societally, socially, spiritually and environmentally,” he says. “There’s such polarisation in society and dissatisfaction in people’s hearts, but there’s also hope. There’s a movement – a change – taking place that feels inevitable and we want to be part of that.

“I realised I had this gift of Broughton Hall and I wanted to contribute. I suddenly thought Broughton’s purpose is as a house of transformation.”

Creating a place of peace
In 2020, Tempest and Ackrill opened Avalon, Broughton’s wellness facility, with the aim of it becoming the UK’s leading retreat centre. Designed with sacred geometry principles in mind, it’s a beautiful calming building, featuring two glass-fronted studios with views of the gardens, a 20m pool looking out onto the trees, a sauna, steamroom and hydrotherapy pool as well as therapy rooms, relaxation and meditation chambers. It also features a crystal light bed, Somadome meditation pod and floatation tank.

Today, the whole estate is dedicated to Tempest and Ackrill’s mission to “rewild spirits” – to encourage spiritual growth and personal transformation. Broughton Sanctuary hosts 50 retreats a year, ranging from established spiritual programmes including the Hoffman Process and Path of Love to ground-breaking retreats such as Men Without Masks, a five-day package created by Craig White, a former British Lions rugby performance coach, aimed at ‘rewiring masculinity and nurturing brotherhood.’

I took part in a five-day mindfulness retreat run by Ruby Wax and Buddhist monk Gelong Thubten entitled Keeping it Real in a Frantic World, which saw 28 participants learn to meditate, take part in writing workshops, try cold water immersion, experience a sound bath led by Ackrill and enjoy a night of drumming and celebration. We ate delicious plant-based food, slept deeply, learned, laughed and cried. It was a genuinely transformative few days in a place unlike any other that I have been to. To read more about the experience visit www.spabusiness.com/rubywax.

Other events hosted by Broughton include the Wyrd Experience – an ‘interactive consciousness lab’ exploring the intersection between technology and consciousness – a couple’s Tantric sexuality retreat and a midlife women’s wellness retreat. This October, Broughton Sanctuary is also hosting the Healing Hotels of the World’s annual Healing Summit.

The retreat business
The retreats account for approximately 50 per cent of Broughton Sanctuary’s revenue, Tempest tells me, with additional revenue coming from its rural business park, the onsite pub and the hire of the hall as a filming location. The estate is also used as a venue for weddings, meetings and other events and the 19 restored cottages can be rented out as holiday homes. While the main hall doesn’t operate as a hotel, it can be hired out in its entirety for up to 32 guests.

The majority of Broughton Sanctuary’s retreats are created by external partners, says Tempest – this model sees partners paying a set fee for the use of the facilities and then taking any profits themselves.

When it comes to choosing which retreats to host, Tempest says that content is always the starting point. “We start by looking at what issues people need support with – it could be grief, trauma, menopause or personal transformation, then we look at what’s out there.”

In addition, the Broughton team co-curate their own retreats with a variety of thought leaders. These signature offerings include Profound Rest, ‘a supported six-night journey into silence’ led by Ackrill and founder of the Bodhimaya detox retreat Cornelius O’Shaughnessy, and Reconnect and Rewild, led by natural lifestyle coach Tom Riddle.

Prices range from £1,500 (US$1,870, €1,755) for a room in one of the retreat houses on Ruby Wax’s programme up to £5,252 (US$6,540, €6,150) for the Hoffman Process.

The estate is also home to an addiction clinic, a chapel and a small school.

Vetting partners
What are the main challenges of running a retreat-based business, I ask Tempest.

“It’s very hospitality based,” he says. “People on a retreat need to feel looked after, so you need a very responsive team. Guests can be demanding and when they’re going through tremendous change, they need to feel supported. Our team need to be very aware of the psychodynamics going on.”

With such a clear ethos, it’s vital to vet all potential retreat partners thoroughly to ensure that their values align, he adds.

“A lot of people approach us, but we have to be careful. We’ve just said no to a gathering of people who wanted to come here because our approaches weren’t aligned. This group wanted to create change, which I admire, but their approach felt aggressive and divisive and that’s just not our thing. Our approach is one of love.”

Nature immersion
Nature is another key element of Broughton’s offering. The estate is home to one of the UK’s leading rewilding projects, with almost 400,000 trees planted over the past few years.

“We’re very into wild wellness and the idea of nature as a prescription,” says Tempest. “We offer a whole range of experiences, including forest bathing, foraging tours, moon bathing, woodland dining, cold water immersion and wild swimming.”

For the ultimate experience, wild swimming and ice bathing in the estate reservoir are combined with sessions in a log-burning woodland sauna and hot tub. The estate also features a wooden fire temple, used for music workshops and celebrations; a sweat lodge; stone circle; and cosmic gardens.

While Tempest is obviously business savvy, it’s clear his passion comes from a deeper place. His mother was a devout Catholic who worked with Mother Theresa and he cites the iconic nun as one of his biggest inspirations.

“Mother Teresa said that God gave us the gift of life and what we become is our gift to God,” he says. “What we want to create is a sanctuary – a breeding ground of hope and positive change. This all comes from the heart.

“Broughton Sanctuary isn’t just a business; it’s a calling.”