A love of nature, art, craft, fresh air, clean water, beautiful landscapes, people, different cultures and great food have all shaped Rosie’s life. Setting up Wild Rose Escapes and living in Crochail woods has been driven by all of these.
Rosie studied archaeology at the University of Liverpool. Her interest in archaeology, anthropology, people and travel lead to her working as a tour leader, taking groups to beautiful places in Africa and Asia. Her and Alex’s shared interest and knowledge of traditional and prehistoric life has gone beyond just studying the past for its own sake and has come to shape where they live and what they do.
Food has always been a big part of Rosie’s life, be it wild food foraging or rustic home cookery for friends, family and, later on in life, commercially. It was a cooking job which first brought her up to the Highlands. She took a job at Cape Adventure, a remote outdoor activity centre in Sutherland, where Rosie developed a love of the Highlands, especially its amazing landscapes and the many interesting people who inhabit them.
Rosie inherited a flair for artistic creativity from her mum and has always practised a wide range arts and crafts. When she moved up to the Highlands, wool became an obvious medium due to the long traditions of its use in a range of applications and its plentiful availability. A love of plants and nature then lead her to learn more about natural plant dyes.
Rosie studied Therapeutic massage at the Glasgow school of holistic medicine in 2004. She had previously spent several years as a support worker, with people experiencing mental health problems, homelessness and young people with behavioural issues, and wanted to develop a more hands on way of working with people.
A combination of everything Rosie knows and loves, people, cookery, nature, traditional crafts and wild spaces, has been used to create Wild Rose Escapes.
