A unique space for retreats, tucked away in the Green Mountains.
Established in 1989, Sky Meadow is one of Vermont’s longest-running retreat centers. We’ve been honored to host hundreds of meaningful events, from yoga intensives to silent meditation retreats to intimate weddings.
It all began in 1850 with a little homestead in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.
The rugged and remote corner of Vermont known as the “Northeast Kingdom” originally served as hunting and fishing grounds for the Abenaki people, who have stewarded this part of the continent for millennia.
Our earliest record of the property now known as Sky Meadow is from 1850, when the original farmhouse was built. Half a century later, the magnificent dairy barn was raised in 1900. At that time, the nearby railroad provided a lifeline for a small dairy business on the property.
But by the 1920s, the railroad had diverted its course, and the dairy shut down. When Miles Sherts purchased the property in 1988, it was in need of a new vision and a lot of TLC.
Over the next 30 years, Sky Meadow as we know it was born. The barn was lovingly renovated into a warm and welcoming space for retreats and events, and little by little, the surrounding land became home to a community of residents, eight more cabins, acres of gardens, multiple swimming ponds, and even a “Hobbit House” made out of cob.
In 2017, Brendan Graham Dempsey joined the Sky Meadow community as a resident intern. Having just completed his graduate studies at Yale Divinity School, he was hungry for a way to live out his loves of spirituality, creativity and earth-centered living, and he quickly fell in love with the land. After living and working there for almost a year he moved on, but continued to nurture a dream that one day he too might be able to create and cultivate a place “like” Sky Meadow.
When Miles made the bittersweet decision to retire and sell the property in 2021, a moment of serendipity brought Sky Meadow back to Brendan’s attention, and as the saying goes, the rest is history.
Brendan and his then-girlfriend Erin arrived in August of that year to take their first steps into their new role as caretakers. Two years later, they tied the knot on the hilltop of the place that, once only a pipe dream, had by now simply become home.
Now in their fifth year as caretakers, Erin and Brendan are so grateful to be able to continue Sky Meadow’s long legacy of fostering meaningful retreats and transformative experiences. It is an honor to continue to cultivate a warm and welcoming place for folks to retreat from the stress of everyday life, reconnect with themselves and others, and experience deep nourishment and healing from this incredibly special land.
our team
Meet the people behind Sky Meadow.
We’re a team of writers, gardeners, cooks and creatives who all share a passion for cultivating space for memorable and meaningful events.
Brendan Graham Dempsey
Erin Elizabeth Dempsey
Justine Farrow
Sean Dempsey
Sean is also the author of a number of books including Financial Cheat Codes and several works of fiction. He currently lives in New Hampshire with his family.