Carolyn Hillyer

Carolyn Hillyer

Carolyn Hillyer is a renowned musician, artist, and author who, along with her partner Nigel Shaw, resides on a thousand-year-old farm in Dartmoor, South-West England. This mist-veiled landscape of wild hills, peat bogs, and heather moors serves as the primary inspiration for their creative work. The raw beauty and untamed spirit of this ancestral land deeply influence their music, art, and teachings.Carolyn has written 12 solo albums and co-created many others with Nigel. Her early albums, such as House of the Weavers and Grandmother Turtle, have achieved iconic status within women's sacred music. Over the past three decades, her recordings, including Weathered Edge, Cave of Elders, and Wyched Wombe, have defined her unique perspective on women's spiritual journeys and ancient mythological landscapes. Recently, she released her first album of spoken tales, Winter Folded Everything, and a collection of vintage songs, This Place of Herons.Carolyn's artistic talents extend beyond music. Her paintings of life-size archetypal spirit women have been exhibited many times as shrine installations. She is also the author of the highly popular Weavers’ Oracle, the newly published song collection Wild Litany, an original interpretation of the Proto-Celtic language Her Bone Bundle, as well as the series of volumes Book of Hag and the classic work Sacred House.For over 30 years, Carolyn has been leading powerful workshops that blend ritual song, intuitive ceremony, ancient initiations, and direct interaction with the wild land. She is the founder of the Thirteen Moons women’s festival. Together with Nigel, Carolyn has built a large Neolithic-style roundhouse on their farm, which serves as a ceremonial ancestor house and the heart of their teaching circles and gatherings.Their creative output includes music albums and concerts, books and workshops, paintings and art installations, and traditional flute and drum making. They host concert events on their Dartmoor farm, including the much-loved festival of sacred world music, Rivenstone. Carolyn and Nigel have traveled worldwide with their work, including performances and workshops in Australia, USA, Japan, Jamaica, Canada, Central & South America, Siberian Arctic, Russia, and throughout Europe and Britain.