Creative Collaborations 13 - The Horn Head Beeswax Pillar Candle

Every new season brings new elements to our guest experience and 2023 has been no different. As well as the launch of our new room, Heather, we continue to work with amazing local makers and producers to constantly enhance the time our guests spend with us and enhance their connection with our unique location on the Donegal coast. For this season, we brought together a favourite local maker, Hannah Gallagher of Folklor candles and Ivan Stewart, our neighbour and local beekeeper.

Candles have become very important to us at Breac.House. As well as lighting them as part of our sauna and seaweed bath rituals, they are lit each evening in our library area to mark the start of our evening drinks service. Given their ritualistic significance, we wanted to create something with a unique, special meaning. Hence we turned to local artisan candle-marker Hannah Gallagher who established Folklor, with the aim of creating beautiful handmade beeswax candles inspired by the rugged coastline and rolling hills of her native Donegal. Her candles celebrate tradition, nature and ritual. Beeswax is the most natural wax in the world. It is natural in colour and in scent, absorbing colour and aroma from the alchemy of flower pollen and honey within the hive. Using a simple method of cleaning, the wax remains unaltered and unprocessed.

Our Horn Head neighbour Ivan Stewart's honey has been a feature of our breakfast tasting trays since our very first season. He, and his hard working bees, who also frequent our garden on their rounds, provide us with honeycomb, heather honey and blossom honey that truly capture the scents and seasons on Horn Head. Their distinctive flavours change with the seasons and elevate some of our very simple cakes and dishes.

So when the opportunity arose to bring Hannah and Ivan together to work on a bespoke candle for Breac.House, it simply had to be done. The result is a limited edition pillar candle deigned and handmade by Hannah using beeswax from Ivan's hives on Horn Head. With a minimum burn time of 50 hours, these candles are the perfect addition to any Autumn/Winter ritual. Due to their very limited numbers, they are available exclusively for guests at Breac.House to purchase but we plan to follow this first batch with more in the near future.

So a massive thank you to Hannah, Ivan and of course the bees of Horn Head. Sometimes the simplest, most local things are truely beautiful and the most special.