Welcome to the website of Rubha Phoil!
Rubha Phoil is an ancient, Sacred Rock and a nature-based regenerative culture project and community in Sleat in the south of the Isle of Skye, Scotland.
You can visit and stay with us!
We have a cabin available for people who want to come and holiday with us. Click here to book.
If you want to get your hands dirty and learn in exchange, you can read more how this can work for us here.
Our Mission
Rubha Phoil is a nature-based regenerative culture community, where a small group of people of all ages create and demonstrate an abundant and thriving existence on and from the Rock, while enhancing the ecosystem they live in.
Our Vision
Our vision is to create a thriving, resilient and diverse community, a place of reconnection to nature and ourselves, and to model and teach permaculture, nature connection and community building.
Learn more about who we are HERE.
Rubha Phoil is implementing the Permaculture Design which has been carefully created over the last 7 years.
The YIN Part of the Project
The Virtual Village, the on-line community, the circular economy.
The current economic system gives us two choices: between the economy or the the liveability of our planet.
At Rubha Phoil instead we switch to a different type of economy that doesn’t make such a decision necessary.
The Virtual Village in its essence is a cleverly designed Social Media Platform with it’s own real asset backed currency and market place embedded into it!
It is also so much more than that… The Virtual Village is:
- An ethically sound place to connect with each other in the virtual sphere, where we can organise just like we can on the one that shall not be named, but without the concerns of privacy, misinformation and consumerism.
- An open, respectful platform where the goal is to facilitate connection and capture the energy, passion, money spent, and connections made of everyone and everything that passes through Rubha Phoil in the past, present and future, churning it into a spiral of ever-increasing abundance for all members.
- A platform where everyone is verified and their identity known by Rubha Phoil, which helps to build trust.
- An academy where we can offer courses and lessons to each other.
- A classroom where you can be introduced to nature connection skills before you visit here so that you, our ecosystem, and the people of Rubha Phoil can all benefit more from your stay and contribution.
- A democratic space where we make decisions, together, in a modern, yet indigenous inspired way.
- A market place where we can trade in our own asset backed currency called Rubha Rocks. (see below)
- A job centre, library, hub to organise polls and events, and platform to share idea’s, video’s and stories and mentor each other.
- An exchange system for Rubha Rocks; preventing our wealth from leaking out of the community and powering local resiliency.
- A reclamation of the power that banks and multinational organizations have over us.
- A platform where we are not the products that are being sold –meaning, ABSENT of advertising.
- A treasury to manage the Rubha Rocks and wealth that Rubha Phoil creates. It can even give ethically sound loans to new start-ups and invest in the community in an ethical way!
- Designed to finance itself and pay a wage to the people that do the admin through an ethical way of taxing controlled by the community and embedded in the ethical framework, defined by the legal entity that will in effect own Rubha Phoil; a living, moldable system where decisions and changes are made together.
- Designed to be easily adaptable and copied for use for other communities and land owners.
The Virtual Village will create a spiral abundance for the whole community because it is modelled on the most efficient accumulator of yields on our planet: A healthy ecosystem!
Rubha Rocks
Rubha Rocks (RR) at the moment are legally called ‘promises’ or ‘vouchers’ but will soon become a real asset backed currency. This means that it is NOT a virtual currency like bitcoin, or a currency like the £ which just can be created by adding some nr’s on a bank screen. This is a real currency, like the ones we used to have before 1971, when our currency was still backed by gold and had real value, unlike today. Instead every RR owner and user will own a piece of the property of Rubha Phoil and will have real decision making power. These RR’s are deposited and traded through the Virtual Village and are used to trade with and within Rubha Phoil and the market place.
Why is it necessary to create a new currency rather than use the common currency of £’s?
Rubha Rocks level the playing field between socio-economic classes through economic corrective measures that are controlled by the community, not the government. This is how it works:
- We are going to restore the value of our currency to again be a tool to facilitate trade and create trust by linking it to something tangible (similar to what once was called the gold standard). This link is essential to prevent extreme concentrations of wealth and endless devaluations. Ludwig, who at the moment still is the legal owner of Rubha Phoil, is going to link it to something more valuable than gold, something that he actually has in his possession, a wealth that he has accumulated over years of hard work with many people’s help, something that feeds us and nurtures our souls: The property value of Rubha Phoil. This means that -once the RR is decoupled from the £- the more the property value rises, the more valuable the RR becomes.
- Rubha Phoil needs to be secured for future generations against resource-hoarding and landlordism. With this structure, the paradox between resilience and ownership is broken and everyone in the community can feel safe in their own homes and have real decision making power.
- A few of the more important Terms and Conditions of the Rubha Rock Agreement:
- You can exchange £’s for Rubha Rocks or earn them in other ways.
- You can trade these Rubha Rocks amongst each other.
- Rubha Phoil or Ludwig is by law NOT ALLOWED to buy your Rubha Rocks back from you or even give you a refund when you exchange your £’s for Rubha Rocks.
- You can sell these Rubha Rocks for £’s or for any other currency to each other for any price you want.
- Users must adhere to the ethics of the market place to trade.
- Everyone’s identity needs to be known by Rubha Phoil but you can use a nickname or trading name in the village.
- The platform is paid for by a small, one-time entry fee and the lowest transaction fee possible, at the moment 0.1%. This can change if the currency users themselves decide that.
- Membership is a one-time card fee to verify your identity.
- The legal entity, Rubha Phoil Regenerative Community CIC, will take over the management of the Village ASAP and power will be shared with the members.
- Click here to continue reading the full terms and conditions
A Circular Economy
Nature is not linear. Nature works in cycles and is therefor the most efficient system there is. Millions of years of evolution have created the perfect ever changing system that created a massive amount of resources for life to enjoy. We like that concept and like to copy it. The adoption of the Virtual Village and use of Rubha Rocks creates a circular economy and thereby “closes the money drain which leads inevitably towards off-shore bank accounts. ” In a place where the economy, decision-making, and communication is all owned by the people on the land and in the community, there is no leakage and the people and land are freed from outside influences.
When this economic model and Virtual Village platform is adopted by other communities, the Rubha Phoil Virtual Village can connect with the others and trade so we can become a vast network of resilient circular economies!
The Yang Part of the Project
The Rock
Closing the land to the main stream tourist industry was a key part of the re-wilding project on the rock. This time of quiet has allowed a diverse array of species to reclaim Rubha Phoil as their home. We are gently reopening the land for the friendly local community.
The community that lives on the rock will have a strong nature based focus:
- The ecosystem will be highly valued, sensitively managed, well protected and enhanced.
- We will spend a lot of time studying and learning about our ecosystem, getting to know each other well.
- We will connect with our ecosystem, learn tracking skills, listen to the birds, and heighten our nature awareness.
- We see Permaculture as more than sustainability. We have designed a way of living that will allow us to live in, be part of and enjoy a thriving ecosystem. We will live a way of life that enhances the biodiversity and the resilience of the Rock.
The People
The people and nature at Rubha Phoil are not separate, but form part of the whole community.
We are creating a regenerative connecting culture:
- A culture to open up connection with our deeper self, each other and the natural world.
- The culture is inspired by a mixture of indigenous cultures from around the world, including the local Gaelic culture, based on the work of Jon Young and the 8-shields institute, who have worked together with many indigenous cultures from around the world.
- We will go on a cultural village builders journey together.
- We will create anchoring links with people outside to help us stay rooted in this process.
- It will be a place for healing and resting and fun and learning.
We are creating a regenerative culture:
- We will have a culture of paying it forward amongst ourselves and towards the future generations.
- We will create opportunities to live in our full potential and awaken our uniqueness. We will do our best to achieve the 8 attributes of connection, and to create opportunities for the next generation to grow up with them.
- It will be a place were we create solutions and adaptations for the Climate Disaster and Biodiversity collapse that is happening around us.
- We will create opportunities for people to come and learn and experience living in a regenerative community.
The Permaculture Principles
Rubha Phoil is a demonstration project to inspire people to create permaculture elsewhere. We approach reality with the scientific method of making hypotheses, observation, gathering results, comparing and contrasting with other’s results, learning from the past with the perspective of future generations, in the process of restoring and enhancing the ecosystem and the process of personal and community growth.
The ethics of Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share are followed as best we can:
- Earth Care asks us to preserve the soil, keep the air and water clean, protect biodiversity, and conserve energy and natural resources.
- People Care is about health and well-being, nourishment with good food, lifelong learning, trust, respect and meaningful work.
- Fair Share emphasizes equitable distribution of resources, networking and cooperation, reduction of consumerism, and rethinking notions of growth, progress and development, past and present. Honouring people that came before us, leaving a nice planet behind for the ones that come after us.
The Current Power Structure
At the moment, Ludwig (Otter) is still the owner of the land and everything on it. He is bound to remain the sole power holder as long as he is legally responsible and the personal loans have yet to be repaid to the many people have given to support him and the project. (Thank you, all, tens, hundreds of peoples for your help! You lot are the reason why this project belongs to the people.)
The power structure is what we call jokingly an ‘Ottercracy’, which is in essence a benign landlord-ship. Due to the legal responsibility lying with Ludwig, for as long as that is the case, Otter needs to approve all decisions. He does that while listening as best he can to others and imagining what an Elder council would decide, while that is being formed.
The team structure is based on the design created by Jon Young and the 8-shields institute (read more here). This is a creative and super powerful team working model, inspired by nature and indigenous cultures to hold people together and create something that is much bigger than the sum of its parts. At Rubha Phoil, this works in an acorn style where for now, Ludwig is the North and the rest of the team are in the other seven directions. Each member holds their specific energy and jobs for the benefit of the team and the mission. The North Role needs to rotate and is not linked to the land ownership or to power as in a hierarchical structure. The purpose is that everyone, including the North, does their part for the benefit of the whole. (Within the Ottercracy frame, for now.)
The Future Power Structure:
The best way for Rubha Phoil, the Rock, and all inhabitants on it, to reach their full potential, is designing a power model, looking through the lenses of a future perspective–our great-great-grandchildren in the 7th generation.
Landownership is a colonial man-made idea and doesn’t really mean anything beyond the power that it gives the owner. Which is why it is going to get locked away by linking it to our currency. Who is the actual owner doesn’t really matter on the Rock, as long as the people who live and work on the Rock get given and hold and can keep the power of decision making and feel truly secure to be able to put roots down. Creating something now that will remain in place into perpetuity helps create security. With this sense of security, the people living on Rubha Phoil can feel at peace in their investments of money, energy and dreams, and make the decisions that matter to them.
Ownership and power should be in the hands of the people who’s lives are impacted by what happens on the Rock, including future generations. By creating a Treasury that issues the RR currency, linking that currency to the value of the land (as it used be linked to gold), putting the decision making power into the hands of the local people that use it, puts the ownership of Rubha Phoil into the hands of the unborn children of the 7th generation, where it belongs.
The first steps are being taken: We are in the final stages of creating an agreement to hand over power over Rubha Phoil to a Community Interest Company called Rubha Phoil Regenerative Community CIC. People that live on Rubha Phoil and some experts in their fields will hold the power in the next period of transition.
Thank you for reading the whole page. What do you think? Would you like to create a mutually beneficial relationship with Rubha Phoil? We’re keen to invite you to join us.