The Corbenic Poetry Path is part of the Corbenic Camphill Community located between Pitlochry and Dunkeld, The Poetry Path curates work by some of Scotland’s best living poets, such as Kathleen Jamie, John Glenday, Pàdraig MacAoidh and more. Poems engraved in slabs of wood and stone, or etched in glass, interact with sculpture and installation on a meandering upland path that circles 3km of woodland, upland, and riverside. The Path is fast becoming a national treasure.

The Path’s ten-year anniversary is being celebrated with a poetry competition. The judge (whom we couldn’t be more honoured to have) will be Forward-Prize winning poet Marjorie Lofti.

The aim of the competition is twofold: to install a new poem along the Poetry Path, and to raise the profile of the charity and our mission, not just within Scotland, but within the wider UK. The winning poets will be announced and showcased at Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s 2027 Winter Words Festival, hosted by author Michael Pedersen and actor Alan Cumming. The winning poet will have their poem engraved on a surface selected by our Estate Team, then installed along the Poetry Path. Shortlisted works will be included in the Corbenic Poetry Path anthology and celebrated online.

Submit to Corbenic Poetry Path Competition HERE (the link may ask you to sign in to your Google account; please email corbenicpoetry@gmail.com for any problems).

Please consider supporting our charity further HERE

• All work must be previously unpublished.
• AI-generated poetry and AI-translation will not be accepted.

Competition Rules

• Entries open 1 October.

• Deadline is 1 December by 5 pm. Shortlist announced by mid-January.

• Simultaneously submitted works are permitted but we wish to be given priority. Please notify us immediately upon acceptance elsewhere.

• The competition is open to anyone except for poets whose work already features on the Poetry Path at the time of entry.

• Entrants must have an address in either the UK or the Republic of Ireland at the time of submission. (Because we are a charity, we have limited funds. Winners residing in the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland will be asked to arrange travel to Scotland, wherein travel to Perthshire will be covered by Corbenic.)

• Anglophone translations/versions/subversions/adaptations of another poet’s work ARE ACCEPTED, but a source text must be included, an attribution added under the title (e.g. ‘after Julien Gracq’), and rights secured prior to entry (unless in public domain).

• Entries from non-Anglophone languages of Scotland (e.g. Scots, Gàidhlig, and Cant/Beurla Reagaird) are ENCOURAGED. Please include a translation into English.

• Entrants are limited to ONE poem per person.

• Poems must be no more than 40 lines in length (excluding title and stanza breaks).

• Do not send a bio or cover letter with your submission.

• Once a poem is submitted it cannot be edited.

• The judge’s selections are final.

File format

• Work should be submitted in Word doc files only. (If a poem has a visual or experimental format, please submit as a Word document with an accompanying PDF.)

• Only one poem per entry.

• Poem should be in 12 pt. Times New Roman.

• Type your first name and surname as a header or footer on the right margin.

• Type your address under your name.

Submit to Corbenic Poetry Path Competition HERE (the link may ask you to sign in to your Google account; please email corbenicpoetry@gmail.com for any problems).

Please consider supporting our charity further HERE