I’m not quite ready to start exploring all the wintertime settings that are currently arriving across Second Life to match the northern hemisphere as it welcomes its end-of-year weather. I’m sure this outlook will change over the next couple of weeks, but right now, I remain in the mood for warmer spots in which to roam, take photographs and generally blather about. There’s also the fact that given my current health situation, I’m naturally drawn to places physical and digital which offer calm and opportunities for peace and reflection.
Fortunately for me, Sorcha Tyles provides just such a place; one which has recently opened to visitors under her Dutch Pavilion land group. I’ve known Sorcha for a long time, both as a region designer as and a photographer-artist and gallery owner, and had always appreciated her work. As a result, I was quick to hop over to Wild Silence after coming across it in the Destination Guide.
Like the most recent iteration of Dutch Pavilion, which I visited in June 2025 (and after it had been relocated and downsized from the Homestead region I first visited in September 2024), Wild Silence occupies a parcel within a region – in this case a quarter(ish) of a Homestead to present a beautiful wild yet also delicate natural setting.
Really, the best way to describe this setting is to use the description found in its Destination Guide entry, a shorter version of which can also be found in the setting’s About Land description:
The Wild Silence is an untamed expanse where the pale water and whispering reeds hide a vibrant world. This sanctuary is home to countless birds and offers refuge from the noise of man. Explore the winding shores and witness a fragile beauty found only in the profound, untouched stillness.
– Wild Silence Destination Guide description
Surrounded on three sides by curtain walls of rock which will serve to nicely separate the setting from the rest of the region as it is developed (at the time of my visit, the rest of the region – Moonlight Lullaby – was undeveloped open water), Wild Silence looks southward out over open Linden Water, the majority of the setting given over to a low-lying island of shingle, rocks, scrub grasses and gravel, dotted here and there with hardy trees and upon which an enterprising soul has established a little café inside a greenhouse (coffee houses and tea houses are a creative signature of Sorcha’s builds and always a welcome sight).
Whilst “silence” appears in the location’s name, this is more a reflection of the lack of human occupancy (despite the presence of the café and a fishing boat), as reflected in the setting’s description; the island itself is alive with swishing ebb and flow of a gentle tide along the shoreline and the song and cry of birds and waterfowl and the occasional moo of the two cows as they help keep the grasses somewhat trimmed to size.
The majority of the birds and waterfowl within the setting are located at the far end of a tongue of water curling in to the island from the southern sea, forming a tear-drop of water with surprising depth. Here can be found ducks, geese, gulls, heron, godwits, ibis and more, all adding their voices to the local chorus.
A second ribbon of water attempts to make its way around the land, hugging the curtains of cliffs and in one place broad enough to provide shelter to the aforementioned fishing boat. Both of these inland bodies of water are also home to a couple of rowing boats offering both singles and couples seating.
Nor are the rowing boats the only outdoor places to sit, as those following the island’s gravel path from the Landing Point around to where the greenhouse café at the south-east extent on the island. The café itself is an utter charm, warm and welcoming, presenting both indoor and outdoor seating for those wishing to spend time there.
In talking to Sorcha during my visit, I learned that she will be closing Dutch Pavilion in the near future so she can focus on Wild Silence. Given this, if you have visited the former, I’d strongly suggest you do so before at least the end of the month as it really is worth the time, and to perhaps do so in concert with a visit to Wild Silence, as they complement one another perfectly.
SLurl Details
- Wild Silence (Moonlight Lullaby, rated Moderate)
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 