Review: The Old Ways by Robert MacFarlane

‘The eye is enticed by a path and the mind’s eye also. The imagination cannot help but pursue a line in the land – onwards in space, but also backwards in time, to the histories of the route and its previous followers.’ So writes Robert MacFarlane in a book which explores a range of ancient paths and passages in locations as diverse as the chalky Sussex Downs, the Guadarrama of central Spain and the mountains of Tibet.

                   Each of the sixteen chapters features an account of a journey by foot (or in one case by boat, between islands off the north coast of Scotland) which is enlivened by the author’s deep knowledge of the history of these places and of their natural features.  His regular references to his path-treading predecessors – pilgrims, traders, farmers, adventurers – give the book a sense of timeless communion between travellers, especially between the writer himself and his fellow Downs explorer, the poet Edward Thomas. Near the end of the book, there is a moving account of the last years of the life of this restless wanderer who was killed in World War I.  

MacFarlane’s prose is peppered with precise naturalist terms and richly descriptive passages.  ‘I found my sleeping place at twilight, not far from the beacon’s summit: a swathe of grass, the size of a double bed-sheet, overhung by a spreading hawthorn tree and hidden from the path by a ramp of gorse whose yellow blossoms lent their coconut scent to the breeze. A green woodpecker yapped in the distance. Planes flew past every few minutes, dragging cones of noise. Lichen glimmered on the trees.’

 He also provides some fascinating character sketches of the people he meets on his journeys – an artist on a remote island who makes sculptures from the dead creatures and detritus he finds washed up on the beach, a couple who create what look like hardbacked books but which are actually bound boxes containing objects collected on different walks.  It is hard not to envy MacFarlane’s easy attitude to what sometimes sound like arduous expeditions (he travels light, walks long and is unfussy about where he pitches his tent) and his ability to appreciate just about everything he sees is extremely life-affirming.  The book is a good advertisement for reading up on local flora and fauna before hiking.   Like all successful travel books, The Old Ways will make even the most sedentary of readers wish to go outside and explore.