Chapter 1
Deer Eyes
I stood alone once more, aware again of the bubbling of the water and the space of the forest all…
ReadFrom the Field
Nature writing rooted in deep familiarity with the Scottish Highlands and Islands. Essays, field notes, and longer works.
19 pieces
Chapter 2
The Land of Many Names
If there is such a thing as magic then it is strong here, and if the spell is cast on you it will…
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This Place of Beginnings
I sat on my rock beneath the snow, waiting at the threshold, listening and looking. Dare I go…
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The Dark Moor
“I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been…
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From Itself, Itself Becomes
I didn’t want little answers, nor literal ones. I wanted so much more. I wanted to know the story…
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Silent Answers
The forest had reached out to me, and unwittingly I had somehow reached back. For the briefest…
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Let the World Come to Me
“This is the face of Nature, unchanged since it left the hands of its Maker, a soundless, endless…
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Beauty Was an Ocean
“Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping…
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The Peace of Rain
And walls were waterfalls. A man Crawled on a landscape that spread round Its fading distances and…
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Adrift Among Stars
“To fish is to be held in the heart of a stillness in which nothing is still. It is to wait…
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The Best Way Into The Woods
There’s so much here, in the blank parts of the map - the bits that people forget about. I’m not…
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Seasons
I walk among memories of warmth and sunshine, trying to bring it all back to life in my mind. A…
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Skin to Rock
The view is gone. My companions' voices are gone. Thought is gone. There is only stone, and a body…
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Pilgrim of the Forest
I have become a pilgrim of the forest, searching for its true nature. For brief moments I think I…
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Canoe
Canoeing always helps me to feel whole. It stimulates every part of me - my body, my mind, my…
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Storm and Change
The trees around me hissed and roared with the wind, and shattered waves crashed onto the little…
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The Silent Goddess
The wind of the winter storm scoured the sandy shore, the snow stripped. Out there on the loch the…
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A Familiar Place
I am deeply in love with this place. Like the poet Norman MacCaig in Assynt, I don’t want to…
Read Chapter 19
Perfect Stillness
In silence, It speaks. The world reaches out and embraces me, and in so doing, embraces itself,…
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