Upland

Britain’s high places are many and varied, from the rolling hills and lush valleys of the Malverns to the vertiginous slopes of Snowdonia, the romantic peaks and vistas of the Lake District and the silent sub-Arctic tundra of the Cairngorms.

The relationship of people with hills and mountains has been complex, rich and varied – from awe and wonder to fear and loathing, from spiritual longing to peaceful acceptance.

As he explores our high places, Ian Crofton conjures up those who have been there before: Neolithic axe-makers, mass trespassers, shepherds, quarrymen, botanists, poets and pioneering cragsmen and women among them. At the same time, he is ever attuned to the present moment – a flash of bright moss in a bog, the swoop of an eagle above a skyline, a winter sun sinking into a sea of cloud.

Following an arc from the gentle Downs of southern England to the wild peaks of Scotland’s far north, Upland combines personal experiences with a keen curiosity about the history and nature of mountain landscapes, and the people who once worked and wandered among them. The result is a meditation on the enduring yet ever-changing hills, on the transience of human experience, and on the shifts and twists of time itself.

Locations included:

• Chilterns (following The Ridgeway)
• Malverns
• Snowdon
• Peak District
• Pennines
• Lake District
• Ben Nevis
• The Cuillin, Skye
• Assynt (Suilven)
• Cairngorms