Editors Reads Verdict
The central book in Macfarlane's landscape trilogy — where Mountains of the Mind examined the sublime and The Wild Places sought wilderness, The Old Ways is most interested in the relationship between landscape and human movement over deep time. The prose is at its most assured here.
What We Loved
- The prose is genuinely beautiful — Macfarlane is among the best stylists in contemporary British non-fiction
- The Palestinian section adds a political dimension that sharpens the book's questions about who owns the right to walk a landscape
- The depth of research into landscape history is impressive and worn lightly
Minor Drawbacks
- The prose density can feel performative in places — occasional moments of self-consciousness
- The book is long — some paths are less compelling than others
Key Takeaways
- → Ancient paths are not just physical routes — they are records of human movement over thousands of years, written into the land
- → Walking a path is a form of thinking — the rhythm of the body in motion produces a different kind of attention
- → Landscapes are not passive — they shape the people who inhabit and traverse them
| Author | Robert Macfarlane |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Viking |
| Pages | 390 |
| Published | January 1, 2012 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Non-Fiction, Travel, Nature Writing |
| Difficulty | Intermediate |
| Best For | Readers of literary nature writing and travel writing — anyone interested in the relationship between landscape, walking, and thought. |
How The Old Ways Compares
The Old Ways at a glance against 3 similar books readers weigh alongside it.
| Book | Author | Rating | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Old Ways (this book) | Robert Macfarlane | ★ 4.3 | Readers of literary nature writing and travel writing — anyone interested in |
| A Field Guide to Getting Lost | Rebecca Solnit | ★ 4.2 | Readers of literary essays and nature writing, and anyone interested in the |
| Pilgrim at Tinker Creek | Annie Dillard | ★ 4.4 | Readers of literary nature writing and theological inquiry — anyone willing to |
| The Living Mountain | Nan Shepherd | ★ 4.4 | Readers of nature writing and contemplative nonfiction drawn to luminous prose |
On Foot Across the World
Robert Macfarlane walks. In this book he walks ancient paths — the Icknield Way across southern England, pilgrimage routes in the Spanish and Himalayan landscapes, sea-roads through the Outer Hebrides, and — most strikingly — paths through Palestine, where the right to walk is not abstract but contested.
The book asks what happens to the mind when it follows a path that has been walked for centuries or millennia. Macfarlane’s answer, developed through the accumulation of specific landscapes and specific walks, is that old paths carry something — a residue of all the movement that has passed along them. Walking them is a form of communion with deep time.
The Prose
Macfarlane’s prose has been criticised for its lexical richness — he is not shy of unusual words, of archaic English, of Gaelic and Welsh borrowings. The Old Ways is the book that best earns the style because the subject demands it: ordinary English vocabulary has not accumulated the patina that landscape has.
What Distinguishes This Book
Among the qualities that set The Old Ways apart: The prose is genuinely beautiful — Macfarlane is among the best stylists in contemporary British non-fiction; The Palestinian section adds a political dimension that sharpens the book’s questions about who owns the right to walk a landscape; and The depth of research into landscape history is impressive and worn lightly. These strengths are evident from the first pages and sustain across the whole work.
Core Ideas
The central arguments the book develops are worth summarising. Ancient paths are not just physical routes — they are records of human movement over thousands of years, written into the land. Walking a path is a form of thinking — the rhythm of the body in motion produces a different kind of attention. Landscapes are not passive — they shape the people who inhabit and traverse them. These ideas are grounded in evidence and example rather than speculation, which distinguishes this book from comparable titles that rely on anecdote alone.
The Reading Experience
The Old Ways is the kind of book that changes slightly depending on when you read it. The surface — plot, character, setting — remains constant, but the reader brings different things to it at different points in life, and the book meets them there. This is a property of enduring work, and it distinguishes The Old Ways from titles that are consumed once and not returned to.
Limitations
The prose density can feel performative in places — occasional moments of self-consciousness. The book is long — some paths are less compelling than others. These are worth knowing before starting, though they are unlikely to diminish the experience for the readers the book is written for.
Who This Is For
Readers of literary nature writing and travel writing — anyone interested in the relationship between landscape, walking, and thought.
Our rating: 4.3/5 — The best of Macfarlane’s trilogy — walking, landscape, and time handled with literary precision.
A Journey Along Ancient Paths
The Old Ways is Robert Macfarlane’s acclaimed work of nature and travel writing, a luminous exploration of the ancient paths, tracks, and routes that crisscross landscapes and connect us to the past. Walking old ways on foot, by sea, and across varied terrains in Britain and beyond, Macfarlane uses these ancient routes as a means of exploring the relationship between landscape, history, memory, and the human spirit. The book is at once a record of physical journeys and a meditation on how the paths we walk shape and are shaped by those who have walked them before, weaving together travel, history, and reflection.
Walking as Knowing
A central theme of the book is the idea that walking is a way of knowing, that to travel a landscape on foot, along the paths worn by generations, is to enter into a particular and profound relationship with place and history. Macfarlane explores how old ways carry the memory of those who made and used them, connecting the walker to deep time and to a long human story, and he reflects on the ways that movement through landscape shapes thought, perception, and identity. This philosophy of walking gives the book its contemplative depth and its distinctive vision.
Macfarlane’s Lyrical Prose
Macfarlane is celebrated for his rich, precise, and lyrical prose, and The Old Ways showcases his gifts for evoking landscape, weather, and the textures of the natural world with extraordinary vividness. His writing combines deep knowledge of natural history, language, and literature with a poet’s sensitivity to place and atmosphere, and his attention to the words we use for landscape, and the things they name, is one of the pleasures of his work. This combination of erudition and lyricism has made him one of the most admired nature writers of his generation.
A Modern Classic of Place
The Old Ways has been embraced as a modern classic of nature and travel writing, part of a broader revival of writing about landscape and place, and beloved for its beauty, intelligence, and contemplative spirit. It rewards readers who enjoy reflective, richly written nonfiction that explores the connections between people, landscape, and history, and that invites a deeper attentiveness to the paths and places around us. For readers drawn to thoughtful, lyrical writing about walking, nature, and the human relationship to the land, Macfarlane’s book offers a rich and rewarding journey.
Reading Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "The Old Ways" about?
Macfarlane follows ancient paths on foot — the Icknield Way, pilgrimage routes in the Himalayas, sea-roads in the Outer Hebrides, paths through Palestine. A meditation on what walking old routes does to the mind and body, and what landscapes remember.
Who should read "The Old Ways"?
Readers of literary nature writing and travel writing — anyone interested in the relationship between landscape, walking, and thought.
What are the key takeaways from "The Old Ways"?
Ancient paths are not just physical routes — they are records of human movement over thousands of years, written into the land Walking a path is a form of thinking — the rhythm of the body in motion produces a different kind of attention Landscapes are not passive — they shape the people who inhabit and traverse them
Is "The Old Ways" worth reading?
The central book in Macfarlane's landscape trilogy — where Mountains of the Mind examined the sublime and The Wild Places sought wilderness, The Old Ways is most interested in the relationship between landscape and human movement over deep time. The prose is at its most assured here.
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