Wilderness Dreams: The Call of Scotland's Last Wild Places

by Mike Cawthorne

This book has been a long time in the writing. While Mike Cawthorne's life over the last two decades has been mostly involved in climbing and journalism, he has managed to stow away a large memory bank of experiences of his times spent deep within the wilderness areas of Scotland. These 8 extended essays begin with a canoe trip down the River Dee in 2002 ("Tale of Two Rivers") and his epic round of the Munros in the company of his friend Dave Hughes in 1986 ("Paupers and Kings"). "Terra Ingognita" deals with the Monadliath mountains, 'one of the last places left on these crowded islands where you can experience genuine solitude'. "Crofting on the Edge" deals with people Mike has encountered who have chosen to live in the most remote and inaccessible areas of Scotland as does "The Hermit's Story", which describes the life that James McRory-Smith chose to lead in Strathailleach, a shepherd's cottage near Cape Wrath. "A Last Wild Place" describes the ruination of many of these wilderness areas and the efforts made by large energy companies to exploit these special places. '...only wilderness if you can be killed and eaten' is a quote by American writer Edward Abbey referring to grizzly bears stalking humans in the Rockies. Mike recalls this in "Dying for Trees" as he spends a day on Creag Meagaidh with a deer-stalking party where a minor bio-diversity miracle has taken place by carefully controlling deer numbers to allow the spread of broadleaf woodland. "Scotland's Alaska" is the final essay on Sutherland's flow country...'the best and worst of wild Britain.'

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel

Paperback

First published May 31, 2007

Reviews

[Alan Thomson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book especially for anyone interested in wild natural habitats and history. As one who loves the wild places too I like sharing other people’s experiences and perceptions of places which I have passed through. Beautifully written with great feeling and love. Great descriptions of the hills, rivers and people. I would have given it 6 stars. Brilliant.

[Grim-Anal King · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good wilderness writing. Lacked a clear purpose though.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a hugely dramatic writer, but thoughtful, and quietly passionate about the wild places of Scotland and the times he has spent there, while also demonstrating a scholarly understanding of history, geology, agriculture, economics and politics.
I found myself mentally noting future visits to a number of the locations described and the routes selected, and visualising many of the scenes described.
Well worth a read, I do regret having it as an ebook as now I'm restricted from passing this book on, as I feel the author would wholeheartedly approve!

[Paul Freeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

8 different but linked stories that we all interesting about wild parts of Scotland that I now want to visit. The central part of the book is the trip to "bag" all Scotland's Munro's in a single year, an epic tale that was ironically the least "wild" section of the book.

[Stoic_quin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a quietly passionate book, but the rating of three reflects that it varies in length & the focus of each part. As individual essays they are reasonable, but a slight curates egg, but as a group they just don't hang together.