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Stone Lands: A Journey of Darkness and Light Through Britain's Ancient Places
An enchanting and beautifully illustrated memoir of grief, hope, and love, alongside the joy of exploring ancient landscapes, which uncovers the wonder of Britain's ancient megaliths.
Journeying across Britain, from West Penwith and Avebury to the Lake District and Orkney, Stone Lands uncovers the magic and rich history of Britain's incredible prehistoric standing stones. It conveys the delight that lies in tracking them down, as well as the solace these ancient places offer in times of darkness.
A few months after discovering that her beloved husband, Stephen, had incurable cancer, Fiona Robertson began to write this book. A long-time megalith enthusiast, she found the ancient stones resonated with her more profoundly than ever as she faced the prospect of losing him. Set upright thousands of years ago, the megaliths are symbols of endurance and survival, standing in contrast to our ephemeral human lives. Infused with folklore, legend and mystery, these standing stones enchant the landscape and bring magic to our modern world.
This enthralling memoir is woven delicately around great grief but is ultimately about embracing life, joy and ancient wonder—a luminous reminder of what it means to exist on this earth.
Journeying across Britain, from West Penwith and Avebury to the Lake District and Orkney, Stone Lands uncovers the magic and rich history of Britain's incredible prehistoric standing stones. It conveys the delight that lies in tracking them down, as well as the solace these ancient places offer in times of darkness.
A few months after discovering that her beloved husband, Stephen, had incurable cancer, Fiona Robertson began to write this book. A long-time megalith enthusiast, she found the ancient stones resonated with her more profoundly than ever as she faced the prospect of losing him. Set upright thousands of years ago, the megaliths are symbols of endurance and survival, standing in contrast to our ephemeral human lives. Infused with folklore, legend and mystery, these standing stones enchant the landscape and bring magic to our modern world.
This enthralling memoir is woven delicately around great grief but is ultimately about embracing life, joy and ancient wonder—a luminous reminder of what it means to exist on this earth.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2025
33 people are currently reading
773 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
July 1, 2025
A beautiful, extremely well-researched and ultimately loving account of our relationships with ancient stones and one another. Much more than just a gazetteer of our ancient sites, this is a life affirming tale that reaches out between the ages and connects us to those people who first raised the stones. Heartbreaking, yet funny and inspiring. And I added many new places to my visit list. Wonderful.
January 21, 2026
I loved this - gorgeous book and beautifully read as an audiobook. I’ve been savouring listening to this and it doesn’t disappoint - lots of favourite places featured (The Rollrights, Stonehenge, Isles of Scilly and Penwith) and lots of new places to visit (Orkney looking at you!). It’s been a great comfort listen and I’ve also bought the hardback too as it’s got beautiful illustrations.
August 6, 2025
Poignant, lyrical, moving and thought-provoking. Also packed with information on ancient places and stone circles. Couldn’t recommend it more highly.
October 9, 2025
The first half of Fiona’s book is a very moving record of her partner’s, Stephen’s, incurable cancer diagnosis intertwined with recollections of the various trips to megalithic stone structures in Britain which they had made. The writing can be powerful, reflecting a personal, subjective response to Stephen’s illness and death, and to visiting megaliths sites.
For me, from Chapter 7 (following Stephen’s death) the book seems to struggle to find a focus, with a record of more visits to megalithic stone structures, both those previously visited and some which were on a wishlist which were tragically never achieved with Stephen. Nevertheless I found this half of the book engaging and informative.
Loved the illustrations by Philip Harris, which added to the book, and the occasional brief plans of megalithic sites.
For me, from Chapter 7 (following Stephen’s death) the book seems to struggle to find a focus, with a record of more visits to megalithic stone structures, both those previously visited and some which were on a wishlist which were tragically never achieved with Stephen. Nevertheless I found this half of the book engaging and informative.
Loved the illustrations by Philip Harris, which added to the book, and the occasional brief plans of megalithic sites.
June 25, 2025
A moving and spiritual book. A story of coping with grief and loss through the ever present magic of ancient stones
January 18, 2026
I bought this book last year at an independent bookshop in Frome. It’s part personal memoir of the author’s lifetime of being an enthusiastic ancient ‘stone botherer’ but also of her experience of living through her husband Stephen’s terminal cancer diagnosis and his subsequent death, when he was only in his mid 50s leaving her with young children. It’s also a tribute to the UK’s prehistoric standing stones, circles and the landscapes within which they are set. It takes the form of a travelogue to some of the UKs most important Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeological sites. The author had visited some of these sites with her husband before his diagnosis so they held happy memories for her: others she visited for the first time after his death as part of the process of rebuilding her life.
She writes movingly of her experience of supporting Stephen at the end of his life and she writes about her grief and the impact of this on her children - ‘without Stephen’ she writes ‘I’m a stranger in my own life and the things we do seem empty and meaningless’. Later she writes of the ways she found to regain a joy in living in part by interacting again with the ancient stone sites. She speaks of the many different ways these sites are significant to so many people and explains the personal messages she’s drawn from them. ‘Standing stones tell us that the past echos on and that memory is stronger than death. They remind us that the past is still with us, and that every awesome thing we have experienced, all the love we have given and received, is preserved in our past and cannot be taken away from us’.
I’m glad I treated myself to the hardback edition of the book: it has beautiful line drawing illustrations by printmaker Philip Harris. I’ll definitely be re-reading this book at some point and hopefully visiting some of the sites she mentions. I’d recommend it for someone who has been bereaved tough it can be a tough read at times as she does very bravely write about the end of her husband’s life. Overall it’s interesting on the history and archaeology of the Neolithic sites she visits, with a positive message of hope and her reconnection to life to help heal after loss. As one reviewer, Ben Edge put it ‘ the book shows us the power of looking back in order to move forward’ but as the author makes clear, our lost loved ones go forward with us.
She writes movingly of her experience of supporting Stephen at the end of his life and she writes about her grief and the impact of this on her children - ‘without Stephen’ she writes ‘I’m a stranger in my own life and the things we do seem empty and meaningless’. Later she writes of the ways she found to regain a joy in living in part by interacting again with the ancient stone sites. She speaks of the many different ways these sites are significant to so many people and explains the personal messages she’s drawn from them. ‘Standing stones tell us that the past echos on and that memory is stronger than death. They remind us that the past is still with us, and that every awesome thing we have experienced, all the love we have given and received, is preserved in our past and cannot be taken away from us’.
I’m glad I treated myself to the hardback edition of the book: it has beautiful line drawing illustrations by printmaker Philip Harris. I’ll definitely be re-reading this book at some point and hopefully visiting some of the sites she mentions. I’d recommend it for someone who has been bereaved tough it can be a tough read at times as she does very bravely write about the end of her husband’s life. Overall it’s interesting on the history and archaeology of the Neolithic sites she visits, with a positive message of hope and her reconnection to life to help heal after loss. As one reviewer, Ben Edge put it ‘ the book shows us the power of looking back in order to move forward’ but as the author makes clear, our lost loved ones go forward with us.
January 7, 2026
Stone Lands is a book of quiet power one that listens carefully to the land, to history, and to grief. Fiona Robertson’s journey across Britain’s prehistoric stone sites becomes something far deeper than travel or archaeology; it is a meditation on endurance, loss, and the fragile beauty of being alive.
Written in the shadow of her husband Stephen’s terminal diagnosis, this book carries grief with remarkable gentleness. The standing stones at West Penwith, Avebury, the Lake District, Orkney, and beyond are not treated as static monuments but as living presences. Raised thousands of years ago, they embody continuity and survival, offering a counterpoint to the brevity and vulnerability of human life.
Robertson writes with clarity and reverence, weaving together folklore, archaeology, landscape, and personal reflection. Her long-standing passion for megaliths deepens into something more intimate as she walks, researches, and returns again and again to these ancient places during a period of profound emotional reckoning. The stones become companions, witnesses, and anchors sources of solace without false comfort.
What makes Stone Lands especially compelling is its balance. It never romanticizes grief, nor does it retreat into sentimentality. Instead, it affirms joy, curiosity, and wonder even in the presence of sorrow. The result is a memoir that feels grounded and expansive at once deeply personal, yet resonant far beyond the author’s own experience.
The inclusion of Philip Harris’s black and white illustrations adds another layer of quiet beauty, reinforcing the book’s sense of attentiveness and care. Together, text and image create a work that invites slow reading and reflection.
Stone Lands is a luminous exploration of ancient landscapes and modern loss, reminding us that while human lives are fleeting, meaning can be found in connection to place, to history, and to one another. It will resonate strongly with readers of nature writing, archaeology, memoir, and anyone seeking solace in the enduring presence of the past.
Written in the shadow of her husband Stephen’s terminal diagnosis, this book carries grief with remarkable gentleness. The standing stones at West Penwith, Avebury, the Lake District, Orkney, and beyond are not treated as static monuments but as living presences. Raised thousands of years ago, they embody continuity and survival, offering a counterpoint to the brevity and vulnerability of human life.
Robertson writes with clarity and reverence, weaving together folklore, archaeology, landscape, and personal reflection. Her long-standing passion for megaliths deepens into something more intimate as she walks, researches, and returns again and again to these ancient places during a period of profound emotional reckoning. The stones become companions, witnesses, and anchors sources of solace without false comfort.
What makes Stone Lands especially compelling is its balance. It never romanticizes grief, nor does it retreat into sentimentality. Instead, it affirms joy, curiosity, and wonder even in the presence of sorrow. The result is a memoir that feels grounded and expansive at once deeply personal, yet resonant far beyond the author’s own experience.
The inclusion of Philip Harris’s black and white illustrations adds another layer of quiet beauty, reinforcing the book’s sense of attentiveness and care. Together, text and image create a work that invites slow reading and reflection.
Stone Lands is a luminous exploration of ancient landscapes and modern loss, reminding us that while human lives are fleeting, meaning can be found in connection to place, to history, and to one another. It will resonate strongly with readers of nature writing, archaeology, memoir, and anyone seeking solace in the enduring presence of the past.
December 11, 2025
Stone Lands” by Fiona Robertson is an exquisitely rendered memoir that blends personal grief, ancient history, and the quiet magic of the British landscape into a single luminous journey. With poetic sensitivity and profound emotional honesty, Robertson invites the reader into a world where standing stones become companions, witnesses, and spiritual anchors during one of the darkest chapters of her life.
As she travels across Britain, from the windswept cliffs of West Penwith to the mystical rings of Avebury, the rugged peaks of the Lake District, and the timeless majesty of Orkney, Robertson reveals how prehistoric megaliths hold not just historical significance, but healing power. These ancient stones, weathered by millennia yet steadfast, offer a grounding presence as she faces the unbearable reality of her husband Stephen’s terminal illness. In their resilience, she discovers a living metaphor for endurance, hope, and the stubborn beauty of life.
Rich with folklore, legend, and archaeological insight, the book is both an evocative travel narrative and a deeply personal exploration of love, loss, and renewal. Robertson’s prose is tender and clear eyed, capturing the wonder of landscapes where myth and memory converge. She transforms her pain into something radiant, an homage not only to the stones, but to the human spirit’s extraordinary ability to seek light in the shadows.
“Stone Lands” is enthralling, restorative, and quietly transformative, a memoir that lingers long after the final page and reminds us that even in grief, there is ancient magic waiting to guide us home.
As she travels across Britain, from the windswept cliffs of West Penwith to the mystical rings of Avebury, the rugged peaks of the Lake District, and the timeless majesty of Orkney, Robertson reveals how prehistoric megaliths hold not just historical significance, but healing power. These ancient stones, weathered by millennia yet steadfast, offer a grounding presence as she faces the unbearable reality of her husband Stephen’s terminal illness. In their resilience, she discovers a living metaphor for endurance, hope, and the stubborn beauty of life.
Rich with folklore, legend, and archaeological insight, the book is both an evocative travel narrative and a deeply personal exploration of love, loss, and renewal. Robertson’s prose is tender and clear eyed, capturing the wonder of landscapes where myth and memory converge. She transforms her pain into something radiant, an homage not only to the stones, but to the human spirit’s extraordinary ability to seek light in the shadows.
“Stone Lands” is enthralling, restorative, and quietly transformative, a memoir that lingers long after the final page and reminds us that even in grief, there is ancient magic waiting to guide us home.
August 27, 2025
I wanted to like this book. I do like this book but for me it's left me unfulfilled. I'd read the pre publication reviews and thought, being interested in ancient sites, this could offer something new. However I began finding myself speed reading chapters to get beyond the mindfulness and emotional suggestions, to unearth the discovery and fact. There's no doubt this is a well researched book, there's no doubt about Robertson's love of the topic, but like many books published today it majors on a personal warts and all journey with the subject being of secondary merit. Of this genera it does a wonderful job. But for me I had hoped for more. I'm not sure what that more was meant to be, maybe I'd misunderstood the premise but having stopped reading it properly and skimmed through it over two nights to the end I struggled to fully engage with it or the many people mentioned who 'deeply connect' with the mystery of ancient stones, searching for something of fulfillment in these modern times.
December 28, 2025
This book wasn't what I was expecting but it was more poignant and thought-provoking than I had anticipated, the ideas raised staying with me after I finished each chapter.
I read this slowly over many months and it brought back so many memories of my own adventures with stones, and my own experience of loss. The author tells the hearbreaking story of the death of her husband and her struggles to cope with his terminal diagnosis and dealing with the aftermath.
The longevity of these great stone megaliths in the landscape and their part in celebrations of ancient rituals marking the passage of the year, help the author to work through her feelings and see the greater patterns we all live within.
I read this slowly over many months and it brought back so many memories of my own adventures with stones, and my own experience of loss. The author tells the hearbreaking story of the death of her husband and her struggles to cope with his terminal diagnosis and dealing with the aftermath.
The longevity of these great stone megaliths in the landscape and their part in celebrations of ancient rituals marking the passage of the year, help the author to work through her feelings and see the greater patterns we all live within.
July 31, 2025
Borrowed from the library.
There is a lot to learn here about Britain’s standing stones, megaliths, cairns, burial mounds, and stone circles. It is very clear, the author loves all of these and is drawn to them. However, it is also a personal love story, and a tale of fear, uncertainty, hope, and loss. Writing the book was the author’s way, at first, to distract herself from her husband’s grim diagnosis of incurable cancer, but eventually became the way she worked through her grief. Her great love is everywhere, but also nowhere. She is a brave woman, but she also sets a good example of following our personal passions and living life while we still can.
There is a lot to learn here about Britain’s standing stones, megaliths, cairns, burial mounds, and stone circles. It is very clear, the author loves all of these and is drawn to them. However, it is also a personal love story, and a tale of fear, uncertainty, hope, and loss. Writing the book was the author’s way, at first, to distract herself from her husband’s grim diagnosis of incurable cancer, but eventually became the way she worked through her grief. Her great love is everywhere, but also nowhere. She is a brave woman, but she also sets a good example of following our personal passions and living life while we still can.
October 6, 2025
I saw a review of this book somewhere and picked it up on a whim. I’m so glad I did. I have learnt so much about the ancient megaliths and burial places that surround us here in the UK, but not in a dry text, but brought alive as a shared experience. There are undoubtedly moments in this book that will make you sad, the journey through a terminal diagnosis, but then the life that she found on the other side of her husband’s death gives some hope. It changed her, and in some ways improved her. It’s a reminder to live every day to the max. Loved this book.
January 12, 2026
"Stone botherers," lol!
I loved this book that managed to be both historic and current, well-researched (the bibliography!) and personal, a bit woo, but at least a little bit of woo is understandable when the topic is the megaliths of Britain.
I picked up the book because I wish I could be a Fiona-level stone botherer, but now that I've read it it's mostly Stephen that I'm thinking about. But the juxtaposition of our own and our loved ones' mortality with these almost immortal creations throughout the book really works.
I loved this book that managed to be both historic and current, well-researched (the bibliography!) and personal, a bit woo, but at least a little bit of woo is understandable when the topic is the megaliths of Britain.
I picked up the book because I wish I could be a Fiona-level stone botherer, but now that I've read it it's mostly Stephen that I'm thinking about. But the juxtaposition of our own and our loved ones' mortality with these almost immortal creations throughout the book really works.
February 2, 2026
This is part memoir about grief and part archaelogy. My favorite chapters were about those places that I have been to or knew about and are on my travel wishlist. The author makes connections between each location and her own grief journey through memories of visiting most of the places as a family or with her spouse. Very good food for thought in thinking about the changes we travel through in life and how memory can triumph over even death. I've experienced some of these feelings at my own magical places connected to geology and family.
November 16, 2025
A deeply personal book about loss and grief. Fiona Robertson combines her experience of losing her partner with her/their journeys to ancient megalithic sites, showing how these stones can serve as quiet beacons of hope and endurance. The book touched me deeply (I cried more than once) yet it also added fascinating new destinations to my mental holiday map. I fell in love with stone circles all over again and now I kinda want to build one myself.
December 14, 2025
This book is completely wonderful! It is organised by Fiona’s journeys to standing stones with her family, some with and some without her husband, who she grieves for throughout the book. The writing is beautiful and reduced me to proper sobs at times. I learnt a lot about standing stones and ancient archaeology, and want to start exploring these magical places myself. Highly recommended for anyone who likes nature memoirs/biographies.
October 26, 2025
Somewhere between three and four stars for me. (Also can’t quite forgive ‘oriented’ for ‘orientated’)
A sad story of the early death of a father and husband and hope for the future found among megaliths where many layers of memories are to be found
As for the stones I think it’s a case of ‘you really have to be there’.
Stanton Drew, one of my favourites, is barely mentioned
A sad story of the early death of a father and husband and hope for the future found among megaliths where many layers of memories are to be found
As for the stones I think it’s a case of ‘you really have to be there’.
Stanton Drew, one of my favourites, is barely mentioned
January 8, 2026
3.5 🌟
Exceptionally well researched, loved the weaving together of archeology, folk tales in connection with the stones and surrounding areas, and the human element of the Authors own journey through grief.
The reason for not quite hitting the 4🌟 mark was that I personally found some parts were a bit of a chore to get through.
Exceptionally well researched, loved the weaving together of archeology, folk tales in connection with the stones and surrounding areas, and the human element of the Authors own journey through grief.
The reason for not quite hitting the 4🌟 mark was that I personally found some parts were a bit of a chore to get through.
January 29, 2026
I enjoyed reading this book and was really able to relate to it, as I have myself been through a similar loss to the one that pervades this book, and dealt with my loss, and the run up to it, in much the same way. I found it to be a comforting experience to read the book and think back to my own memories.
January 4, 2026
Immediately one of the most important books of my lifetime. Britain's stones have changed me in ways I cannot explain, so I am grateful that Robertson explained so completely and beautifully.
Especially Boscawen-un
Especially Boscawen-un
August 14, 2025
A moving fantastic read
December 8, 2025
4.5 🌟🌟
January 31, 2026
3.5 not sure it really did anything for me.
August 26, 2025
An inspirational read that is helping me in my own new life without my partner. Fiona has coped by writing this book on her visits to prehistoric to Iron Age sites in Britain both with and since her husband died- thisis the aspect that has most satisfied me in her prose. The drawings by Philp Harris are superb. I'm a geologist and my own journey to prehistoric and historic stone sites began at school when we went to Roman Wall settlement near Wolverhampton, and then as a student in the 69s visiting the Rollrights, The Uffington White Horse, Stonehenge, Wayland's Smithy and Silbury, and later seeking stones in Northumberland, and then introducing our som to Avebury, Stonehenge and the Roman Wall sites in the north. All wonderful memories and part of my own geoheritage work to show that humans have always had a geological nature. While not a New Ager I can agree that these ancient places and landscapes are so special. I shall read this one again.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews