The Dark Stuff: Stories from the Peatlands

by Donald S. Murray

Donald S. Murray spent much of his childhood either playing or working on the moor, chasing sheep across empty acres and cutting and gathering peat for fuel.

The Dark Stuff is an examination of how this landscape affected him and others. Donald explores his early life on the Isle of Lewis together with the experiences of those who lived near moors much further afield, from the Highlands and Islands of Scotland to the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland and even Australia. Examining this environment in all its roles and guises, Donald reflects on the ways that for centuries humans have represented the moor in literature, art and folktale, and he reveals how in some countries, these habitats remain an essential aspect of their industrial heritage and working life today.

On his journey, Donald confronts the unexpected – how Europe's peatlands are part of the dark heart of that continent, playing a crucial role in the history of crime and punishment in several countries. He also examines our current perception of moorland, asking how – for the sake, perhaps, of our planet's survival – we can learn to love a landscape we have all too often in our history denigrated, feared and despised.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Nature, Natural History

270 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 12, 2018

About the author

Donald S. Murray was born in Ness in the Isle of Lewis and taught on Benbecula. An author and journalist, his poetry, prose and verse has been shortlisted for both the Saltire Award and Callum Macdonald Memorial Award. Published widely, his work has also appeared in a number of national anthologies and on BBC Radio 4 and Radio Scotland. He lives and works in Shetland.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Normally the first thing that comes to mind when I think of the Dark Stuff is Guinness. What Murray thinks of though, is peat. This decomposed vegetable matter is formed on acidic and very wet ground, but when dried can then become fuel and is the strong scent in the delightful Islay whiskies. He had grown up with them in Scotland all around him and even fell in a few. But these moorlands that make up swathes of our uplands in our country and Ireland also exist in Europe and all around the world.

These moorlands have affected and influenced people for hundreds of years. Not only have they provided the fuel to heat and cook with, but they have been a focal point for ritual and darker matters in the past as well as inspiration for stories, art, poetry and folk tales. Murray takes us on a path through his own personal history of moors when growing up on the Isle of Lewis as well as peering into the murk to discover the cultural history and investigates the science and the crucial role they play in our climate. The challenge of keeping these fragile environments going and meeting the balance of economic needs of the local populations  is a difficult one given just how much carbon they are capable of storing

The book does weave around, just like the path that you would take through a bog, but it doesn't lessen the impact of what Murray does here in telling us of his love for these places. There are fine illustrations from Douglas Robertson and a smattering of his own poems throughout the book which nicely adjusts the pace. Overall a fascinating book of a part of the landscape that is often overlooked.

[Mandy Haggith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating exploration of north European communities' relationship with peat.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something betwixt a cultural history of moorlands in Northern Europe, a paean to peat, and a clarion call for the preservation of boglands. The writing is lovely. The organization is meandering, like a walk through a bog in the fog. I’ll read anything on moorland. It is my native terrain; but I wish this had had more meat on its bones. Murray shows himself an able historian and travel writer. I think a more thorough and global cultural history of moorlands was possible here.

[Colin Bisset · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a surprisingly satisfying read, a beautifully paced and considered meditation as it takes you around the world, even to Australia, to consider peat and moorland. How that sustains a whole book without getting boring might seem something of a miracle but good writing will do that. Maybe it helped that I have only recently been to the Outer Hebrides and so I could easily picture the places he referenced, including beautiful Ness. But there is so much more to this than the romance of the landscape, from the horrible suppression by the English of the lives of so many Scots to the ridding of gay men in the squelchiest bogs in the 18th century. I shall never look at peat in the same way again.