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Poacher's Pilgrimage: An Island Journey
The islands of the Outer Hebrides are home to some of the most remote and spectacular scenery in the world. They host an astonishing range of mysterious structures – stone circles, beehive dwellings, holy wells and 'temples' from the Celtic era. Over a twelve-day pilgrimage, often in appalling conditions, Alastair McIntosh returns to the islands of his childhood and explores the meaning of these places. Traversing moors and mountains, struggling through torrential rivers, he walks from the most southerly tip of Harris to the northerly Butt of Lewis. The book is a walk through space and time, across a physical landscape and into a spiritual one. As he battled with his own ability to endure some of the toughest terrain in Britain, he met with the healing power of the land and its communities. This is a moving book, a powerful reflection not simply of this extraordinary place and its people met along the way, but of imaginative hope for humankind.
470 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2016
27 people are currently reading
175 people want to read
About the author
Alastair McIntosh
34 books50 followersAlastair McIntosh is an Isle of Lewis-raised writer, broadcaster and campaigning academic best known for his work on land reform on Eigg, in helping to stop the Harris superquarry; also for developing human ecology as an applied academic discipline in Scotland. He holds a degree of BSc in geography, submajoring in psychology and moral philosophy from the University of Aberdeen (1977), an MBA, specialising in finance, from the University of Edinburgh (1981) and a PhD by Published Works on liberation theology and contemporary Scottish land reform from the Academy of Irish Cultural Heritages at the University of Ulster (2008).
His book, "Soil and Soul" (Aurum Press, 2001), has been described as "No Logo in a Fair Isle jumper" by Susan Flockhart of the Sunday Herald, “world-changing” by George Monbiot, "life-changing" by the Bishop of Liverpool, and "truly mental" by musician Thom Yorke of Radiohead. Other books include a poetry collection, “Love and Revolution”, from Luath Pess (2006); “Hell and High Water: Climate Change, Hope and the Human Condition” – published by Birlinn in June 2008 and described by Michael Russell MSP, the Scottish Government’s Minister for the Environment, as “a profoundly important book”; and “Rekindling Community: Connecting People, Environment and Spirituality”, due in October 2008 as a Schumacher Briefing (Green Books) with endorsement and research funding from WWF International.
He has also featured in the Wall Street Journal for knocking a psychological hole in Gallagher's Silk Cut cigarette advertising campaign; served as a consultant to Groupe Credit Mutuel, France’s largest mutual bank, on the meaning of mutuality; sits (unpaid) on the Sustainability Stakeholders Panel of Lafarge, the biggest construction materials company in the world, that he helped to see off from the Harris superquarry; he has lectured on the theology of land reform at the Economics Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences; served as a theological consultant on nonviolence to the World Council of Churches; and every year, for the past decade, has addressed 400 senior military officers on the Advanced Command & Staff Course at the Joint Services Command & Staff College. He is a Fellow of Scotland's Centre for Human Ecology, a Visiting Fellow of the Academy of Irish Cultural Heritages at the University of Ulster, and in 2006 was appointed to an honorary position in Strathclyde University as Scotland’s first Visiting Professor of Human Ecology. He is a regular presenter for Thought for the Day on BBC Radio Scotland and has some 200 items of published work to his name, many of which are available at www.AlastairMcIntosh.com .
Alastair’s work seeks to connect people, place and spirituality into a more full understanding of community. He sees global crises as crises of the human condition requiring evolution that is more cultural than political, economic or technical. Spirituality for him is “that which gives life” and specifically, “life as love made visible.” As a Quaker, he approaches this from both Christian and interfaith perspectives. Walter Wink has described him as, “in my opinion, and apparently in many others, one of the best theologians in Scotland today.” Others consider his views heretical, and in 1996 his teaching post at Edinburgh University was controversially axed in connection with his work challenging corporate and landed power. He lives with his wife, Vérène Nicolas, in the Greater Govan area of Glasgow, where he is a founding director of the GalGael Trust working with local people in hard-pressed circumstances. He and Vérène often undertake events jointly.
His book, "Soil and Soul" (Aurum Press, 2001), has been described as "No Logo in a Fair Isle jumper" by Susan Flockhart of the Sunday Herald, “world-changing” by George Monbiot, "life-changing" by the Bishop of Liverpool, and "truly mental" by musician Thom Yorke of Radiohead. Other books include a poetry collection, “Love and Revolution”, from Luath Pess (2006); “Hell and High Water: Climate Change, Hope and the Human Condition” – published by Birlinn in June 2008 and described by Michael Russell MSP, the Scottish Government’s Minister for the Environment, as “a profoundly important book”; and “Rekindling Community: Connecting People, Environment and Spirituality”, due in October 2008 as a Schumacher Briefing (Green Books) with endorsement and research funding from WWF International.
He has also featured in the Wall Street Journal for knocking a psychological hole in Gallagher's Silk Cut cigarette advertising campaign; served as a consultant to Groupe Credit Mutuel, France’s largest mutual bank, on the meaning of mutuality; sits (unpaid) on the Sustainability Stakeholders Panel of Lafarge, the biggest construction materials company in the world, that he helped to see off from the Harris superquarry; he has lectured on the theology of land reform at the Economics Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences; served as a theological consultant on nonviolence to the World Council of Churches; and every year, for the past decade, has addressed 400 senior military officers on the Advanced Command & Staff Course at the Joint Services Command & Staff College. He is a Fellow of Scotland's Centre for Human Ecology, a Visiting Fellow of the Academy of Irish Cultural Heritages at the University of Ulster, and in 2006 was appointed to an honorary position in Strathclyde University as Scotland’s first Visiting Professor of Human Ecology. He is a regular presenter for Thought for the Day on BBC Radio Scotland and has some 200 items of published work to his name, many of which are available at www.AlastairMcIntosh.com .
Alastair’s work seeks to connect people, place and spirituality into a more full understanding of community. He sees global crises as crises of the human condition requiring evolution that is more cultural than political, economic or technical. Spirituality for him is “that which gives life” and specifically, “life as love made visible.” As a Quaker, he approaches this from both Christian and interfaith perspectives. Walter Wink has described him as, “in my opinion, and apparently in many others, one of the best theologians in Scotland today.” Others consider his views heretical, and in 1996 his teaching post at Edinburgh University was controversially axed in connection with his work challenging corporate and landed power. He lives with his wife, Vérène Nicolas, in the Greater Govan area of Glasgow, where he is a founding director of the GalGael Trust working with local people in hard-pressed circumstances. He and Vérène often undertake events jointly.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
October 2, 2016
Alastair McIntosh seems to distill in these pages the "core" of indigenous knowing and listening. The concept (and way) of Imramma is central here, as a way of remembering our humanity as deeply rooted in place. The book maps a quest, and the authors pilgrimage across his native land is a profound act of questioning in and of itself, a kind of opening, and by the end of the book one is left with layered reflections and a sense of treading a path that goes both "back" and "forwards" at once. Indeed, Mr. McIntosh seems to be showing us how to escape (if not just for a moment) into the timelessness of the collective soul. It is difficult to describe exactly what happens in these pages, other than perhaps a kind of healing through remembrance. There is great wisdom in these pages, and yet it is the kind of wisdom that asks us to embark on our own Imramma, our own journey into what makes us fully human, and what roots our spirits into our earthly lives and places of habitation.
April 8, 2019
Alastair McIntosh has written a beautiful, inspirational and soul-searching book, the result of an adventurous twelve day trek across the Isles of Harris and Lewis in the Outer Hebrides where the author grew up. The Outer Hebrides are famous for their neolithic standing stones, sacred sites, ruined chapels and other archaeological remains, often shrouded in mystery but offering plenty of scope for the historical and religious imagination.
These are the outworks and spiritual interiors that McIntosh visits as he takes us on a rollicking tour of these remote islands where scenic beauty and economic hardship go hand in hand, and where the people are still in touch, despite their ingrained Presbyterianism, with the pre-Christian 'Otherworld' and its stories of faery enchantment. McIntosh refuses to dismiss these stories as mere childish toys, preferring to see them as examples of a "traditional cosmology" that "questions the very structures of space and time, exploring consciousness and meaning in the deeper realms of life within the soul", and he shows how such historically remote cultures with their varying world views can open a path to reflection on some of the most urgent problems facing the world today.
Poacher's Pilgrimage is essentially a work of resistance, espousing a non-violent activism that also speaks of healing, love and forgiveness. Faced with the unspeakable crimes of our rulers and those with power, we need a different spirit - an 'uprising of kindness'. What this involves may be summed up in a single phrase - 'Spiritual Activism', the title of another remarkable book by McIntosh, written in collaboration with his friend, the climate activist, Matt Carmichael.
Spiritual activism is concerned above all with community. Community here means community in its wholeness, reaching into the memories and meanings of the past. So as well as the archaeological sites, McIntosh visits an interesting array of native islanders, people whose tribal memory goes back to the battle of Culloden, the highland clearances, the industrial revolution and the two world wars, the weight of a history "that breaks the heart".
As a spiritual activist and healer, McIntosh is concerned with reconnecting people and communities with the life-giving wells of their mythical, spiritual and religious antecedents, the 'holy wells' now overgrown with mosses and bracken, the importance of clearing which to reveal the pure life-giving waters beneath cannot be overstated. These are the metaphors and symbols that give us identity, refreshment and strength. Without a spiritual basis to our activism, he advises, we are in grave danger of burn-out. He should know. He not only led a movement to drive the laird off the isle of Eigg, and helped to set up a community trust in his place, but succeeded in saving a mountain from the depredations of the largest roadstone corporation in the world! Spiritual activism evidently works!
Poacher's Pilgrimage is an amusing book, in places downright funny. This is an author who can laugh at himself and is not afraid to expose his vulnerabilities. His larger than life personality shapes his prose style - rumbustious, thoughtful, inventive, poetic - and companionable. What's more, he is an excellent raconteur. This is what makes Poacher's Pilgrimage perfect reading for a commute or holiday. It deals with serious issues but is one of those books which make it quite impossible to hold back the occasional capricious jolt of laughter. Be prepared for some strange looks from your fellow passengers!
These are the outworks and spiritual interiors that McIntosh visits as he takes us on a rollicking tour of these remote islands where scenic beauty and economic hardship go hand in hand, and where the people are still in touch, despite their ingrained Presbyterianism, with the pre-Christian 'Otherworld' and its stories of faery enchantment. McIntosh refuses to dismiss these stories as mere childish toys, preferring to see them as examples of a "traditional cosmology" that "questions the very structures of space and time, exploring consciousness and meaning in the deeper realms of life within the soul", and he shows how such historically remote cultures with their varying world views can open a path to reflection on some of the most urgent problems facing the world today.
Poacher's Pilgrimage is essentially a work of resistance, espousing a non-violent activism that also speaks of healing, love and forgiveness. Faced with the unspeakable crimes of our rulers and those with power, we need a different spirit - an 'uprising of kindness'. What this involves may be summed up in a single phrase - 'Spiritual Activism', the title of another remarkable book by McIntosh, written in collaboration with his friend, the climate activist, Matt Carmichael.
Spiritual activism is concerned above all with community. Community here means community in its wholeness, reaching into the memories and meanings of the past. So as well as the archaeological sites, McIntosh visits an interesting array of native islanders, people whose tribal memory goes back to the battle of Culloden, the highland clearances, the industrial revolution and the two world wars, the weight of a history "that breaks the heart".
As a spiritual activist and healer, McIntosh is concerned with reconnecting people and communities with the life-giving wells of their mythical, spiritual and religious antecedents, the 'holy wells' now overgrown with mosses and bracken, the importance of clearing which to reveal the pure life-giving waters beneath cannot be overstated. These are the metaphors and symbols that give us identity, refreshment and strength. Without a spiritual basis to our activism, he advises, we are in grave danger of burn-out. He should know. He not only led a movement to drive the laird off the isle of Eigg, and helped to set up a community trust in his place, but succeeded in saving a mountain from the depredations of the largest roadstone corporation in the world! Spiritual activism evidently works!
Poacher's Pilgrimage is an amusing book, in places downright funny. This is an author who can laugh at himself and is not afraid to expose his vulnerabilities. His larger than life personality shapes his prose style - rumbustious, thoughtful, inventive, poetic - and companionable. What's more, he is an excellent raconteur. This is what makes Poacher's Pilgrimage perfect reading for a commute or holiday. It deals with serious issues but is one of those books which make it quite impossible to hold back the occasional capricious jolt of laughter. Be prepared for some strange looks from your fellow passengers!
April 17, 2017
This is a book that is profoundly about place - McIntosh really knows how to evoke the spirit of Lewis and Harris, and the book feels embedded in the islands' culture. But as it develops it becomes much deeper, and richer. He weaves in discussions on theology and island spirituality, war and God, community and "life and love made manifest. The whole spiritual... shebang!"
I absolutely loved McIntosh's ability to embed all of this deep, profound thinking into an account of a twelve day walk across the Hebrides. What comes through is a worldview (and a God-view) that struck a resonant chord with me. I loved following his trains of thought, and will continue to do so.
I absolutely loved McIntosh's ability to embed all of this deep, profound thinking into an account of a twelve day walk across the Hebrides. What comes through is a worldview (and a God-view) that struck a resonant chord with me. I loved following his trains of thought, and will continue to do so.
March 26, 2019
A difficult book to describe. It started slow and at first wasn't quite what I expected, but slowly it grew on me an resonated with my sustainability, regenerative, walking, outdoors views. At its core it is a travelogue around walk from Southern tip of Harris to the Butt of Lewis at the Northern end, but it is profoundly a book about exploring Place.
Along the way Alastair explores pacifism, Quakerism calvinism, hidden wells, history, military coaching and above all the importance and power of Place. But of particular interest was the recounting of the Lafarge quarry fiasco on the Harris and his involvement with them to support their own sustainability journey.
Along the way Alastair explores pacifism, Quakerism calvinism, hidden wells, history, military coaching and above all the importance and power of Place. But of particular interest was the recounting of the Lafarge quarry fiasco on the Harris and his involvement with them to support their own sustainability journey.
March 14, 2025
A lovely pilgrimage, a san-terre-ing on the island of Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides, and the soul.
A walk up the island takes Alistair McIntosh on an exploration of the spirit of place, the faerie past, Celtic Christianity and Presbyterianism, visiting thin places, ruins of dwellings, temples and wells.
It's also a wander through the themes of pacificism, land and ecology that are so important to him. It's an interweaving that is sometimes hard to keep track of, with all its threads and connections, but you relax into it, and it's wonderful and profound.
The thing about books like this is they foster, if you let them, a different way of seeing. Having finished reading one sunny early Autumn Saturday morning in New Zealand (a world apart from Scotland but not a world apart in soul), I took myself off for a swim, the water cold and sparkling, smooth and velvety, glistening and off-the-chain lovely.
A walk up the island takes Alistair McIntosh on an exploration of the spirit of place, the faerie past, Celtic Christianity and Presbyterianism, visiting thin places, ruins of dwellings, temples and wells.
It's also a wander through the themes of pacificism, land and ecology that are so important to him. It's an interweaving that is sometimes hard to keep track of, with all its threads and connections, but you relax into it, and it's wonderful and profound.
The thing about books like this is they foster, if you let them, a different way of seeing. Having finished reading one sunny early Autumn Saturday morning in New Zealand (a world apart from Scotland but not a world apart in soul), I took myself off for a swim, the water cold and sparkling, smooth and velvety, glistening and off-the-chain lovely.
April 24, 2022
I read about a third of the book. Some of it was interesting but when it ambled in to discussion of different interpretations of Christianity and its beliefs, it totally lost my interest. It felt like that was another book to write. I know that the title of the book should have been a red flag in that respect, but still; a record of a walk through an island, with its culture and history, is too removed from theological debate to be presented in the same book. I took it back to the charity shop the following day.
March 29, 2019
Possibly the most middle class thing I've ever read. Just really didn't like the tone and came across a little bit pompous at times. Lots of good info and like Alastair's work and ideals, but just really couldn't get in to the book.
January 24, 2021
Glimpse of Harris and Lewis areas of the Outer Hebrides are aided by using Google maps to enhance an understanding of the landscape. Discursive and personal memoir of a 12 day walk in 2009 across this island mass. The history of place is interesting , the personal history of the author less so.
October 1, 2018
A travelogue of a walk from Rodel in the Southern tip of the Island of Harris to the Butt of Lewis at the Northern end. The author goes off the beaten tracks and footpaths across some very inhospitable but beautiful country. Along with the description of the journey there are several passages dealing with various topics associated with the Outer Hebrides including a large amount of spiritual or religious reflection. The author somehow manages to record the trip in such a way that you believe you are travelling with him and encountering the various obstacles and weather at the same time as him. It is a very engaging and fascinating book and gives a wealth of detail and history about the islands of Lewis and Harris.
October 9, 2021
A powerful exploration of a sense of place. McIntosh returns to the Outer Hebrides of his youth, and undertakes a 12 day walk - a pilgrimage - from Harris to the Butt of Lewis. Not a place I know, but which I'd now like to explore, for its harshness, its Celtic roots, its community deeply rooted in its landscape and traditions. The book is part travelogue, part exploration of the island's religious past, part exploration of ideas round war and pacifism. It's a bit of a slow burn, but ultimately rewarding as an exploration both of a place, and one man's mind.
July 6, 2024
A lovely read about a Hebridean native’s twelve day ‘pilgrimage’ walk around his childhood home. Some really interesting sections about Gaelic spirituality and local history, especially the ancient wells and tiny chapels.
August 22, 2019
Beautifully written. Lots of tangents into history or his own pondering, much like what happens when you are hiking! A bit slow at times, but overall a rich read.
September 16, 2022
High expectations but in my opinion not really a travel story. A bit too much contemplation about religious and philosophical matters. Not my cup of tea. I did not finish the book.
March 11, 2017
The book is Alastairs pilgrimage to Harris & Lewis, the place of his childhood. He spends two weeks in 2009 walking the length of the island. It sounds simple, but it isn't. He rediscovers and brings to life the ancient beliefs, the sidhe and more. He finds wells long lost and discusses peace, war, quarries the changes in life even in the Hebrides.
Parts of the book are deeply moving, others are whistful evocations of times lost and deeds good and bad done. The book interweaves the story of his pilgrimage and his musings on other topics. It feels effortless, but I suppose the lag between the walk and publication suggest anything other!
I met Alastair breifly at Solas festival in Perthshire in 2016. I missed his session, but spotted the book and picked it up, he saw me reading accross a room and came and chatted and signed it. A generous gesture and an awareness of what's around that comes though in his book. A book to enjoy, be challenged by and to re-read I think.
Parts of the book are deeply moving, others are whistful evocations of times lost and deeds good and bad done. The book interweaves the story of his pilgrimage and his musings on other topics. It feels effortless, but I suppose the lag between the walk and publication suggest anything other!
I met Alastair breifly at Solas festival in Perthshire in 2016. I missed his session, but spotted the book and picked it up, he saw me reading accross a room and came and chatted and signed it. A generous gesture and an awareness of what's around that comes though in his book. A book to enjoy, be challenged by and to re-read I think.
November 21, 2020
Ooh...! I love this book.
It´s an outer Pilgrimage through the lands of Harris and Lewis, and an inner Pilgrimage through the history and language and beliefs of the people that the author encounters, and also through the author´s own heart and mind, his own history and beliefs too.
It goes to both the beautiful, and some very dark places through the course of the book. Like the geology below McIntosh´s feet, there are so many different layers to this book that it would benefit from multiple re-readings.
A wonderful wee book, absolutely wonderful.
It´s an outer Pilgrimage through the lands of Harris and Lewis, and an inner Pilgrimage through the history and language and beliefs of the people that the author encounters, and also through the author´s own heart and mind, his own history and beliefs too.
It goes to both the beautiful, and some very dark places through the course of the book. Like the geology below McIntosh´s feet, there are so many different layers to this book that it would benefit from multiple re-readings.
A wonderful wee book, absolutely wonderful.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews