The Living Mountain

A Celebration of the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland

Ranked #7 in Landscape, Ranked #11 in Walkingsee more rankings.

In this masterpiece of nature writing, Nan Shepherd describes her journeys into the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland. There she encounters a world that can be breathtakingly beautiful at times and shockingly harsh at others. Her intense, poetic prose explores and records the rocks, rivers, creatures and hidden aspects of this remarkable landscape.

Shepherd spent a lifetime in search of the 'essential nature' of the Cairngorms; her quest led her to write this classic meditation on the magnificence of mountains, and on our imaginative relationship with the wild world around us....
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Reviews and Recommendations

We've comprehensively compiled reviews of The Living Mountain from the world's leading experts.

Robert Macfarlane This book is a geo-philosophical meditation on the Cairngorm landscape in particular, but more generally on how mind and place interpenetrate, as Shepherd puts it. It’s a sensual and, well, erotic text. Shepherd talks about tasting the landscape, and describes walking barefoot, sleeping out. It’s the record of a long-term and full-body immersion in a place. (Source)

Cal Flyn This slim work of nature writing, an account of gentle and repeated interaction with those same mountains in all seasons, requires total immersion. (Source)


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