Add news
News Every Day |

The Living Mountain: why a second world war meditation on nature’s fragility and wonder is still relevant today

Cairngorms national park, Scotland. Nat Nat Nat/Shutterstock

Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain is not a book about conquering peaks or mapping uncharted terrain. It is instead a deeply felt, poetic encounter with the Cairngorms.

This vast mountain range in north-east Scotland has been shaped by ancient glaciers and known for its high plateaus, deep corries and shifting light. These mountains, some of the highest in the UK, are rugged, remote, and often treacherous. Yet, they hold a stark, indifferent beauty.

First written towards the end of the second world war, The Living Mountain remained unpublished in a drawer until 1977, its quiet brilliance only gradually recognised. Now, with publisher Scribner bringing out its first US edition, a new audience will discover this landmark of nature writing.

Shepherd, a Scottish writer, educator, and poet, had an unparalleled relationship with the mountains. The best way to describe it is a word she herself used: feyness. There is a deep, almost mystical sensitivity in the way she moves through the landscape. She does not seek to master it, but to know it intimately – its ice, its rock, its light.

Each chapter of The Living Mountain focuses on an element of this vast range: the plateau, the recesses, the plants, and, most strikingly for me, the water. Her description of Loch Etchachan made me want to go there immediately, but such is the clarity of her prose that I felt as if I already had. Its pristine waters shimmering in the shifting light, the stillness broken only by the wind and the sheer presence of the place evoked so vividly that it felt less like reading and more like remembering.

Shepherd’s writing reminds me of the Scottish poet Norman MacCaig – though where MacCaig wrote often of Assynt in the far north-western corner of Scotland, Shepherd’s domain was the Cairngorms. Both share an awe, a humility and a sense of reverence towards their subject.

There is a poetic tenderness throughout Shepherd’s writing, in the cadence of her sentences, in the careful weight of each word. At around 30,000 words, it is a short book, yet every phrase feels hewn from the page, as enduring as the granite she describes.

A line I return to often is one that Shepherd uses to describe the water at the height of these peaks: “It does nothing, absolutely nothing, but be itself.” This is the essence of Shepherd’s philosophy. The mountains do not exist for our amusement or our conquest. They simply are.

This is a book not about “Munro bagging” – the practice of ticking off Scotland’s 282 mountains over 3,000 feet – but about being with the land, walking it slowly, attentively, over a lifetime.

A fragile land

Yet, The Living Mountain is also a stark reminder of the fragility of that world. Shepherd notes, as early as 1934, that summer snow is disappearing: “Antiquity has gone from our snow.” Was this, unwittingly, one of the earliest literary observations of climate change? Around the same time, British engineer Guy Callendar had begun linking rising global temperatures to CO₂ emissions, though his findings were dismissed. Almost a century on, Shepherd’s words feel prophetic.

For US readers encountering The Living Mountain for the first time, they may wonder what a remote range in the eastern Highlands of Scotland offers them. But these mountains contain, in their own way, the spirit of the Santa Cruz mountains, the Appalachians, the Rockies. In their solitude and permanence, they offer the same humility, the same respect, the same quiet self-reflection that comes with encountering something so vast and indifferent to human life.

With a framing introduction by Robert Macfarlane, a British writer known for his books on landscape and nature, and an afterword by Jenny Odell, an American artist and educator, this edition gives The Living Mountain the platform it deserves. This is not just a book about place - it is a book that is place. It remains as vital as the mountains themselves, urging us to look more closely. To listen more deeply. To move through the world with the same quiet reverence that Shepherd once did.


Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 40,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.


Sam Illingworth does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

News Every Day

How 3 MILLION dogs are being slaughtered ahead of World Cup with executions & poisoned food… but Fifa is doing nothing

Реклама
The most beautiful beach towns with cheap living

A huge number of people around the world dream of one day breaking out of the daily routine

Jared Padalecki Teases 'Supernatural' Reunion With Jensen Ackles & Misha Collins on 'The Boys'

The Spectrum: State of the State; Columbus business leader

How 3 MILLION dogs are being slaughtered ahead of World Cup with executions & poisoned food… but Fifa is doing nothing

Liverpool emerge as frontrunners to sign Chelsea & Newcastle United transfer target

Ria.city
Реклама
  • ИП Попов А.П.
  • ИНН: 602715631406
Ревматолог: "18 марта 2024 в г.Вашингтон запущена квота"

Каждый человек с больными суставами имеет право получить...






Реклама
  • ИП Попов А.П.
  • ИНН: 602715631406
Ревматолог: "18 марта 2024 в г.Вашингтон запущена квота"

Каждый человек с больными суставами имеет право получить...


Реклама
  • ИП Попов А.П.
  • ИНН: 602715631406
Ревматолог: "18 марта 2024 в г.Вашингтон запущена квота"

Каждый человек с больными суставами имеет право получить...

Read also

Emmerdale shock organ stealing plot as Joe Tate finally reveals what’s wrong with him

Vote now: Bay Area News Group boys athlete of the week

Longhorns sweep 1st SEC series, rise in national baseball poll after 17th consecutive win

News, articles, comments, with a minute-by-minute update, now on Today24.pro

News Every Day

Liverpool emerge as frontrunners to sign Chelsea & Newcastle United transfer target

Today24.pro — latest news 24/7. You can add your news instantly now — here


News Every Day

Liverpool emerge as frontrunners to sign Chelsea & Newcastle United transfer target



Sports today


Новости тенниса
Арина Соболенко

"Бегали словно кролики": Андреева и Соболенко прокомментировали итоги финала



Спорт в России и мире
Москва

Женские спортивные сообщества и формирование субкультур



All sports news today





Sports in Russia today

Москва

Кардио-тренировки дома: прыжки - отличное упражнение для всех


Новости России

Game News

92% of Nvidia users turn on DLSS... if they've been lucky enough to bag an RTX 50-series card at launch AND have the Nvidia App installed


Реклама
Top 6 nutrition questions men should ask themselves after 40

To maintain health and remain full of energy, men will be helped by this

Реклама
The most beautiful beach towns with cheap living

A huge number of people around the world dream of one day breaking out of the daily routine

Реклама
Top 6 nutrition questions men should ask themselves after 40

To maintain health and remain full of energy, men will be helped by this

Russian.city

Реклама
Top 6 nutrition questions men should ask themselves after 40

To maintain health and remain full of energy, men will be helped by this


Москва

Служба занятости приглашает жен участников СВО на бесплатные бизнес-тренинги


Губернаторы России
Чемпионат

Ямальские росгвардейцы стали призёрами Чемпионата Уральского округа Росгвардии по дзюдо


Подмосковье примет участие в международной выставке туризма и гостеприимства

это строка мета тайтл - заполненные данные реальные

Искусственный интеллект за два дня решил задачу, над которой ученые работали десять лет

Сборный момент: Дзюба может поставить бомбардирский рекорд в национальной команде


Хиты Linkin Park прозвучат в исполнении Hard Rock Orchestra в Нижнем Новгороде

Светлана Бодрова сняла документальный фильм о жизни Цискаридзе

Концерт Олега Митяева отменили в Пскове

Концерт «Душеполезные песни на каждый день» проходит в Пскове. ФОТО


«Удержаться сложнее!»: Кафельников об успехе Андреевой на турнире серии WTA-1000

Первая ракетка Казахстана улучшил положение в мировом рейтинге ATP

Россиянка Мирра Андреева одержала победу в финале турнира WTA в Индиан-Уэллсе

Даниил Медведев проиграл в полуфинале турнира Masters в Индиан-Уэллсе


Реклама
The most beautiful beach towns with cheap living

A huge number of people around the world dream of one day breaking out of the daily routine


ТСД SAOTRON RT41 GUN: практичный, производительный, надёжный

Как тренироваться для подготовки к марафону

Подмосковные росгвардейцы задержали подозреваемого в мошенничестве на территории магазина

Как избежать травм в тренажерном зале: техника безопасности


В Мордовии сотрудниками Росгвардии за неделю изъяты 27 единиц оружия

Сергей Собянин: С 2011 года в Москве построено 290 производственных объектов

Актер из сериала «Москва. Три вокзала» Виталий Мещеряков умер в возрасте 57 лет

Игорь Денисов: золотая карьера после триумфа в Кубке УЕФА


Первомай под пальмою встречай: куда отправиться на отдых в майские праздники

18 марта в Москве и области ожидается дневное потепление

Самозапрет на кредиты установили 6,2 млн россиян за 2 недели марта

Служба занятости приглашает жен участников СВО на бесплатные бизнес-тренинги


Реклама
Top 6 nutrition questions men should ask themselves after 40

To maintain health and remain full of energy, men will be helped by this


Путин в России и мире
Реклама
Top 6 nutrition questions men should ask themselves after 40

To maintain health and remain full of energy, men will be helped by this



Реклама
The most beautiful beach towns with cheap living

A huge number of people around the world dream of one day breaking out of the daily routine



Реклама
The most beautiful beach towns with cheap living

A huge number of people around the world dream of one day breaking out of the daily routine



Реклама
Top 6 nutrition questions men should ask themselves after 40

To maintain health and remain full of energy, men will be helped by this

Персональные новости Russian.city
Игорь Бутман

«Гости из Кубы и США»: Бутман о «Триумфе джаза» и отмене музыкантов «из-за России»



News Every Day

Liverpool emerge as frontrunners to sign Chelsea & Newcastle United transfer target




Friends of Today24

Музыкальные новости

Персональные новости