Wyl Menmuir

From the lonely heights of mountains to the womblike depths of caves, stone has always drawn us in. In The Spirit of Stone, Wyl Menmuir explores the many ways in which rock and earth form part of our identities, histories, and futures. Across Britain and Ireland, rock is everywhere beneath our feet, shaping not only our landscapes but also our imaginations and the ways we live together. Moving across these lands, Wyl Menmuir’s essays combine travelogue, social history, and memoir, bringing together interviews, folklore, and personal encounters with the landscapes themselves. From sacred monuments to modern sculpture, this book reveals how stone grounds us, challenges us, and inspires us, such as: Mountains and caves as places of pilgrimage, danger, refuge, and wonder. Ancient pathways andstone circles that leave traces of our ancestors written into the land. Marks and monuments, from Neolithic carvings to contemporary sculpture, art that endures across centuries. Everyday stone, for example the quarries, buildings and raw materials that underpin our daily lives. The Spirit of Stone follows on from The Draw of the Sea and The Heart of the Woods, completing a trilogy of explorations into our relationship with place. Where the first two books took readers to the water’s edge and into the forest, this book journeys into the landscapes of rock, stone and earth, reflecting on how they continue to define us. Resonant with the work of Robert Macfarlane, Kathleen Jamie and Peter Ross, yet strikingly original in its breadth and vision, The Spirit of Stone is a profound meditation on belonging, endurance, and our shared human story written in stone.

Just as a parent leaves a legacy to their child, a tree leaves a legacy to its surroundings. A deep and explorative companion piece to the Roger Deakin Award-winning The Draw of The Sea.Throughout history, trees have determined the tools we use, the boats we build, the stories we tell about the world and ourselves, the songs we sing, and some of our most important rituals. As such, our lives are intertwined with those of the trees and woodlands around us.In this journey deep into the woods, Wyl Menmuir travels the length and breadth of Britain and Ireland to meet the people who plant trees, the ecologists who study them, those who shape beautiful objects and tools from wood, and those who use them to help others.Wyl also explores how our relationship with trees is enduring, now and in the future – what we get out of spending time around trees, the ways in which our relationship with them has changed over time, and the ways in which our future is interconnected with theirs.Written in close collaboration with makers, crafters, bodgers, and woodsmen and women in order to better understand the woods they know so well, the joys and frustrations of working with a living material, and the stories of their craft and skills, The Heart of The Woods will delight anyone who enjoys walking among the trees, and anyone who, when lost, has found themselves in the woods.Chapters include:WOODLAND PLANTER: A woodland in becoming and an ancient yew grove on the border of North Wales and EnglandRITUAL WEAVER: Willow coffin making in CornwallWOODLORE GATHERER: Science among the trees at Wytham Woods, OxfordshireHEARTWOOD CARVER: Among the bodgers in a field outside CambridgeBOAT BUILDER: A woodland community in the heart of Glasgow’s former docklandsLANDSCAPE SHAPER: Re-wilding the Scottish Highlands and an organised trespass in DevonWISH WEARER: The clootie well at Munlochy on The Black Isle, Scottish Highlands, a family tree on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall, and the tree at Sycamore Gap, NorthumbriaFOREST BATHER: Swimming at Swallowship Pool, Devil’s Water, and Letah Woods NorthumberlandMYTH WALKER: Walks in the fictional woods at Wenlock Edge, ShropshireWAY FOLLOWER: Traditional carpentry in Takayama, JapanFIRE LIGHTER: The stories we find among the flames and embers, Ennistymon, Ireland SOUND CREATOR: A pub on Ireland’s west coast and a guitar-builder in North Wales APPLE WAILER: Wassailing in CornwallTREE WORSHIPPER: An ancient yew grove in North Wales