Exploring our emotional and cultural connection to stone circles and standing stones
Stone Lands by Fiona Robertson is a quiet, thoughtful memoir and a personal guide to some of Britain’s most fascinating ancient megaliths. It’s not a textbook, so if you’re looking for dates, measurements, and archaeological theory, this isn’t the book for you. But if you’re curious about our emotional and cultural connection to stone circles and standing stones, and you’re drawn to stories of resilience woven through folklore and lived experience, then Stone Lands is well worth reading.
The book is also beautifully produced. The cover and the illustrations inside are so striking that they’re reason enough to own a physical copy of this book. The artist is the Devon illustrator and printmaker Philip Harris.
The book follows Fiona’s journey through ancient stone sites across Britain during her husband Stephen’s terminal illness. Her love of standing stones began early and continued through family trips. Sunday visits to the Medway megaliths, weekends at Avebury, and holiday games of hide-and-seek around the Breton allées couvertes and Cornish quoits. These places were part of her everyday life, and that didn’t change when Stephen got sick.
Stone Lands is a personal account of grief, but it’s also full of detail, reflection, and insight. Fiona’s response to the stones is deeply human. Many of them stir memories of her time with Stephen, and the book explores how these ancient sites connect us to history, time, and landscape.
She writes, “I believe that standing stones gain great potency from their association with ideas about endurance, survival, the past and memory, and that, if we let them, they will enchant our world with their folklore, mystery and magic.” The book shows how places like West Penwith, Avebury, and Orkney became touchstones for emotional resilience during a time of profound change.
The writing is clear and calm. Fiona doesn’t over-explain or dramatise. Each chapter focuses on a different site, with memories woven through. Her observations are grounded in history but also shaped by her fascination with folklore and myth. There’s a sense of wonder, but it’s never overdone.
The emotional core of the book is strong. Fiona writes about Stephen with honesty and care. Her children appear too, adding warmth. The stones become symbols of endurance. They remain while life shifts around them, and this contrast gives the book its quiet strength.
The settings feel real. You can picture the wind, the rain, the silence, and the laughter of family life. Fiona doesn’t romanticise the places. She shows them as they are, sometimes bleak, sometimes beautiful.
If you’re interested in ancient landscapes, quiet memoirs, or stories of resilience, this book is worth adding to your reading list. It stays close to the ground, and that’s where its strength lies.
Fiona Robertson is a writer, editor and the author of Stone Lands (Robinson, 2025). A committed megalith enthusiast, she has dragged her family over many a boggy moor (OS map in hand) in search of standing stones. She is passionate about archaeology and folklore, and in a former life as a publishing industry professional enjoyed building a list exploring these topics. Follow her stones adventures on Instagram: @stone_lands and read her story of expoloring Britains ancient sites with her family in her post ‘Mapping Memories‘.
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By Hilary Pullen
Meet Hilary, Editor of Get Outside – the Ordnance Survey Blog. Hilary is based in North Wales and loves hiking with her dogs in the mountains of Eryri and Bryniau Clwyd, you can find her on Instagram @nearlyuphill and read her guides to walking in North Wales on her blog. Drop her an email hilary.pullen@os.uk if you are interested in posting an article on Get Outside.
