The islands of Scotland’s Outer Hebrides boast some of the most remote and spectacular scenery in the world. They also feature an astonishing range of mysterious structures – stone circles, beehive dwellings, holy wells and ‘temples’ from the Celtic and prehistoric eras.

Over a twelve-day journey, Alastair McIntosh returned to the islands of his childhood to explore the meaning of these places. This book is a record of his pilgrimage – 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, McIntosh met with the healing power of the land and its communities. Here he reflects on an extraordinary place and on the people he encountered along the way, and explores a vision of imaginative hope for humankind.

'Full of generosity, spry in its thinking and detailed in its observations' – Stuart Kelly, Scotland on Sunday

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'A remarkable, highly readable yet scholarly book'

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'Fascinating, provocative and, occasionally, very funny'

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'One of the most fascinating books I’ve read for a long while, if maddeningly hard to categorise'

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'Poacher’s Pilgrimage is a book full of generosity, spry in its thinking and detailed in its observations'

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'The language is almost poetic, reflecting the writer’s artistic gifts and his understanding of Celtic and pre-Celtic culture'

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'His honesty is humbling ... he never skirts a question. He is on a mission, and having been Scotland's first professor of human ecology, he seems at times prophetic'

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'If this sounds more serious than a Presbyterian church service, there is great fun to be found in Poacher’s Pilgrimage. McIntosh is an entertaining subversive'

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'Beautifully compacted writing . . .  a fortnight's walk contains a universe'