The relationship of people with hills and mountains has been complex, rich and varied – from awe and wonder to fear and loathing, from spiritual longing to peaceful acceptance.

As he explores our high places, Ian Crofton conjures up those who have been there before: Neolithic axe-makers, mass trespassers, shepherds, quarrymen, botanists, poets and pioneering cragsmen and women among them. At the same time, he is ever attuned to the present moment – a flash of bright moss in a bog, the swoop of an eagle above a skyline, a winter sun sinking into a sea of cloud.

Following an arc from the gentle Downs of southern England to the wild peaks of Scotland’s far north, Upland combines personal experiences with a keen curiosity about the history and nature of mountain landscapes, and the people who once worked and wandered among them. The result is a meditation on the enduring yet ever-changing hills, on the transience of human experience, and on the shifts and twists of time itself.

Locations included:

• Chilterns (following The Ridgeway)
• Malverns
• Snowdon
• Peak District
• Pennines
• Lake District
• Ben Nevis
• The Cuillin, Skye
• Assynt (Suilven)
• Cairngorms

'This is a constantly surprising and fascinating look at not just the mountains but about the people who work, play, live and travel there, through history and in the present day.... this books a was delight throughout'

'Rich in memories and beautifully written, Ian Crofton’s account of a lifetime walking the hills and mountains of Scotland, England and Wales makes for a delightful book'

'A fascinating and lyrical exploration of what the hills mean to those who have lived and worked among them, and to those who walk and climb among them today . . . A beautifully written celebration of a lifelong passion'

'A wonderfully evocative ode to the high places of Great Britain'

'Ian has a well-honed knack of weaving a literary web linking man and the landscape . . . a tome to engross yourself in whether you are an armchair mountaineer or a tough guy reliving past glories.

'this book is written—beautifully—from the stance of a walker and historian'

'Crofton draws on a lifetime of walking and climbing across Britain and takes us on a unique journey through time and the hills'

'beautifully crafted and captivating... Crofton proves to be an insightful and genial guide'

'Skilfully weaves together personal and family stories, prehistory and history, literature, art, geology, nature and more in a glorious mix of everything the hills have to offer. This rich mix of subjects is wonderful... excellent with much to enjoy and to learn' 

'Informative, evocative … a welcome addition to the nature-writing bookshelf'

'Upland draws on a lifetime's hillwalking and climbing, and yet it's so much more than a simple memoir. Mining rich seams of culture and natural history, it ranges far and wide in its exploration of hills as a human experience - mountains not in the abstract, but as places we've lived and worked in, climbed and dreamed about for millennia'

'A delightful and unusual book, both personal and impressively wide-ranging in its scholarship … wonderful … elegiac … a very fine book that will stand the test of time'

Ian Crofton's books exploring the interplay of landscape, nature and history include Walking the Border: A Journey between Scotland and England, rated by both The Guardian and Trail magazine as 'excellent'. His Fringed with Mud and Pearls: An English Island Odyssey was described by the BBC’s Countryfile as 'really engaging', and by Coast magazine as 'a fascinating study about what it means to exist on the fringes'; it was selected by the Telegraph as one of their top twenty travel books of 2021. Upland: A Journey Through Time and the Hills was published in May 2025.