The Old Straight Track: Its Mounds, Beacons, Moats, Sites and Mark Stones

by Alfred Watkins

Overview

A beautiful new edition of a classic work of landscape history, in which Alfred Watkins introduced the idea of ancient "ley lines" criss-crossing the English countryside

First published in 1925, this book outlined its author's concept of "ley lines," supposed pre-Roman pathways consisting of aligned stone circles, standing stones, and prehistoric mounds, used for trading and ceremonial purposes during the Neolithic era. Based on his surveys of the Anglo-Welsh border country, Alfred Watkins believed that in ancient times the country was crisscrossed by a network of straight-line travel routes, with prominent features of the landscape used as navigation points. Watkins's theories have intrigued and inspired generations of readers, from historians to hill walkers, and from amateur archeologists to new-age occultists. This new edition, with a substantial introduction by Robert Macfarlane, and retaining Watkins's original atmospheric black-and-white photographs, introduces a classic antiquarian text to a 21st-century audience. It will appeal to all who treasure the history, the contours, and the mystery of ancient landscapes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781905315604
Publisher:	Heritage Hunter
Publication date:	09/15/2015
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.06(w) x 7.81(h) x 0.57(d)

About the Author

Alfred Watkins was an amateur archaeologist, who was born in 1855 in Herefordshire, where he lived his entire life. In 1921, he developed his theory of ley-lines in the landscape. Watkins was a member of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, an authority on bee-keeping and a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society. He died in 1935.

Robert Macfarlane is the prize-winning author of The Wild Places (2007) and The Old Roads (2011), Landmarks (2015) and Underland (2019). His writing has been widely adapted for television and radio. He is a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.