ON THIS HOLY ISLAND

A travel writer explores ancient paths.

The author of The Atlas of Abandoned Places, Smith opens his latest book at Lindisfarne, a small island off north Britain, home to an abbey from the 7th to the 16th century. Its ruins and traditions make it a major tourist attraction, but Smith gives local color no less attention than history, so sea rescues figure prominently because tides flood the island’s causeway twice a day, and walkers and cars regularly require assistance. In 1823 an isolated sea cave on the Wales coast revealed relics and human bones, 34,000 years old, perhaps the oldest found in Britain. Evidence that it was a holy site is minimal, but the author joins a few climbers who have signed on. He walks the Ridgeway, perhaps the oldest trail in Europe, traveled long before Britain was an island. Its greatest extent links the channel to the North Sea and passes many Neolithic sites, terminating near the world’s largest stone circle, Avebury, considered by some superior to Stonehenge. Stonehenge itself is a sad story. By the 1970s, thousands assembled for its Summer Solstice Festival, but in 1985 the local police announced that no further festivals would be allowed. When this had no noticeable effect, the police attacked the crowd violently with beatings and mass arrests. Britain’s most famous path connects London and Canterbury. Geoffrey Chaucer famously described it in The Canterbury Tales, but the centuries have taken their toll. Many churches that welcomed Chaucer’s pilgrims are locked, some permanently, but even those that remain must pay attention to security. As he walks, Smith quotes archeologists and historians, chats with locals, describes New Age and traditional religious figures attracted to sites, sleeps in wet and chilly barrows, cares for his sore feet, and writes well.

An entertaining spiritual stroll across Britain.