Author: robinacrawford

Robin Crawford is an author and illustrator, with a particular interest in the culture and natural heritage of Scotland. His first book, ‘Into the Peatlands: A Journey Through the Moorland Year’, was published in 2018 and longlisted for the Highland Book Prize. ‘Cauld Blasts and Clishmaclavers’ (2020) is a treasury of Scottish Words. His third book ‘The Sound of Many Waters, A Jjourney along the River Tay’ is published in June 2023 by Birlinn. He lives in Auchtermuchty, in Fife.

Six mile tailback on Rannoch Moor

January 26, 2018 robinacrawfordLeave a comment

Skiers heading for Glencoe and the Nevis Range last Saturday created a six mile tailback across the desolate Rannoch Moor, one of Scotland’s largest blanket bogs. FE7BE323-3E58-462F-810C-33BCAA6F8BBA picture copyright Alastair Burgess/ Sunday Post 21st Jan 2018

“…And nought but peat reek i’ my head, How can I write what ye can read?”- Burns, ‘Epistle to Hugh Parker’

January 25, 2018January 28, 2018 robinacrawfordLeave a comment

“…Wi’ a’ this care and a’ this grief,
And sma’, sma’ prospect of relief,
And nought but peat reek i’ my head,
How can I write what ye can read?
Tarbolton, twenty-fourth o’ June,
Ye’ll find me in a better tune;
But till we meet and weet our whistle,
Tak this excuse for nae epistle.”

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homage to Robert Smithson’s ‘Spiral Mangrove Swamp’ 1971.

January 24, 2018January 27, 2018 robinacrawfordLeave a comment

homage to Robert Smithson’s ‘Spiral Mangrove Swamp’ 1971. Peat containing within itself ancient trees is formed on the half land/half water of Scottish moors from millennia of tiny decaying sphagnum mosses. In this work they replace Smithson’s water loving mangrove trees. It has the feel of a beaded necklace, an archaeological find dug out of the peat on display in a museum or the rings of a bronze age hill fort in the landscape.