This little book is a real gem. It arrived while I was at the Outdoor Trade Show in Liverpool and I've only just found time to look through it properly.The book is about the Cape Wrath Trail, which the author walked in 2021 with two companions, , but it doesn't resemble other accounts of long distance walks. It consists of many photographs and few words, but those words are important as they come from the people David Lintern met along the way, both locals (new and old) and visitors. There are portraits of them alongside their words.
Other photographs show the landscape, both with and without people and human artefacts. This is a beautiful land but also one that is lived in and the images show both, from romantic wild scenery to roads, petrol pumps and buildings. They're all part of the same place.
The images are subtle and understated. These aren't the brash colours of tourist brochures and guidebooks. They are excellent though and repay careful consideration.
In a thoughtful afterword David Lintern gives his view on the trail and and the contradictions between nature and people that he found along the way.
Thunder Road was a small run edition and is now sold out. All proceeds were donated to the refugee efforts currently underway in Ukraine and Afghanistan, via Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC).
I think this is an important book giving a different perspective on the Highlands. It would be good to see it reprinted. In the meantime some of the photos and an essay by David Lintern on the Cape Wrath Trail covering the same themes as the book can be found on The Guardian website - The Cape Wrath trail: walking Scotland’s hidden roads – in pictures.
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