In Tir – the Welsh word for 'land' – writer and ecologist Carwyn Graves takes us on a tour of seven key elements of the Welsh landscape, such as the ffridd, or mountain pasture, and the rhos, or wild moorland. By diving deep into the history and ecology of each of these landscapes, we discover that Wales, in all its beautiful variety, is at base just as much a human cultural creation as a natural phenomenon: its raw materials evolved alongside the humans that have lived here since the ice receded.
In our modern era of climate concerns and polarised debates on land use, diet and more, it matters that we understand the world we are in and the roads we travelled to get here. By exploring each of these key landscapes and meeting the people who live, work and farm in them, Tir offers hope for a better future; one with stunningly beautiful, richly biodiverse landscapes that are ten times richer in wildlife than they currently are, and still full of humans working the land.
1. Introduction: old mountainous Wales, the bards' paradise
2. Coed
3. Cloddiau
4. Cae
5. Ffridd
6. Mynydd
7. Rhos
8. Perllan
9. Epilogue: adnewyddu/renewal
Carwyn Graves is an author, public speaker, gardener and amateur ecologist from Wales. His previous titles are Apples of Wales and Welsh Food Stories, which was described by Sheila Dillon of BBC Radio 4’s The Food Programme as ‘one of the best food books of 2022’.