New writing in 2025
Resurgence, Caught by the River, The Great Outdoors
Happy new year to you all.
This year begins with three new articles already published. One is part of the annual Shadows and Reflections as published by Caught by the River each winter. One is a piece I wrote on Inaccessible Ancient Sites and Right to Roam for The Great Outdoors magazine, and the third is a pair of articles for Resurgence Magazine. One for the latest print issue and another available to read online only.
Shadows and Reflections
From beneath a favourite oak tree, Matthew Shaw contemplates a year of garden paths and hospital corridors.
As I follow the path, listening to the song of the robin, my feathered companion that flitters alongside me, the low winter sun is playing hide and seek between the rich orange autumnal leaves and I’m thinking about my journey through this past year, about the paths I have taken…
Stone Free: a quarter of scheduled monuments off-limits in England
When I first became fascinated by ancient sites over 20 years ago, I had no idea it would mean embarking on over two decades of trespass. England has nearly 20,000 so-called ‘scheduled monuments’, which are registered and protected by Historic England. But as an analysis from the Right to Roam campaign recently uncovered, over a quarter of them are off-limits. That means at least 5,500 sites enjoy no formal rights of public access at all…
Celebrating Dartmoor
Matthew Shaw reviews the exhibition which comes at an important time in Dartmoor's history
Dartmoor: A Radical Landscape is a celebration of the moorland, of the standing stones and natural rock formations, the streams and spaces where land and water meet, but also of the people who have lived and made their home on Dartmoor. Through their love of the moor people have fought for it, been inspired by it and celebrated it…
