The Hollow Kingdoms Beneath the Moorlands
Hidden Thrones, Buried Roads and the Secret Empires Sleeping Under Britain’s Wildest Places
By Robin Wickens

Beneath the heather, something is ringing.

Shepherd Edrin Pike considers Thursday a sensible day. A day for repairing fences, complaining about his knees and eating a sandwich. It is certainly no time for ancient bells to begin sounding beneath his sheep.

Unfortunately, the moor has other arrangements.

The Hollow Kingdoms Beneath the Moorlands invites you below the surface of Britain’s wild landscapes, into a world of buried roads, hidden courts and kingdoms that have never quite surrendered their claims upon the land above.

Drawing inspiration from British myths, regional legends and traditions of hollow hills, Robin Wickens blends folklore-inspired fiction with historical imagination. Here, the earth conceals more than forgotten ruins. Beneath peat, stone and tangled roots lie realms with their own laws, ceremonies, music and rulers—and relations with their neighbours above ground are rarely straightforward.

From the Yorkshire moors and Dartmoor to the Scottish Borders and Welsh uplands, the landscape offers unsettling possibilities. A hollow in the hillside. A stairway where no stairway should be. A sound rising through the ground instead of travelling across it. What if the old warnings preserved something more complicated than a fear of the dark?

Rich in atmosphere and threaded with dry British humour, this book explores the enduring fascination of an underground world existing beside our own. Wonder and unease accompany the journey, along with the uncomfortable suspicion that curiosity may be a poor substitute for knowing the way back.

This is imaginative storytelling rooted in folklore, rather than a factual account of hidden civilisations or a guide to underground exploration. Its mysteries belong to the meeting place between inherited belief, wild landscapes and the stories people tell about what they cannot see.

For readers who enjoy British folklore, subterranean fantasy, ancient mysteries and quietly unsettling adventures, The Hollow Kingdoms Beneath the Moorlands offers a journey into the imagined depths of the old country.

Discover this digital book at Rob’s Books—and find out what happens when someone decides that mysterious underground bells deserve investigation.