Landlines

Landlines is a memoir by Raynor Winn recounting a thousand-mile journey across Britain, mostly on foot with a section by bicycle, alongside her husband Moth, who has corticobasal degeneration (CBD), a rare, progressive, incurable neurodegenerative disease involving abnormal tau protein accumulation in the brain. The journey was Raynor's desperate gamble that sustained physical exertion might reverse Moth's worsening symptoms, as it did years earlier on the South West Coast Path, a 630-mile coastal trail in southwest England.

The book opens with a prologue set on the Falls of Glomach, one of the highest waterfalls in Britain. Raynor clung to rock on a near-vertical slope while Moth, paralyzed by a new symptom of vertigo, declared he could not continue. Despite his terror, Moth summoned the strength to lead the way up, pulling Raynor over boulders she could not climb alone.

The narrative then shifts to the preceding winter at the couple's home in a Cornish orchard. Raynor woke to find Moth choking, his airways in spasm, and his legs gave way on the landing. He told her the illness had arrived and he could not keep fighting. Years earlier, a doctor had diagnosed Moth with CBD, confirmed by a DAT scan showing his dopamine receptor cells were significantly diminished. The diagnosis arrived the same week they lost their home and became homeless. Rather than rest, they walked 630 miles along the South West Coast Path, and after roughly 200 miles, Moth's health improved against all expectation: His gait normalized, his memory sharpened, and his capabilities returned. But sedentary life brought the symptoms back, and a winter of Covid lockdown accelerated his decline.

Raynor found a guidebook to the Cape Wrath Trail, a route through remote northern Scotland, and placed it by Moth's tea. He rejected the idea, insisting it was too late. But the next day, after walking up the hill with their dog Monty without telling Raynor, he returned with the guidebook back on the table. Their son Tom agreed to care for Monty and the orchard. They packed rucksacks, bought ex-army combat boots, and drove north, stopping with their friends Dave and Julie in Lancashire.

At the far northwest coast, they discovered Cape Wrath was closed for military exercises, so they started from the tiny campsite of Sheigra instead. A rock climber urged them to rename the trail and embrace hope. A rare white-tailed eagle, a species reintroduced from near-extinction, inspired Moth to commit. They set off on what they called the Sheigra Trail.

The trek south through the Highlands proved grueling. Raynor's army boots shredded her feet with blisters on the first day. In Lochinver, Moth nearly quit, but decided they should send the van home, eliminating any option of retreat. They crossed the edge of the Great Wilderness, a remote roadless area in the northwest Highlands, enduring storms that trapped them beside flooded rivers for days. Moth fell face-first on a rocky path, gashing his forehead. Yet moments of beauty broke through: a golden eagle emerging after a storm, a valley transformed into crystal light. Raynor lay awake at night, consumed by guilt, recognizing the walk as a desperate hope.

Gradually, changes appeared. Moth began reading the map correctly, tying his bootlaces faster, and making tea with steadier hands. The Falls of Glomach sequence became a turning point: The man frozen by vertigo found the strength to lead Raynor to safety. They reached the Knoydart peninsula and the village of Inverie, accessible only by foot or boat. At Fort William, where the trail ended, Moth refused to stop. He proposed they also walk the West Highland Way, a 96-mile trail running south to Milngavie near Glasgow.

The West Highland Way proved demanding. Moth collapsed at one point, telling Raynor to leave him, but she refused. They completed the trail at the obelisk in Milngavie, dancing around it with joy. Rather than stop, they cycled canal towpaths to Edinburgh, arriving on the 35th anniversary of their wedding, which Moth had forgotten. They cycled south through the Borders, crossing the tidal causeway to Lindisfarne (Holy Island), before arriving at Kirk Yetholm, where Dave and Julie waited.

Dave and Julie accompanied them through the first stretch of the Pennine Way, which runs along the spine of England from Kirk Yetholm to Edale in the Peak District. After their friends returned to work, Raynor and Moth pressed on alone through rain and extreme heat. Raynor observed degraded peatlands and overgrazed fields, deepening her reflections on Britain's environmental crisis. They crossed Bleaklow and Kinder Scout, the moorlands of their youth where they first formed their bond. At Edale, Moth proposed what Raynor already expected: He wanted to walk home to Cornwall.

The route south had no single trail. They navigated canal towpaths out of Manchester, discovering these waterways served as wildlife corridors amid monoculture farmland. Their old tent, their home during homelessness, was destroyed by a hailstorm, and Raynor grieved its loss. They joined Offa's Dyke Path, following the ancient Welsh-English border south through the Welsh Marches. Raynor noticed Moth's gait had normalized completely and watched in amazement as he made decisions with a clarity impossible months earlier.

After Chepstow, they crossed into southwest England. Moth fell ill for days; he feared a new stage of CBD, but Raynor insisted it was caused by scrambled eggs. Near the River Parrett, Moth whispered that he felt himself slipping and begged Raynor not to let him go. He proposed a low-level route around Dartmoor rather than over it. As they skirted the moor, he articulated a shift: The wilderness was already inside him, and he no longer needed summits to touch it.

They reached Plymouth and ferried across to Cawsand, stepping onto the South West Coast Path. Raynor broke down in tears: They were home on the path that had saved their lives. They walked the final Cornish miles, and on one last headland Raynor lay awake reflecting that these paths, which she calls landlines, connect people to the earth, to the past, and to each other. For Raynor, the word "Sheigra" had come to mean hope. The next morning, they walked into the village of Polruan, into the arms of family and Monty.

In a brief afterword, Raynor and Moth sat in a hospital waiting room for his new DAT scan results. The consultant turned the screen toward them: The new scan showed normal dopamine receptor activity, in direct contrast to the previous abnormal reading. Combined with a recent MRI showing substantial brain mass, the results presented a picture that current science said should not be possible. Raynor, overcome with tears, reflects that neuroplasticity exists and that much remains unknown. In the acknowledgements, set on the coast path, she watches Moth walking with straight, even steps and writes that she is finally coming to understand belief: holding something to be true without proof. She believes the answer lies somewhere in a thousand miles of landlines.