Holloways are natural trenches dragged into the earth.
Way back in the day, before we all sold ourselves to social media and started covering the earth with cars, people actually walked when they needed to go somewhere. Holloways are natural roads carved into the earth by the passage of time. For thousands of years, humans have walked through these holloways, so even though they may not know it, they are treading on ground where ancient humans used to walk. The name ‘holloway’ comes from the phrase ‘hola weg’, in Old English, which means sunken road. Most of them date back to ancient Roman times or the Iron Age, and some even stretch back to Mesopotamia, which you may remember from the elementary school history class you probably failed. Regardless, the most recent ones are over 300 years old.
Anyway, Robert Macfarlane published a book recently called Holloway, where he delves into the various holloways, many of which were used for shelter in wars, and have seen countless deaths.
READ MORE: A Nature-Carved Elephant Rock in the Atlantic
So basically, holloways are so interesting because they are frozen in time, and have existed for centuries. So if you are looking for the road often traveled, and find yourself across the pond, you should probably check them out. Your Instagram will thank you later.
