The Hill in the Dark Grove: a tender and haunting story steeped in Welsh folklore and laced with unsettling horror

'Eerie. Dangerous. I loved it' - Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground 'Evocative, tender, terrifying . . . Superb' - Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Mercies 'Powerful, inventive and gripping to the very end' - Ian McGuire, author of The North Water 'A hypnotic tale of twisted folklore that won’t let go' - Scott Preston, author of The Borrowed Hills

Exquisitely written and impossible to put down, The Hill in the Dark Grove is a haunting and sinister story steeped in Welsh folklore. Moving and chilling in equal measure, it is a story about a lost way of life and the terrifying lengths we go to to protect what we know.

Carwyn and Rhian – the last in a long line of sheep farmers – are living out a brutal year on their hillside farm, deep in the mountains of Eryri, North Wales.

When Carwyn discovers a buried prehistoric ruin in one of the fields on their land, his curiosity quickly descends into obsession. His wife, Rhian, meanwhile, is confronted with the growing realization that the man with whom she shares her life and home is becoming a frightening stranger.

As the harsh winter closes in, Rhian finds herself alone with her increasingly peculiar husband, and the mountains, and the looming megalithic stones.

'Vibrates with unease' - Anthony Shapland, author of A Room Above a Shop

© 2026 Picador (Audiobook): 9781035069460

Release date

Audiobook: 8 January 2026