Explore the real-world places that appear in H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include Cambridge University, Newnham College, Cambridge, King's College Chapel, The Fens (Cambridgeshire Fenland), Kettering (Frank's House & Landscape) and 10 more.
The Backs, Cambridge — Helen's academic sanctuary
Helen Macdonald, grief-stricken after her father's sudden death, returns to Cambridge as a fellow at Newnham College. The university becomes her refuge—a place of intellectual discipline and order. She walks these grounds obsessively, finding solace in academia while secretly training her goshawk H. The college provides both structure and isolation as she processes her loss through the lens of falconry and T.H. White's writings.
Cambridge University, founded in 1209, is one of the world's oldest and most prestigious universities. The Backs—the stretch of land behind the colleges along the River Cam—has been a defining feature of the university for centuries, offering green space and reflection.
Cambridge University remains one of Britain's leading academic institutions. The Backs are accessible to visitors, with the colleges offering guided tours and the river open for punting. The university's botanical gardens and libraries continue to draw scholars and tourists.
Visit: Cambridge University & The Backs (historic site)
Grange Road — Helen's college residence
Helen is a fellow at Newnham, an all-women's college founded in 1871. She spends much of her time here, in her room, training H and reading voraciously about hawks and falconry. The college provides institutional support but also becomes a place of isolation—her obsessive hawk training marks her as increasingly strange to colleagues and students. Her father's shadow looms over the gardens and corridors.
Newnham College was established in 1871 as one of the first colleges for women at Cambridge. It played a crucial role in advancing women's higher education in Britain and has produced many notable scholars, writers, and scientists.
Newnham College remains one of Cambridge's most prestigious colleges, with approximately 650 students. The grounds are partly open to visitors, and the college occasionally hosts tours. Its Victorian architecture and gardens are well-preserved.
Visit: Newnham College, Cambridge (historic site)
King's Parade, Cambridge — The sublime and the grief
Helen passes King's College Chapel frequently during her time in Cambridge. The magnificent Gothic architecture becomes a symbol of beauty and transcendence—a counterpoint to her internal turmoil over her father's death. She reflects on how T.H. White himself was educated in such institutions, how the pursuit of knowledge and perfection is bound up with suffering and obsession. The chapel represents the intellectual tradition she inhabits.
King's College Chapel, begun in 1446 and completed in 1515, is one of the finest examples of English Perpendicular Gothic architecture. It was built by Kings Henry VI through Henry VIII and features a famous fan-vaulted ceiling. The chapel's stained glass includes works by great Renaissance artists.
King's College Chapel is open to visitors (when not in use for services) and remains one of Cambridge's most visited monuments. The chapel hosts regular choral evensongs and is a working place of worship as well as a major tourist attraction. The interior is stunning and largely unchanged since the Tudor period.
Visit: King's College Chapel (historic site)
East of Cambridge — Hunting grounds and hawk training territory
The flat, waterlogged Fenland east of Cambridge becomes Helen's primary hunting ground with H. She flies the goshawk across the drained, dike-crossed landscape, obsessively pursuing rabbits and pheasants. The fens are both beautiful and desolate—a perfect mirror for Helen's emotional state. The landscape's openness, its long horizons, and its connections to old English falconry traditions make it the ideal setting for her hawk training and her gradual recovery through devotion to the bird.
The Cambridgeshire Fens are one of England's most distinctive landscapes. Once vast wetlands, they were drained beginning in the 17th century by Dutch engineers and English landowners. The drainage transformed the region into highly productive agricultural land but also destroyed unique wetland ecosystems. The flat, geometric landscape of dikes and fields is a human-engineered marvel.
The Fens remain largely agricultural, with drainage channels and dikes defining the landscape. Parts are protected as nature reserves, including the RSPB's Ouse Washes. The landscape is accessible to visitors on foot and by car, offering long views and rich birdlife. Fenland museums document the drainage history.
Visit: Cambridgeshire Fenland (RSPB Ouse Washes & surrounding area) (park)
Northamptonshire — Helen's childhood and family history
Helen grew up in Kettering, Northamptonshire, where her father, a painter and nature lover, shaped her understanding of observation, beauty, and emotional intensity. Though she doesn't extensively describe her childhood home in the book, Kettering and her father's relationship to this Midlands landscape are foundational to her character. After his death, she obsesses over his journals and paintings, trying to understand the man he was.
Kettering is an industrial town in Northamptonshire that became prosperous in the 19th century through boot and shoe manufacturing. The town has a long history, with medieval roots, and was known for its craftspeople and manufacturing traditions. It sits in the East Midlands landscape of rolling hills and countryside.
Kettering is a market town of about 60,000 people, with both industrial heritage and modern development. The town center has been redeveloped, though Victorian and Edwardian buildings remain. It's accessible by rail and road and offers museums documenting its manufacturing history.
Throughout Cambridge — Reflection, observation, and natural life
The River Cam winds through Cambridge and becomes an important landscape in Helen's mourning and observations. She walks along its banks, notes the birds and wildlife, and reflects on observation itself—how to truly see the world, how T.H. White did. The river connects the college grounds to the countryside beyond, representing the continuity of nature and the flow of time that carries grief. Her hawk occasionally hunts along its course.
The River Cam has been central to Cambridge's history for centuries. It powered mills, provided transportation, and shaped the college architecture along its banks. The river has been a source of inspiration for poets, artists, and thinkers since the medieval period. Punting on the Cam became a characteristic Cambridge leisure activity in the 19th century.
The River Cam remains one of Cambridge's defining features. Punting is available from multiple locations; the river is accessible by foot along much of its course. The banks offer green space, wildlife viewing, and connections to the countryside. Conservation efforts protect the river's ecology and appearance.
Visit: River Cam Punting & Walking Paths (park)
Bateman Street — Helen's place of natural observation
Helen frequently visits Cambridge's Botanic Garden, where she observes the careful cultivation of plants and the structured beauty of horticultural design. The garden becomes a place of meditative observation—she notes insects, birds, and the geometry of growth. This mirrors her later observation of hawks and of T.H. White's obsessive cataloguing of the natural world. The garden represents the human attempt to organize and understand nature.
The Cambridge University Botanic Garden was founded in 1846 as a place of scientific research and teaching. It contains collections of plants from across the world, organized by family and geographical origin. The garden has grown from its original site and now covers 40 acres with comprehensive collections of temperate plants.
The Botanic Garden is open to the public year-round and remains an important research institution for Cambridge University. It houses over 8,000 plant taxa and offers visitors a peaceful space for contemplation and education. Guided tours, seasonal displays, and outdoor concerts make it a popular destination.
Visit: Cambridge University Botanic Garden (park)
East of Cambridge — Wild countryside and hunting grounds
Helen ventures into rural Suffolk to train her hawk H, seeking isolated countryside where she can fly the goshawk freely without interruption. The Suffolk landscape—fields, hedgerows, woodland—becomes a stage for her obsessive falconry practice. Here, away from the scrutiny of Cambridge, she pursues her hawk with single-minded devotion, experiencing both the joy and the torment of the training process. The landscape is both beautiful and indifferent to her grief.
Suffolk is an ancient English county in East Anglia with a long history of agriculture, wool production, and regional independence. The landscape of Suffolk—gently rolling, dotted with villages and farms—has changed slowly over centuries. Suffolk has deep roots in English rural tradition and was home to many 15th-century churches and manor houses.
Suffolk remains largely agricultural and rural, with charming market towns like Bury St Edmunds and Lavenham. The countryside is accessible by car and on foot, with rights of way and walking paths throughout. The region attracts visitors interested in English rural heritage, village churches, and countryside tourism.
Visit: Suffolk Countryside (various public footpaths) (park)
Throughout East Anglia — Training and hunting
Throughout the book, Helen trains her goshawk H in various rural locations across East Anglia—fields, woods, and open country where she can fly the bird safely. These sites become sacred ground in her obsessive practice. She describes in minute detail the hawk's behavior, her own emotional responses, and the complex dance of predator and prey. Each location represents a stage in both her training of H and her own psychological healing. The hawk's kills and her own failures mirror her grief.
Falconry has been practiced in England since medieval times, with hawks and falcons integral to both sport and aristocratic culture. The landscape of East Anglia—fields, hedgerows, and woodlands—has long been used for hunting and falconry. The practice declined in the 20th century but has been revived by enthusiasts.
Falconry is legal in the UK under strict regulations. Various falconry clubs and individual practitioners fly hawks in rural areas across East Anglia. Many sites are on private land, though some public areas permit falconry. The British Falconers' Club maintains standards and supports the practice.
Alderney & Literary Sites — Inspiration and obsession
Helen becomes obsessed with T.H. White, the author of 'The Goshawk,' which documents White's own attempt to train a goshawk. She reads and re-reads his work, seeking to understand his psychological state, his obsession, and his relationship to the bird. White's book becomes a mirror for her own experience—she is both reading about his madness and living through her own version of it. White's life on the island of Alderney, his loneliness, and his intensity shape Helen's understanding of obsession and grief.
T.H. White (1906-1964) was a British author best known for 'The Once and Future King,' his Arthurian fantasy. He also wrote 'The Goshawk' (1951), a semi-autobiographical account of training a hawk. White lived on Alderney in the Channel Islands and was known for his reclusive nature, his intensity, and his complex emotional life. He died in Athens in 1964.
T.H. White is remembered primarily through his literary legacy. Alderney remains a quiet Channel Island, accessible by ferry. White's grave is in Athens, Greece. Various literary sites and museums commemorate his work, particularly in Britain and through academic institutions.
Great Russell Street — Research and literary inheritance
Helen makes trips to the British Library to research T.H. White and hawk training manuscripts. The library becomes a place where she pursues her obsession with scholarly rigor, seeking to understand the history of falconry, White's psychological state, and the traditions she is inheriting. The great repository of knowledge becomes both refuge and mirror for her own internal searching.
The British Library, founded in 1753, is one of the world's greatest libraries. It houses over 170 million items, including books, manuscripts, maps, and more. The Reading Room was famously used by scholars from Karl Marx to George Bernard Shaw. The modern building in St Pancras opened in 1998.
The British Library is open to the public, with free exhibitions and a public Reading Room that requires registration. Visitors can view rare manuscripts, historical documents, and exhibitions on British literary heritage. The library building itself is architecturally significant and offers guided tours.
Visit: The British Library (library)
Throughout Britain — Observation and recovery
As Helen's recovery progresses, she increasingly observes peregrine falcons—a different species from her goshawk. She watches peregrines on cliffs and in urban environments, noting how these raptors have recovered from pesticide-driven near-extinction. The peregrines' resilience and adaptation become symbols of recovery and hope. This observation marks a shift from her obsessive training of H toward a more ecological, less emotionally fraught engagement with hawks.
Peregrine falcons were decimated in the 20th century by DDT and other pesticides, which caused eggshell thinning and breeding failure. By the 1960s, they had nearly disappeared from Britain. A recovery program beginning in the 1970s, combined with DDT bans, has successfully restored peregrine populations. They now nest on buildings and cliffs throughout Britain.
Peregrine falcons are now common in Britain, including in urban areas where they nest on tall buildings. Birdwatchers regularly observe them on coastal cliffs and in city centers. The bird has become a symbol of conservation success and is protected under law.
Visit: Various Falcon Viewing Sites (Cliffs & Urban Areas) (park)
North of Cambridge — Empty landscape and obsession
Helen flies H across the flat, drained Fenland near Cambridge, in particular across Flat Fen and similar landscapes. These treeless, open expanses become the stage for her hawk's hunts and her own psychological unraveling and healing. The utter flatness and emptiness of the landscape mirrors both her grief and her growing acceptance. The fen's ancient history as wetland, now drained and cultivated, parallels her own interior transformation.
Flat Fen is part of the Cambridgeshire Fenland, drained in the 17th and 18th centuries through massive engineering projects. The landscape is artificially maintained through a system of dykes and water management. It represents one of England's most significant environmental transformations, converting wetland wilderness into productive agricultural land.
Flat Fen and surrounding fens remain largely agricultural, with managed water levels and dike systems. Parts are nature reserves protecting remaining wetland species. The landscape is accessible by foot and vehicle, offering long views and birdwatching opportunities.
Visit: Fenland Nature Reserves & Walking Routes (park)
East Anglia — Understanding hawks and heritage
Helen's deep dive into falconry lore and history could plausibly lead her to visit falconry museums or sanctuaries in East Anglia, where she learns the traditions and history of hawk training that T.H. White inherited and that she now practices. These sites ground her obsession in a larger cultural and historical context, connecting her individual struggle to centuries of human-hawk relationships.
Falconry is one of the world's oldest sports, dating back to ancient Persia and practiced extensively in medieval Europe. East Anglia has a rich falconry heritage, with many manor houses and estates maintaining the tradition. Falconry museums document this history through artifacts, manuscripts, and displays.
Various falconry centers and hawk sanctuaries operate across East Anglia and the UK, offering education on raptors and the history of falconry. Some, like the International Centre for Birds of Prey near Cirencester, offer public displays and educational programs.
Visit: Falconry Heritage Sites (e.g., International Centre for Birds of Prey) (museum)
Market Hill — Urban life and daily recovery
Helen walks through Cambridge's Market Square, engaging with the ordinary urban life of the university town. The square represents the everyday human world—markets, shops, colleges—that she both inhabits and observes from a distance. As she heals, her engagement with these public spaces becomes less fraught, more present. The square is where grief and ordinary life intersect.
Cambridge Market Square has been the heart of the town since medieval times. The square is surrounded by historic college buildings and has been continuously used as a market and gathering place for centuries. The Guildhall at the square's north end dates to the Victorian era and is a significant landmark.
Market Square remains the vibrant center of Cambridge, with shops, restaurants, and market stalls. The square hosts markets regularly and is a major gathering place for students and tourists. The surrounding architecture is well-preserved, blending medieval, Georgian, and Victorian buildings.
Visit: Cambridge Market Square (landmark)
More by Helen Macdonald: All Helen Macdonald books
Other nearby maps: Patriot Games by Tom Clancy locations map · The Time Machine by H.G. Wells locations map · The Italian Girl by Iris Murdoch locations map · The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman locations map