Where is it?

The Bronze Age cemetery of Clava Cairns. It is situated within an area of farmland about six miles from Inverness, stretching out along a gravel terrace above the River Nairn.

Why do you go there?

As a writer, I’ve always been fascinated by families and generational legacy, specifically the way that all cultures are unified by the handing down of narratives.

The Highlands and Islands are particularly rich in their traditions of oral and sung histories, something they share in common with East and Southeast Asian civilisations. This way of keeping our ancestors alive through stories is something that’s at the very heart of my debut novel Ghost Girl, Banana.

As much as the burial chambers of Clava Cairns remind us of our own impermanence, they are also indisputable proof of how the past can live on and inform, notwithstanding the frailty of human memory.

How often do you go?

I like to visit at least once a year. I’m now lucky enough to live very close by, so I tend to go outside the tourist season, especially since the popularity of Outlander, which tends to bring a lot of traffic during the summer months.

How did you discover it?

Although I was born and raised in London, my partner’s family originates from the Highlands and his homecoming pilgrimages soon became an annual event for us, always with the theoretical intention of moving here permanently someday.

Clava Cairns was one of the first places he took me to, along with the battlefield at Culloden and a walk across Glen Affric, probably in the full knowledge that the incredible landscapes would convert me.

What’s your favourite memory?

For me, memories grow stronger through accumulation. I’ll never forget that first visit to Clava Cairns during the winter solstice, with the twilight emerging through the trees and aligning with the standing stones in a particularly spellbinding way.

But it’s been strengthened by the privilege of now being able to take my son and seeing his reflected wonder.

Who do you take?

I’ve shared the place with friends in the past, but my favourite visits are always with my partner and son.

What do you leave behind?

A feeling of gratitude, both that places of this significance have been preserved and also for all those souls who now share their stories with us. I never fail to be humbled by being there; reminded that we are all just part of a mortal line that links us as a species.

Sum it up in five words.

Atmospheric. Peaceful. Prehistoric. Essential. Affecting.

What other travel spot is on your wish list?

I find great solace in isolated places, especially when I’m in the throes of writing something new, so Jura in the Inner Hebrides, with its volcanic topography and high ratio of deer to people, is definitely next on my list.

Ghost Girl, Banana by Wiz Wharton (Hodder and Stoughton, £14.99) is out on Thursday. The author is doing an In Conversation With Wiz Wharton event at Waterstones Aberdeen on Wednesday (May 18) from 5.30pm