In a thermally assisted magnetic recording method, tunneling current is applied from a tunneling current wiring arranged on a magnetic recording head configured to fly above a magnetic recording medium having a bit pattern formed of recording bits separated from one another by an insulator to a desired recording bit of the magnetic recording medium, so that the recording bit is heated and thus coercivity of the recording bit is reduced. Then, an alternating magnetic field corresponding to information to be recorded is applied from the magnetic recording head to the heated recording bit, so that the information can be recorded in the magnetic recording medium.