Pilgrim Routes of the British Isles E-Book

Emma J Wells

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 473

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

This book leads the modern traveller along seven medieval pilgrim routes of Britain (those with historic origins, rather than modern constructs), taking in world-famous sites such as Canterbury and Lindisfarne in addition to out-of-the-way locations along paths not so widely travelled. Each route guides pilgrims on a journey of discovery. Illustrated throughout with photographs and colour maps, and written by a renowned expert on pilgrimage, Pilgrim Routes of the British Isles provides clear maps and informative commentary on the history of the most significant landscapes, shrines, art and architecture. Although it offers some fresh walking ideas, primary consideration is given to understanding the history, significance and practices surrounding the pilgrim routes and sites of Britain, helping you to follow in the footsteps of our forebears and gain invaluable insights into their medieval world. It will be of great interest to walkers and historians alike. Illustrated with 80 colour photos and 12 maps.

Leseprobe

PILGRIM ROUTES

of the

BRITISH ISLES

EMMA J. WELLS

ROBERT HALE

First published in 2016 by

Robert Hale, an imprint of

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

www.halebooks.com

This e-book first published in 2016

© Emma J. Wells 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 0 71982 049 9

The right of Emma J. Wells to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Preface

Timeline of Architectural Styles and Periods

Introduction: A History of Pilgrimage

CHAPTER ONE

St Andrew’s Way

CHAPTER TWO

St Cuthbert’s Way

CHAPTER THREE

The North Wales Pilgrim’s Way (Holywell to Bardsey Island)

CHAPTER FOUR

Our Lady of Caversham Pilgrimage Walk

CHAPTER FIVE

The Pilgrims’ Way (beginning as St Swithun’s Way)

CHAPTER SIX

The Saints’ Way, or Forth An Syns

CHAPTER SEVEN

The Pilgrims’ Trail (Hampshire to Normandy)

Postscript

Further Reading

Cartographic Information for Routes

Appendix: Travel Information for Overseas Routes

Index

Acknowledgements

Many people have helped to shape this book – whether through their time or knowledge – into what it has become, and I would like to express my gratitude to each and every one. Above all, I am indebted to Jim Brightman for his endless generosity and hard work in creating the map illustrations that structure the entirety of the routes and complement them most beautifully. Without his creativity, imagination and kindness, the end result would not be a patch on what it is. Also, to Alexander Stilwell of Robert Hale, for initally suggesting to me that I write the book, and for his encouragement, patience and help along the ‘Way(s)’.

Although writing this book has been an extremely enjoyable and rewarding experience, several acts of bad luck have led to some of the greatest acts of kindness. My sincere thanks to ‘Caractacus Potts’ (Steve Dunn) for going out of his way to help capture some of the fantastic images of Our Lady of Caversham Way and the Pilgrims’ Trail; to Louise Hampson of the University of York (and the Centre for Christianity and Culture) who helped in sourcing the best images possible; to Matt Champion for lamenting my cause and helping in any way he could; to Dr Martin Locker for kindly allowing me a copy of his thought-provoking manuscript prior to its publication and for the use of his images; to David Ross of Britain Express (www.britainexpress.com) whose stunningly magnificent images are featured throughout this book; to Oliver Howes, creator of the informative and beautifully illustrated website www.oliverscornwall.com, for his fantastic images of the Cornish sites; to Martin Crampin for his images of the Welsh sites; and to all other individuals who kindly allowed me to use their images. To you all, I am forever indebted!

This book could not have been written without a great many people, and to them I am truly appreciative. To my friends, family and colleagues – thank you, simply for your support.

Any remaining inconsistencies and errors are thus my own, but every effort has been made to verify facts, where possible. So, too, is the judgement about which of Britain’s many, many pilgrimage routes to include. Some of my own, and no doubt many readers’ favourites, had to be relegated – but this is the nature of such a vast and interesting subject.

Emma Wells

Yorkshire, March 2014

To my parents, grandparents and to all thosewho have aided the journey(s) along the way.

Preface

Give me my scallop-shell of quiet,

My staff of faith to walk upon,

My scrip of joy, immortal diet,

My bottle of salvation,

My gown of glory, hope’s true gage;

And thus I’ll take my pilgrimage.

from The Passionate Man’s Pilgrimage

by Sir Walter Raleigh, c.1603

Wandering the many gigantic cathedrals, quaint parish churches and ancient landscapes of Britain has been a lengthy pastime of mine, no doubt a result of growing up in the heart of North Yorkshire surrounded by the many religious institutions that our modern faith was built upon. Many stand as ruins, empty reminders of an era of religious life so grand yet so ephemeral; decaying fragments in the landscape silencing the familiarity of the past. Yet they once housed what can be argued as the main pillar of the religion of our past: the relics and tombs of the saints. And to them virtually every level of society journeyed. This was known as pilgrimage.

While the majority of the shrines that once housed the saints are now gone, forever lost to history, many of the routes leading to them still survive and have resonance with pilgrims and tourists to this very day. But their authenticity as historical routes is very much in question and may be more attributed to popular folklore than fact. Several are believed to be ancient prehistoric trackways and therefore long pre-date their inception or the medieval era when pilgrimage was at its height in this country. Rather, modern-day pilgrims are most often invited to follow byways which pass through outstanding landscapes or by tourism hotspots, rather than the trails followed by pilgrims past.

Nevertheless, it is the links with the histories of the walks that still resonate with people, and the connections with such a plethora of human travel over the course of such a long period of time, however trivial, undoubtedly act as primary catalysts in drawing so many to come and walk them year upon year, from all over the world. And it is these extricable links with the past that this book aims to uncover: the ingrained memories that still survive in both the landscapes and the architecture encountered. It is somewhat of a reappraisal of the paths and their accompanying sites, delving further into their histories whilst allowing the reader to connect with and experience their own journey through a renewed understanding of all aspects that such journeys comprise.

As Robert Macfarlane wrote: ‘For paths run through people as surely as they run through places’. And, thus, let’s take our pilgrimage…

Timeline of Architectural Styles and Periods

Paleolithic/Mesolithic/Neolithic: c.70,000–2500BC

Bronze Age: 2500–800BC

Iron Age: c.800BC–43CE

Roman Era: 43–410CE

Anglo-Saxon era: 410CE–1066

Viking: 8th–11th century

Norman: 11th/12th century

Medieval: 1066–1485

Gothic: 12th–16th century

Early English: c.1180–c.1250

Decorated: 13th–14th century

Perpendicular: 1320s–early 16th century

Tudor: 1485–1603

Renaissance: c. 1450–1550

Henrician: 1509–1547

Elizabethan: 1558–1603

Stuart: 1603–1714

Jacobean: 1603–1625 (but largely until mid-17th century)

Commonwealth: 1640–1660

Restoration: 1649–c.1680

William and Mary: 1689–1702

Queen Anne: 1702–1714

Georgian: 1714–1810

Baroque: c.1660–1720

Palladian/Neo-Classical: c.1715–1830s

Rococo: 1730–1780

Regency: 1811–1830

Victorian (includes Baroque/Gothic): 1837–1901

Arts and Crafts/Art Nouveau/Art Deco: 1880–1940

Edwardian: 1901–c.1914

Introduction: A History of Pilgrimage

Open a book and you’re a pilgrim at the gates of a new city.

Hebrew proverb

Throughout contemporary and medieval literature, the concept of ‘pilgrimage’ is thought to have acquired different meanings for different cultures, eras, levels of society and even religions. Accordingly, a precise definition of the term has often eluded scholars but, in essence, historical pilgrimage involved any journey undertaken for a specifically religious purpose and which involved an overnight stay at a pilgrimage centre, particularly the latter. Canon law defined it as a mandatory journey imposed as penance for wrongdoing, or a voluntary act which involved a preliminary vow – and both had to be undertaken in the appropriate manner, that is, carrying the pilgrim insignia of scrip and staff. Derived from the Latin peregrinatio, or wandering/travelling around, pilgrimage journeys thus usually have a specific underlying religious intention. On the other hand, the Middle English Dictionary attributes a wide range of meanings to the term ‘pilgrim’, from the Latin word peregrinus (per, through, and ager, field, country, land), including: a traveller to a holy place; a wayfarer; an alien/foreigner/stranger/sojourner/exile for the Christian faith; or man or soul as an alien, especially one whose home/destination is heaven.

Map showing location of all seven routes in Britain. JIM BRIGHTMAN

The zenith of pilgrimage to these blessed sites in Britain was from the mid to late Middle Ages. The acquisition of relics was vital to the income of a church, and it was believed that the possession of saintly relics increased a church’s spiritual authenticity. Parish churches, monasteries and cathedrals all vied for pilgrims’ custom with sacred relics or, failing that, a locally associated saint was very much an in-demand entity. People would travel far and wide just to get a glimpse of the shining beacons of their faith: the shrines of saints, due to their promises of hope and the ridding of sins. And in addition to an historical form of tourism – a sort of ‘been there, done that’ – it is this penitential hope, the quest for penance of one’s sins, that motivated most and forced some to direct others to go on their behalf both in life and, making suitable provision in their wills, also after death.

Many faiths still believe in pilgrimage as an act of penance or spiritual cleansing. Yet, although there is penitential motivation in subjecting the body to the rigours of the journey to rid oneself of past sin, Christianity required pilgrims to endeavour upon such journeys as a form of insurance in order to gain indulgences that would release them from time spent in Purgatory. It was, it could be argued, the desire to obtain indulgences that populated the idea of pilgrimages. Controlled by the medieval Western Church, indulgences were used to encourage visits to shrine sites, and ultimately led to the idea of ‘buying salvation’. Both popes and bishops granted indulgences, perhaps equally for the intentions of the pilgrim’s soul and for the prosperity of the shrine or associated site.

The rituals of venerating saints and following paths ‘in their footsteps’ is by no means a new phenomenon and rather has been practised for thousands upon thousands of years. And while pilgrimage was ubiquitous in the Anglo-Saxon and medieval periods in Britain, pilgrimage is still, to this day, a powerful and resonant act of worship. Many of the most visited and revered of these medieval shrines have faced a modern revival, with pilgrims creating their own paths to them loosely based on the ancient routes of the past. While some are attempting to evoke the experience of the Middle Ages, others are keen to uncover these routes and sites, some from a purely anthropological perspective, and some simply out of mere curiosity for our history and landscape.

The concept of physical travel to a sacred place for varying kinds of religious belief is not exclusive to Christianity. Journeying in search of enlightenment, salvation or hope was, and still is, a common practice of virtually every culture and faith. The majority have adopted an idea of pilgrimage, and for many it is, or has been, an important aspect of religious life. In Britain, pilgrimage began even before there were Christians! Prehistoric trackways are a ‘lore unto themselves’ and have shown the way to our ancestors for millennia. The chalky trails of the English Downs, for example, can still be traced and are still walked upon, continuing their existence as subtle landmarks, chains across our landscapes, ingrained with the mysticism of the past as they have been for so long. Muslims have also travelled to Mecca and Jews to Jerusalem: where even, as a boy, Jesus travelled with his family for the High Holy Days. In the 2,000 years since his crucifixion, Christians have been eager to follow in his footsteps.

The archetypal pilgrimage for Christians is to the Holy Land or simply Jerusalem, and it is this journeying to the places where Christ lived and died that began such tourism for faith. Since the second and third centuries CE, evidence survives of pilgrims’ desires to discover and learn about the biblical lands, and of their visiting both the holy sites associated with them and the Christians who lived there. However, it was the early fourth century that marked a major shift in Christian attitudes. When Emperor Constantine was converted to Christianity in 313CE, he brought with his new faith the concepts of sacred places and buildings derived from Roman and Greek pagan religion. This led to the construction of churches on the site of the ‘rediscovered’ tomb of Christ, on the Mount of Olives and in Bethlehem, which therefore became focuses for the Christian ‘Holy Land’. With them, a new sacred geography was born, enabling spiritual tourism through journeying.

At a similar time, particularly from the fourth century onwards, places were beginning to be viewed as inherently holy if they featured an association with the Trinity, or with a person whose closeness to God had given them a comparable holiness (either through martyrdom or the leading of an exemplary Christian life). The development of these saintly cults was crucial to the growth of place-orientated pilgrimage. The actual presence of the saint, through their existing relics or body, or their association with a particular place in life or death, drew pilgrims and helped to establish a new sacred geography across the whole of Christendom, as relics were transferred from one place to another and new local saints emerged. In essence, anywhere or anything that had been in contact with a saint or his shrine was instilled with a sacred quantity.

Unfortunately, it was this absence of any rational criteria for assessing the authenticity of relics that ultimately led to Reformation consternation towards them, as several churches laid claim to the same relic (a common occurrence) while others were accused of fraudulently substituting saintly bones for those of animals – think the Pardoner in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Prologue to the Canterbury Tales (c.1385–1400), who we are told is carrying among his relics a jar full of pig bones, and that with them, he is able to cheat a poor parson out of two months’ salary! The rapid expansion of pilgrimage seen in the fifteenth century largely encouraged these frauds and sat at the heart of the criticisms put forth throughout the sixteenth-century English Reformation and Break with Rome.

During the centuries when the Holy Lands were inaccessible or too dangerous to visit, many Christians sought out reproduction pilgrimage practices such as walking labyrinths in the grounds of cathedrals, journeying to European sites, or simply visiting shrines closer to home. The primary pilgrimage site in Europe was St Peter’s in Rome, the home of the earthly remains of the Apostle Peter. The second most visited contained the remains of the Apostle James at Santiago de Compostela in Spain, and it was his emblem of the scallop shell that became the universal attribute of the pilgrim. During the journey, this symbol played an important role in signifying that the wearer was a pilgrim, and granted them special protection. After their pilgrimage had been completed, the badges (which were often collected at each station or shrine site) became emblems of their faith and devotion, a relic of their transformation as well as proof of their journey – many would often be thrown in wells or hidden within the home in the hope of continuing their thaumaturgical powers.

England’s most famous site began as St Cuthbert’s shrine at Durham Cathedral (Cuthbert died on Lindisfarne in 687AD) but, following the martyrdom of Archbishop Thomas Becket in 1170 on the order of Henry II within the confines of Canterbury Cathedral, Durham was then eclipsed as thousands flocked to the city that housed the tomb and later the embellished shrine of the murdered holy man. The popularity of the site, which drew tens of thousands every year, was immortalized by Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the story of twenty-nine erstwhile pilgrims ostensibly seeking healing and transformation.

Evidence suggests that many journeys were actually very short (a few days, like Chaucer’s pilgrims took), and so long-haul pilgrimages were seen as the exception rather than the rule. However, many think of pilgrimage as involving tortuous and arduous journeys lasting months on end in all weathers and often crossing oceans. This stereotype has originated from both modern and medieval literature. But, in fact, it was not the most common form of pilgrim journey, even in the medieval period. The majority were simply taken to a local saint’s shrine, which may even have been within the city walls in which one lived. This is the reason for the differences between the routes featured within this book – they are diverse, just like the journeys taken by the historical pilgrims themselves. In addition, the majority of pilgrims did not go on many pilgrimages during their lifetime; some may have journeyed to a site only once, whilst cult churches often restricted the days on which pilgrims could visit. These were often the major feast days.

Pilgrimage was still considered pilgrimage so long as the concepts of self-abnegation and abandonment of everyday life or familiar ties were present, even in small form. Any durational length could earn a pilgrim penance or an indulgence, and for any purpose ranging from cures to hopes for better harvests or even simply to have a day out! In general, most pilgrims did not seek to make pilgrimages in expectation of miracles, but for more everyday eases and cures in a world without medicine.

And what happened when they reached their destinations? Upon entering into the sacred environ of a pilgrimage church today, for example, I am often struck by how little of the medieval elements of the shrine and its sacred locale the modern-day visitor encounters. This book attempts, as far as is possible, to understand and reconstruct just what the pilgrims of the past were exposed to, and how this differs from our experiences in the modern world.

Pilgrimages Today

There is little difference between the reasons why people set out on pilgrimages today and why they did so in the past. Yet, the dividing line between tourists and pilgrims is becoming increasingly blurred: tourists return with souvenirs, while pilgrims return with blessings. Victor and Edith Turner claimed that ‘a tourist is half a pilgrim, if a pilgrim is half a tourist’. Both in the medieval past and in the present day, it can be argued that some tourists utilize religious traditions and sites for multiple purposes, not simply ascetic practices. In the modern world religious belief is not at the forefront of pilgrim travel, and many who journey to Walsingham, Canterbury or Durham, for example, desire to sightsee and appreciate the historical locale, or even to participate in the religious customs/ceremonies, whether this be as part of a spiritual mission or simply as recreational entertainment. Above all, in terms of pilgrimage, experience is often the overarching and underlying yearning.

But is there really a difference: is a pilgrim badge from Canterbury Cathedral still not considered a souvenir? Is the encouragement of all pilgrims travelling the St Andrew’s Way to display the official ‘badge’ and Way Card of the route not embedded with the same principle of displaying one’s status during a pilgrimage?

Furthermore, the idea of undertaking liminal activity – ‘time out’ from ordinary life – is just as relevant, if not more so today than it was in the medieval period. Today’s pilgrims, who trudge across often arduous landscapes in their desire to reach a sacred end, are following in the footsteps of their pilgrim ancestors, who also journeyed in the hope of a miracle. Thus, the identity of the modern pilgrim may be defined in broader terms than that of the medieval pilgrim who piously journeyed towards the shrine of a saint, and yet the term ‘modern’ has been applied to any pilgrimage that is post-medieval or post-Reformation, which is broad enough to account for the kind of pilgrim seen today.

Pilgrimage walks are marching their way back and enjoying an extraordinary revival across Britain. A 2012 Guardian article by Robert MacFarlane noted that ‘More and more people are setting out on pilgrimages, for religious, cultural or personal reasons’, while Jane Alexander of The Telegraph concurred: ‘While figures for churchgoing continue to fall across Europe, the number of those making pilgrimages is steadily rising. Many people uncomfortable about sitting in pews and uneasy with institutionalised religion find it easier to walk rather than talk their faith.’

Essentially, the ‘walk of faith’ is an increasingly fashionable approach to modern religion. While many churches of the Christian world remain rather empty, pilgrims from all walks of life are flocking to pilgrimage sites, seeking something beyond what they are receiving in their mother institutions. Walking both national and ancient trails is becoming a favourite pastime of not only the frequent hiker but also of those simply interested in discovering the hidden gems and tales of our countryside. And it appears this is a growing international phenomenon. In 1985, 2,491 people received the certificate of completion to Santiago de Compostela, Spain, known as la autentica. Since it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it has seen a staggering rise in visitor numbers, with more than 270,000 in 2010. A quarter of a million pilgrims also now converge each year on the north Norfolk village of Walsingham, site of the eleventh-century shrine of the Virgin Mary and self-branded ‘England’s Nazareth’.

But how much is really known of these well-trodden paths, and how have they survived in our memory? Saints and their associated sites of pilgrimage are a staple of Britain’s historical past – some of which are as much as, or more than, a thousand years old – and have helped shape the country’s natural and architectural landscape. Today, the systems of trails and roads carved by these spiritual pilgrims are now being revived as some of the most popular routes in the country. Many argue they were born as the toll-road system developed. A 1663 Act of Parliament was the first legislation to allow Justices of the Peace to levy tolls on roads in order to contribute to their upkeep. To avoid paying fees to use the toll roads, many travellers reverted to using ancient trackways whilst also following the old trade routes which, over time, became accepted ways for travellers and pilgrims alike. They also tended to follow byways, as many highways were unoccupied and may therefore have been unsafe in some areas, while others graced uncultivated land so they could pass without trespassing on tilled land.

This led to side routes and hidden tracks over time becoming repeatedly used and thus ingrained within the landscape. Furthermore, in bad weather, well-trodden paths may have suffered surface damage, making them difficult to walk or ride on. Think how different the journey medieval pilgrims would have faced when travelling to the Feast of St Thomas at Canterbury on 29 December in comparison to those travelling to his Feast of Translation on 7 July! It is likely that the former sought out the well-worn tracks, which meant their journeys were as quick, passable and secure as could be. It is possible to trace pilgrim routes and related sites from the Middle Ages onwards in this way, by noting which monasteries, churches and chapels offered hospitality and opportunities for worship along these routes, and by identifying the holy wells and sites that pilgrims would have bypassed en route to their final sacred destinations.

Modern-day wayfarers are now following in their footsteps, eager to learn more about the treasure troves of shrines, standing stones, chapels, churches and holy wells that connect these routes, and which combine to form some of the most extraordinary landscapes the country has to offer, all of which beg for inspection and reflection.

The subject of pilgrimage routes and the association between the physical act and the places encountered along the way has generally been overlooked, yet pilgrims often visited a number of shrines or interesting/sacred sites en route to the principle shrine. The role of such sites has often been sidelined in favour of individual, prominent centres of pilgrimage, ritual settings, shrine monuments and, above all, the journey itself, perhaps due to the exciting prospect of reconstructing such past historical practices and experiences. This is easy to understand considering that our modern methods of travel consist largely of planes, trains and automobiles, all of which were out of bounds to the bygone pilgrim – and rightly so, as enduring the journey was an inherent part of the process. However, while the route may have been taken at a much slower pace, modern-day pilgrims also travel them (although perhaps using different modes of transport) in the hope of moving past and towards many significant architectural sites. And it is encounters with such structures and buildings found along the way which have been largely neglected.

What we tend to forget is that these monuments and structures represent the key points of these spiritual journeys, and are therefore fundamental parts of the overall pilgrimage. They are as much a site, an event and a sign in themselves. Moreover, at least one of them forms the climatic event of the pilgrimage itself. They are not simply stop-offs as one moves across these historical landscapes, but rather cumulatively form the settings for intense experiences. In fact, visits to the smaller sites along the approach to the major destination were often thought to increase the devotional power of a cult: they were rewards of the endurance encountered throughout; the appetizers and motivators for the pilgrim to reach his/her goal along the way towards the object of devotion, such as the shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham or the site of St Thomas Becket’s martyrdom at Canterbury. Their importance cannot be overlooked.

How to ‘Read’ this Book

This book is the first study of several of Britain’s most important and richly evocative pilgrimage routes in one single publication. It is intended to give the reader a foundational understanding and informative experience of the history, significance and practices surrounding these sacred paths and sites. It will feature detailed studies of the historical formation and development of the routes themselves, as well as analyse the complex religious and secular landscapes of the sites, monuments and buildings found along them. The origins of the routes will also be explored in contrast to the paths of the modern courses many now follow, and which have been altered for myriad reasons since their historical inception. The ultimate aim is therefore to unite the isolated features of pilgrimage in the spiritual, historical and physical sense.

Having emphasized that the focus of this book is Britain (in the modern sense of the word) or, more precisely, England, Scotland and Wales, and with a concentration on Christian sites which largely proliferated or were established in the medieval period, a few caveats must be highlighted. It is not possible to recover every detail of each pathway that past pilgrims walked upon. Holy places were often identified simply through the belief of the pilgrim, and only over time did some sites become institutionalized through increasing devotion or repeated visits. Linked to this, many sites may have arisen out of the propagation of miracle accounts that were localized rather than known of nationally. Moreover, modern historic and archaeological evidence often sits in direct confliction with historical pilgrim routes, as they were predominantly travelled via following long-lost scripture, word of mouth or other geographical practices. Certain relics may also have been hidden along the paths to protect them from mass devotion or simply theft and, accordingly, such sites are forever lost to history. In fact, a significant majority of these routes are based on those sites that, for whatever reason, generated some sort of demand for pilgrimage and contained associative sites along the way.

Also, we cannot be sure that a route followed in the fourteenth century had not been entirely changed by the fifteenth, and some of these routes have actually only become popular with modern-day pilgrims through recent research that has established links between them and their saints. But the key to experiencing these routes is to understand them, even from a modern perspective. The only context we have to connect with the past is our own experience, and it is this idea that embodies many of the pilgrims walking in the footsteps of their forebears today.

Thus, this book is a clear and concise step-by-step guide combined with a definitive study of the pilgrimage routes and landscapes of Britain for pilgrims, hikers, or simply the interested historian or prospective traveller. It is organized geographically, leading the reader from the north to the south of the British Isles, to uncover the ecclesiastical and secular art, architecture, historical narratives and terrains encountered along the ways. Each chapter focuses on one of seven different pilgrimage routes of significant historical origins, and which culminate at the shrine site of a notable (largely Anglo-Saxon/medieval) saint. The routes included are:

• St Andrew’s Way

• St Cuthbert’s Way

• The North Wales Pilgrim’s Way (Holywell to Bardsey Island)

• Our Lady of Caversham Pilgrimage Walk

• The Pilgrims’ Way (beginning as St Swithun’s Way)

• The Saints’ Way, or Forth an Syns

• The Pilgrims’ Trail (Hampshire to Normandy)

The book is designed to be a companion both to the voyager of these routes and to the visitor of past pilgrim sites. Detailed maps are provided for each chapter based on the modern courses, which identify all major sites of historical significance, as well as those of additional interest, as many modern-day routes have deviated from their original paths for numerous reasons including, as noted, tourism, the growth of towns/cities, and modern transport means.

Each chapter therefore discusses each significant site encountered on the journey in a geographical manner. Visits to the supplementary sites may be undertaken as part of the journey by making separate detours along the way; however, overall, the chapters are structured so that the most interesting sites may be followed in the order they appear in the landscape. Accordingly, to follow these routes, modern pilgrims should use the illustrated maps for reference as the chapters do not provide detailed instructions of every twist, turn and path to be taken. Focus is on the sites themselves, with short prefaces to how they are reached. Some chapters provide more details of the main route than others (for example, the North Wales Pilgrim’s Way), simply because, in some places, the journey stretches across open countryside with few connecting points of reference; other chapters simply move from site to site as so many are encountered along the route.

The organization of the book itself also follows a journey of its own: it is structured geographically (approximately) based on the locations of the routes, starting in the north (Scotland) and ending, with Chapter Seven, at the very southerly point of England. This was the primary principle in deciding which routes to include and those not to. The geographical diversity of England, Scotland and Wales had to be covered, but this decision was also made by the locations of the shrine sites themselves, many of which were housed in the most notable towns and cities of the Middle Ages. Today, some of the routes have been significantly altered from their medieval beginnings in order to accommodate modern-day tourism, as many towns and villages vie for a place along such routes in the hope of economic prosperity on the back of pilgrimage promotion. Perhaps this is no different to the mentions of Rochester or Deptford in the Canterbury Tales, which no doubt saw a great many more visitors following its publication. Ireland was not included simply because pilgrimage there is distinctive in itself, and would have required a further publication of its own. In addition, the pilgrimage experiences formed throughout England, Scotland and Wales are generally linked, or include associations, with some notable cults stretching the borders of at least two countries.

Yet any attempt to focus on the historical pilgrim routes of Britain has to leave out some that many readers may consider especially notable – but there is reason in the choice, and the following explains the criteria by which the routes made it into this book. The first principle was that each had to culminate in a shrine of some historic significance. While not every pilgrimage site has been preserved, so many great shrine sites and associated structures and monuments do survive, many of which are sited off the beaten track or simply in ruinous states, and so for abundant reasons are not as celebrated as Canterbury, Lourdes, Santiago or Walsingham. And yet their histories are just as fascinating. I therefore wanted to take the reader on a journey of the undiscovered sites encountered along the routes, and the histories that likely would be lost without this guide.

Some of the sites featured are therefore simply ruins or earthworks, but they are evocative, important sites that should not be overlooked, such as the Cornish site of Tywardreath Priory, which was dissolved and demolished in 1540, with many of its stones reputedly used to build Angers Abbey in France. It was for this particular reason that I chose not to include one of the most popular pilgrim attractions in England, which culminates the 67-mile (108km) ‘Walsingham Way’: the route from Ely Cathedral to the Slipper Chapel, where the shrine and relics of the Virgin were housed in the small Norfolk village of Little Walsingham.1 For the benefit of the reader, however, a brief summary and history of the route is provided.

The Way begins at the site of the original shrine of St Etheldreda within Ely Cathedral (which features great evidence of Reformation destruction, if nothing else), passes by the ruins of Castle Acre Priory, the first Cluniac monastery in England, and culminates at the village of Little Walsingham, located halfway between the city of Norwich and the town of King’s Lynn. In 1061 the widow of the lord of the manor of Walsingham Parva, Richeldis de Faverches, had a vision of the Virgin Mary. Mary took Richeldis in spirit to Nazareth to show her the place where the Angel Gabriel had appeared to her. Richeldis was told to take note of the measurements of the Holy House and build a copy of it in Walsingham. Her son, Geoffrey de Faverches then left instructions in his will for a priory to be built around the Holy House, which was undertaken by the Augustinians in the mid-twelfth century.

In addition, the Slipper Chapel, located about a mile south of Walsingham in Houghton St Giles, is the primary Catholic shrine at Walsingham. It was built around 1340 as the last pilgrim chapel before the village, and is the only surviving station of many that once marked the pilgrimage route. Its unusual name derives from the pilgrims who would remove their shoes here to walk barefoot the rest of the way to Walsingham. The church was restored and reconsecrated by the Roman Catholic Church in 1938 and became the Catholic National Shrine of Our Lady. Then, the first building encountered upon entering the village of Little Walsingham was the Franciscan Friary, established by Elizabeth de Burgh, Countess of Clare, in 1347.

By the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Walsingham and Canterbury were the two premier places of pilgrimage in England. Suppressed at the Reformation, the Walsingham shrine was revived in 1921 by Friar Patten, the vicar of Walsingham, who reignited the medieval pilgrimage among Anglicans. He commissioned a new statue of Our Lady of Walsingham, based on the image shown on the medieval seal of the priory. The statue was placed inside a replica of the Holy House (thus resembling the original shrine) within Little Walsingham’s parish church in 1922, and the first organized Anglican pilgrimage took place in 1923. Its crypt contains the Holy Well, which was discovered during the construction of the church and is believed to have healing properties.

The shrine site of Our Lady of Walsingham actually consists of several shrines and chapels of various denominations that are scattered around the village, including the Roman Catholic Church of the Annunciation (aka New Parish Church), dedicated in 2007; the Shirehall Museum, which includes an exhibit on the history of the pilgrimage to Walsingham; the Parish Church of St Mary, where the modern statue was originally placed; and the ruins of the Franciscan friary. Also, in 1938, the Roman Catholic Chapel of the Holy Spirit was added adjacent to the National Shrine of Our Lady to provide more room for pilgrims. The small chapel contains votive candles and a fine modern mosaic by Anna Wyner called ‘Descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost – Our Lady in the Midst of the Apostles’ (1988). Finally, 1982 saw the completion of the Chapel of Our Lady of Reconciliation to replace an open-air altar.

There is an abundance of literature written on this particular site of pilgrimage, largely as it is the most salient English site visited by pilgrims from across the globe to this day – around 250,000 pilgrims each year, as individuals or as parish groups accompanied by their priest. However, the route between Ely and Walsingham is a rather new creation and, in fact, much scholarship has discovered that the majority of medieval pilgrims made their way to the shrine from their own doorstep – there was no single prescribed route. As many of the associated chapels and sites in the area were largely eradicated during the Dissolution, it was felt that the other routes chosen provided much more to see in visual and spiritual terms, which fitted with the objective of this book.

Other routes to Walsingham included those from London via Waltham Abbey, Newmarket, Brandon, Swaffham, Castle Acre Priory and East Barsham; from the north, pilgrims crossed the Wash near Long Sutton and came through King’s Lynn (then called Bishop’s Lynn), Flitcham, Rudham and Coxford; and from the east the route ran through Norwich and Attlebridge. In addition, many of the relics and shrine sites were created in the twentieth century and so, in part, are more ‘modern attractions’. Add that to the fact that very few interesting historical sites for the purposes of a pilgrim route are encountered along the Walsingham Way, I felt that others were more worthy of inclusion.

Thus, not all sites included in this publication are simply ‘buildings’. Pilgrim stations or sites can be divided into categories, including tomb and shrine sites (for example, monasteries or churches serving as the final destination); holy wells and springs; chapels and parish churches visited along the way and/or attributed to the hagiography (or stories) of a saint; topographies; and finally, monuments and stones. The latter are often places that no longer contain any remnants of the saint but are still considered sacred. In fact, some sites are considered sacred simply due to their popularity and the inherent spirituality the particular site has afforded pilgrims over the years. They may not necessarily have any deep or meaningful association with the life or death of a saint, but their notoriety has built up simply due to the regularity of pilgrim visitations. In essence, places ‘gather’ meaning through human interactions with sites. It is therefore worth retaining the question throughout: what makes a place holy?

In tandem, parts of the routes are simply beautiful landscapes. While I am an avid purveyor of things to see at historic sites, there are occasional entries where little remains associated with the cult, yet they simply embody or evoke a striking feeling and therefore form an inherent part of the overall experience of the journey. For example, many of the sites along St Cuthbert’s Way are associated with the saint because his body was hidden at the locations during the Viking raids of 875CE – even Lindisfarne Priory is empty of any relics as Cuthbert’s body was taken to Durham Cathedral. But this, in some respects, provides us with a more valuable experience, as including only the ‘best bits’ would feel somewhat contrived and sterile. I hope that you feel instead a sense of truly walking in the footsteps of bygone pilgrims, equally experiencing the exciting and mundane aspects of such journeys.

A further principle for the decision of which routes to include was the associated cult itself. The attempt was to feature routes with fascinating tales about interesting saints, and sites associated with the accounts of their lives and deaths. Indeed, the journeys that human beings undertake leave tracks, and the destinations they seek out are inscribed by the cultures that visitors bring with them. But this is also where problems lie, because many of the modern-day routes with apparent historical origins are in fact what David Brown has termed ‘genuine fakes’. What many actually offer is a sequence of carefully constructed sites and spectacles that provide both factual and manufactured encounters with the cult. The majority of these trails have been created in the modern day to showcase the best aspects of the countryside that Britain has to offer, rather than being formed or derived from historic connections to the landscape. A multitude of other attractions are given equal standing alongside the landscape and genuinely medieval cult sites.

Such pilgrim stations (or stops) may be better termed ‘sights and attractions’, because while many are fundamentally connected with the saint in some way, genuine sites may be bypassed in favour of ones closer to the route’s trail (important sites that deviate too far from the main route or are difficult to access are often overlooked in favour of those that are closer) or because they are largely unknown, or possess little history. Returning to St Cuthbert’s Way, Melrose Abbey is a significant station along the modern route and yet the monastery Cuthbert entered as a novice monastic in 651AD was in fact Old Melrose or ‘Mailros’, and not Melrose where the beautiful twelfth-century ruined Cistercian abbey stands today.

Perhaps the main reason for this is that many of these routes were created by the tourism industry in the twentieth century, effectively borrowing from the original stories. St Cuthbert’s Way was created in 1995 by Roger Smith and Ron Shaw (who worked for the Scottish Borders tourist board) in the hope that after 1,300 years, the new route would become a modern pilgrimage in Cuthbert’s memory. By comparison, the trail known as The Pilgrim’s Way between Holywell and St David’s in Wales, was not even recorded until John Ogilby mapped it in 1675. Whereas the latter may not be described as a particularly ‘modern’ invention, it is certainly not a comparatively historical route.

This book will use modern guidebooks for reference, but many types of source material have been used in the research. Contemporary primary sources for pilgrimage are minimal, although a handful of early pilgrim journals and guidebooks are extant, such as The Book of Pilgrims published in 1486 and Domenico Laffi’s seventeenth-century diary of his pilgrimage from Bologna to Santiago, as well as royal inventories that provide candid evidence of the routes that monarchs took and the places they visited. The abundance of evidence has derived from the architecture encountered along them – the churches, monasteries, monuments, shrines, wells, chapels, stones, crosses – and the ever-expanding literature about them, which provides a wealth of information. In some cases, cartographic evidence and place-name studies also complement the architectural records, and so routes can be pinpointed by analysing where sites are situated in relation to old roads and pathways.

It will act as an informative guide to some of the most notable, as well as the less familiar, pilgrim routes of Great Britain, providing somewhat of a journey of discovery with a practical commentary on the shrines, architecture and art encountered, in addition to observations on the wider secular landscape and history of the pathways.

It will seek to include the most notably associated cult sites, even if they are off the beaten trails or largely unknown to modern-day walkers. In addition, within each route, both the selected starting point for the pilgrimage – typically a site confirmed in the historical record as linked to the pilgrim destination, or a settlement of some significance within the local area and thus well connected to the route network – and the culminating site of the journey, the saint’s shrine site, remain constant stops.

However, it is not a clear substitute for a comprehensive guidebook to each and every monument and/or site across the ages and so, at the end, I have provided full cartographic details and links to further information on tracing the routes.

Through a diverse mix of subjects, it is hoped that this book will force you to think more deeply about the history of these sites, and therefore show you how to subsume yourself within the palimpsest of layers that each holds. It will act as your acquaintance as you take every step and look upon every ancient monument or historical landscape through the eyes of pilgrims past. My ultimate hope for this book is therefore that by walking in their footsteps, you may dispel L. P. Hartley’s claim that ‘the past is a foreign country’ – but the modern pilgrim must devise his own path to discover it.

1 There is also a further route from King’s Lynn to Walsingham – see John Merrill’s 2003 guide in Further Reading. For the main Ely route, see the Long Distance Walkers Association (LDWA) for full details: https://www.ldwa.org.uk/ldp/members/show_path.php?path_name=Walsingham+Way+-+Ely+to+Walsingham, and John Merrill’s 2003 guide, again in the Further Reading section.

CHAPTER ONE

St Andrew’s Way

This Scottish pilgrimage commemorating the patron saint of Scotland, and the town in which his relics were contained, can very much be classified as a revived version of a 1,000-year-old route. Recent campaigns have sought to revive interest in the Christian origins and tradition of the town of St Andrews in an attempt to turn it back into a major centre of pilgrimage rivalling that of Santiago in Spain. With the support of Fife Council and its museum, the Cathedral Project began a series of exhibitions and walks which sought to stimulate knowledge and promote the embedded history of their town. This began in September 2000 with a four-day pilgrimage from St Andrews to Edinburgh, following, as much as was possible, the medieval route to North Queensferry but going in the reverse direction. This walk revived great interest in the authenticity and history of the route, and led to Fife Council reopening and officially waymarking the main medieval pathways across the region so modern-day pilgrims could walk in the footsteps of their forebears.

Map of St Andrew’s Way. JIM BRIGHTMAN

The Way of St Andrew was officially launched in July 2012, and is perhaps one of the most ‘authentic’ routes included in this book. In order to fully experience the route, an official badge may be purchased to show your pilgrim status, on your knapsack, or on your clothes. The current design features the scallop shell emblem upon the Scottish flag.

The History of St Andrew

The route is 71 miles (115km) in distance, and follows a modern restoration of a medieval pilgrimage walk from central Edinburgh across the Forth Road Bridge to St Andrews. The desire to revive the historical pilgrim links at St Andrews is not surprising given that the majority of the town’s development derived from its religious associations. Firstly, the cathedral of St Andrews was built to house the relics of the saint as the town became the focus of pilgrimage, and therefore a site that was fitting for his growing popularity was demanded. As such, the original name of the town was changed from Kilrymont (or ‘Church on the King’s Hill’) – named after St Kenneth, who was thought to have established a site for the church in c.570CE – to St Andrews, after the relics were brought to the town in the Middle Ages.

According to legend, in 345CE St Regulus or Rule had a vision whereby he was told to bring the relics of St Andrew (of which he was the guardian) from Patras in Greece and move them to Constantinople, to the outer limits of the Empire; it is said he was shipwrecked at Kilrymont. Another legend states that Bishop Acca came north from Northumbria in around 746CE bearing the relics of the apostle Andrew. The more likely story is that the relics were brought to the town by the Northumbrians in an effort to promote St Andrew over St Columba and, in doing so, lessening the influence of the Gaels.

Although the current cathedral of St Andrews dates from the medieval period, there were previous churches built on this site. The relics – an arm bone, three fingers, a tooth and a kneecap – were first kept in a shrine in the Romanesque St Rule’s church of which the tower and choir are still extant. However, a more ancient Christian site lies to the east, outside the cathedral precinct wall, between it and the sea. Known as St Mary on the Rock, the cruciform church’s foundations can still be made out in the ground. The earthworks that remain date back to the twelfth century, and were only uncovered in 1860 after being lost for centuries – yet the site and church date back to the eighth century. Fragments of crosses discovered there, now in St Andrews Museum, suggest the church may have been built for the Culdee community, who were a group of Celtic monks ousted by Augustinian canons who took residence there when St Andrews Cathedral was built.

The cathedral, now ruined, was founded in 1162, completed in 1318, and consecrated in the presence of King Robert the Bruce. Forty feet (12m) longer than any other cathedral in Western Europe of great pilgrimage status, it was also the largest building in medieval Scotland, providing more accommodation than was afforded by the older church of St Rule. As such, it dictated the layout of the town in various ways. When the Picts and Gaels united to form the Kingdom of Scotland under Kenneth MacAlpin in the ninth century, St Andrews Cathedral became the focus of pilgrim routes from Scotland and abroad. This was aided by Queen Margaret in the eleventh century, who developed the route of pilgrimage from South Scotland to St Andrews when she established the ferry from South to North Queensferry, giving her name to the settlement and establishing various pilgrim hospices there.

It is important to note here that in the medieval period there was no distinction between a hostel, a hospice and a hospital. This arose from the monastic hospitium or, more generally, the hospitalis domus – a place for guests – being shortened to hospitale, hence the modern term. They were ultimately based on the duty to support travellers and the sick. Thus, their role was to provide care and assistance to pilgrims, which was not necessarily medical. It was not until much later that the limited medical meaning was given to the term we use today.

When Queen Margaret died in 1093 her body was laid to rest in Dunfermline Abbey and her tomb became a site of pilgrimage itself – in fact, upon her canonization in 1251, the Pope declared that the Queen’s shrine should be determined as a station along the route. This declaration was specifically designed, however, to carry the increasing number of pilgrims from the south to St Andrews. Those journeying from the west took a ferry across the River Tay, while those coming from the north had to cross the Tay estuary via Dundee and Tayport. The latter two routes had to converge where the modern village of Guardbridge is now sited (the clue is in the name, as many translations note the location origins as the last hospice station where pilgrims would assemble before travelling to St Andrews in procession) in order to cross the River Eden, which lies 5 miles (8km) north of St Andrews.

The pilgrim population of St Andrews had become so enormous by the fifteenth century that, upon arrival, pilgrims had to be taken to a holding station on the outskirts of the town. They then made their way towards the cathedral down South Street. After venerating at the relics, they would finally proceed in a one-way system up North Street. The layout of the town centre thus derives from the need to contain these grand pilgrim processions along the streets to the shrine, and a major part of the centre was used to serve the needs of the pilgrim trade – along Market Street, between North Street and South Street, traders and shops sold badges, souvenirs and provisions.

The main digression from this original route arises when considering how one journeys from A to B. While the modern route is fairly close to one of the initial tracks, the revised version accounts for large and busy roads, and has to find alternative routes for safety purposes. The Great North Road is joined near Keltybridge but the medieval routes are either followed via their modern counterparts or simply in the general direction of where they were originally located. In addition, the Forth Bridges are part of the current route to Queensferry, but medieval pilgrims would have had to cross the river by boat. They would have taken one of two ferries: an eastern crossing from North Berwick to Earlsferry, or a western route from Queensferry to North Queensferry, as established by Queen Margaret. The ferries lasted until 1964 when the bridge was opened.

An Overview of the Route

Starting at either St Mary’s Roman Catholic Cathedral or the twelfth-century High Kirk of St Giles, the route descends down through Edinburgh to the sixteenth-century Cramond Brig. It then follows the shore of the Forth estuary to reach South Queensferry and across to North Queensferry.

However, there are two possible routes for this pilgrimage: one takes you from North Queensferry, across country towards Loch Leven and then east, and the second, modern route, heads straight towards Kirkcaldy and up to St Andrews. The latter route is covered in this chapter, as it is the current way authorized and most recently created (partly due to safety); however, a summary of the inland route is provided below as it is an interesting alternative, providing stops at many important historic sites.

INLAND ROUTE

After crossing the Forth Road Bridge into North Queensferry, the route heads out into the country and across several hills, including Muckle Hill. Rosyth is the next place to be encountered, then on to Dunfermline by the banks of Towere Byrn, and up past the ruins of Queen Margaret and King Malcolm Canmore’s house. From there, the route passes through Kingseathill, and then over wooded Town Hill to Kingseat. The hamlet of Lassodie begins the next section of the route, which carries on round the east end of Loch Fitty before ending in the village of Keltybridge – the bridge here originally carried the main road north for the route, now the B996, but previously the former Great North Road, the line of which can be seen a few fields beyond.

Harren Hill is then traversed, followed by Benarty Hill, and a descent down to the top of Vane Hill: here you can overlook Loch Leven, where Mary, Queen of Scots was imprisoned on Castle Island in the 1560s – the island may be visited by a short detour.

The route follows the road, bypassing Loch Leven Sluice House, and on to Scotlandwell. It makes a long ascent towards Munduff Hill and across the plateau of the Lomond Hills, and then, between West Lomond and East Lomond, it drops down Maspie Den towards Falkland and its palace.

The next section begins on a flat level, along the River Eden until past Kingskettle; then from Balmalcolm, it ascends again to the slopes of Down Law and Cults Hill. Heading up to Coaltown of Burnturk the landscape is punctuated with mining history, and the views look out over the Eden Valley as you head out on the road to Chance Inn, Craigrothis. This section culminates at Ceres and its war memorial marking the Battle of Bannockburn.

The final section of the route passes over the old packhorse bridge in Ceres, and up towards and over Kininmouth Hill. It passes Arnsheen then Denhead, and on through Craigton Country Park by way of Lumbo Den, finally feeding down into the Lade Braes Walk and town.