Pilgrimage Routes
There are a number of pre-arranged pilgrimage routes in the UK. They are usually waymarked, often with a guidebook.
The advantage to walking set-routes is that they make your pilgrimage more convenient, by focusing facilities like hospitality, and by attracting fellow pilgrims.
The disadvantage of such paths is that popularity and infrastructural development can undermine the quietness and beauty of a pilgrimage. And the defined beginning and end can feel arbitrary, like someone else’s choice.
Furthermore, just because a set route has a published guidebook does not mean in the UK that there is accommodation available OR that other pilgrims will be walking it. Pilgrimage remains such a niche activity in Britain, and there has been such recent growth of set routes without infrastructure, that often a named pilgrimage route can be little more than a line on the map.
The UK’s 10 Best Pilgrimage Routes
If you want to follow a path that someone else has arranged, these are some of Britain’s most well-reputed pilgrimage routes:
The Great Stones Way
Salisbury to Swindon (via Stonehenge and Avebury) - 46 miles
https://www.walkingenglishman.com/ldp/greatstonesway.html
St Cuthbert’s Way
Melrose to Lindisfarne - 62 miles
https://www.stcuthbertsway.info/
The North Wales Pilgrims’ Way
Basingwerk Abbey to Bardsey Island - 130 miles
https://pilgrims-way-north-wales.org/
St Peter’s Way
Chipping Ongar to Bradwell on Sea - 45 miles
https://www.essexhighways.org/uploads/files/st_peters_way.pdf
The Pilgrims’ Way
London to Canterbury - 138 miles
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pilgrims-Way-Canterbury-Winchester-Distance/dp/1852847778
The Old Way to Canterbury
Southampton to Canterbury - 240 miles
https://ldwa.org.uk/ldp/members/show_path.php?path_name=Old+Way
St Magnus’ Way
Orkney - 58 miles
https://www.stmagnusway.com/
St Michael’s Way
Lelant to St Michael’s Mount - 12 miles
http://www.stmichaelsway.net/maps-guides/4591403842.html
The Two Saints’ Way
Chester to Lichfield - 92 miles
https://www.twosaintsway.co.uk/
The Cornish Celtic Way
St Germans to St Michael’s Mount - 125 miles
https://www.cornishcelticway.co.uk/
Non-Pilgrimage Routes
Just because a path calls itself ‘a pilgrimage route’, this is not a quality that can truly be imposed externally.
In other words, you can follow a so-called pilgrimage route as a walking tourist without any sense of pilgrim intent.
And on the same hand, you can walk a ‘hiking path’ with oozings of pilgrimage intention.
So here are ten of the U.K.’s best hiking paths, all of which can be adapted - with intention and destination - into pilgrimage routes. These paths often have far better infrastructure and functionality for pilgrims, for the reason that many more people in the UK go for hikes than pilgrimages.
The UK’s 10 best Hiking Routes (for pilgrims)
Coast to Coast
St Bees to Robin Hoods Bay, Cumbria to North Yorkshire - 193 miles, 13-15 days
https://ramblingman.org.uk/planningatrip/planning_a_coast_to_coast/
The South West Coast Path
Minehead to Poole, Devon to Dorset - 630 miles, 2 months
https://www.southwestcoastpath.org.uk/
The Ridgeway
Oxford to Avebury, Oxfordshire to Wiltshire - 87 miles , 6-8 days
https://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/en_GB/trails/the-ridgeway/
Offas Dyke Path
Chepstow to Prestatyn, England and Wales - 177 miles, 13-15 days
https://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/en_GB/trails/offas-dyke-path/
Glyndwr’s Way
Knighton to Welshpool, Powys - 135 miles, 10-12 days
https://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/en_GB/trails/glyndwrs-way/
The Monarchs Way
Worcester to Shoreham on Sea, Worcestershire to Sussex - 579 miles, 7 weeks.
https://www.walkingenglishman.com/ldp/monarchsway.html
The North Downs Way
Farnham to Dover, Hampshire to Kent - 153 miles, 11-13 days
http://www.northdownsway.co.uk/index.html
The South Downs Way
Winchester to Eastbourne, Hampshire to Sussex - 100 miles, 7-9 days
https://www.southdownsway.co.uk/
The West Highland Way
Glasgow to the Highlands, Scotland - 96 miles, 7-9 days
https://www.westhighlandway.org/
Hadrians Wall Path
Chollerford to Birdoswald - Northumberland and Cumbria - 73 miles - 5-7 days
https://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/en_GB/trails/hadrians-wall-path/
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