Essex, Gtr London, Norfolk, Suffolk
286 km / 178 miles
(click to enlarge)
The London to Walsingham Camino is a modern re-creation by Andy Bull of what was reputedly the most popular pilgrimage in England from London to the shrine at Walsingham in Norfolk until Henry VIII outlawed pilgrimage and the veneration of saints in 1538. From London's Church of St Magnus the Martyr next to London Bridge, with its shrine to Our Lady of Walsingham, it leads to the Anglican and Catholic shrines at Walsingham in Norfolk, following footpaths and quiet lanes across the countryside east of England while visiting many towns on the way. Walsingham was England's Nazareth, where in 1061 a Walsingham noblewoman, Lady Richeldis de Faverches, claimed a vision in which the Virgin Mary transported her soul to Nazareth and showed her the house where the Holy Family once lived, and in which the Annunciation of Archangel Gabriel, foretelling Jesus's birth, occurred. She was told to build a replica of the house in Walsingham, and it became a shrine attracting pilgrims to Walsingham from Europe including numerous kings. In the Christian world it was eclipsed by just three other places: Jerusalem, Rome, and Santiago de Compostela.
The London to Walsingham Camino attempts to re-establish a walking route which, while being as true to the original way as possible, takes account of the modern realities on the ground, with London now a major city and roads intervening. It uses sections of other established LDPs. The route has official recognition by the Confraternity of St James, organisers of the Camino de Santiago in Spain. Any pilgrim who walks at least 25km of it will be able to put it towards the total of 100km that must be walked in order to qualify on reaching Santiago.
The trail leads from London to pass through Waltham Abbey, Ware, Stansted, Mountfitchet, Saffron Walden, Withersfield, Stansfield, Bury St Edmunds, Thetford, Brandon, Great Cressingham, Castle Acre, Fakenham, and it ends in Walsingham. The first section routes east along the Thames heading north at Limehouse in the Lea Valley to reach Waltham Forest and includes much waterside walking.
This Trailblazer guidebook listed below divides it into 13 easy to moderately-challenging stages with downloadable walking instructions. Only accessible to readers of the book, there are downloadable step-by-step walking instructions (for OS map users) and GPX files, so the usual mapping and GPX downloads are not included on this website.
Source: Trailblazer/Andy Bull 2023
Details:
| Path Type: |
Other Paths |
| Waymark: |
Camino Ingles roundels (planned) |
| Attributes: |
Average Gradients
Agricultural land
Forest/Woodland
Urban
Pilgrimage
|
| Start: |
TQ329806 -
Church of St Magnus the Martyr, Lower Thames Street, Gtr London
|
| Finish: |
TF935368 -
Our Lady of Walsingham church, Walsingham, Norfolk
|
| Open Date: |
2022 |
