A Pilgrimage Walk along the St Cuthbert’s Way

Andrew Sowerby • October 9, 2024

Andrew Sowerby, National President of the Catenians of Great Britain, describes a fruitful pilgrim walk to Lindisfarne in September 2024.

It seems a lifetime ago when I first mooted the possibility of arranging a pilgrimage walk along the 62.5-mile St Cuthbert’s Way between Melrose and Lindisfarne situated off the Northumberland coast. As the newly elected National President of the Great Britain National Council of the Catenians, I’d often been asked by many in the Association where I was planning to visit during my year in office and if I was going to arrange a pilgrimage to one of the more traditional pilgrimage sites such as Rome, Lourdes, or Fatima.

However deep down I wanted to arrange something slightly different and combine my love for walking with something more spiritual not unlike the Camino to Santiago De Compostela in Northern Spain. I wanted to organise a pilgrimage which all in the Association could, if they wished, join in without enduring great expense as well celebrating the wonderful recently opened up pilgrimage trails in the United Kingdom. Hence, I very quickly settled on the St Cuthbert’s Way in what is still currently an under explored area of the country with its unspoilt routes across the Cheviots and providing those participating with a chance to reflect upon the lives of the many early saints of the Catholic church who have a connection to the area.

As John Tweddle the Director of Province 3 and I began the planning process I never truly realised how encompassing the whole experience would become as our lives seemed to revolve around making preparations including arranging accommodation for our fellow pilgrims, collating people’s personal information, researching the lives of the northern saints connected with the early church, writing and producing the walking and safety instructions for all participating, creating prayer booklets, upgrading my first aid skills and organising the final Mass to name just some. This I’ve had to deal with along with the carrying out my other duties as National President as well as trying to get some walking practice in so that I too could manage the physical challenges of completing the pilgrimage!

I know that with 24 hours to go before I left home for our base in Wooler, I was feeling somewhat frayed and frazzled as I desperately hoped that nothing had been forgotten, and that please God all would go well especially regarding the logistics of transporting a group of twenty plus fellow pilgrims to the start of each days walk and then ensuring they were safely transported back to their accommodation each evening. These concerns were also added to the fact we both desperately hoped that all those walking would co-operate and fully engage in the purpose of the pilgrimage and that finally that the notoriously unpredictable British weather would be kind to us all.

However, we needn’t have worried as the fellowship, camaraderie and friendship that developed amongst the whole group was everything John and I wished for whilst even the weather though not perfect generally behaved itself especially when we were walking along the route. As we arrived in Wooler on the afternoon of 4^th September and gathered together for our evening meal John and I were delighted at the way that all people gelled together so that by the end of the evening and certainly after the celebration of Morning Prayer and Holy Mass at St Ninians Church the next morning there was a real feeling that we were beginning on a journey which would help us to reflect upon our shared faith and a love of walking in the great outdoors.

As someone who has walked many of the major National Trails across the length and breadth of the United Kingdom such as the Pennine Way, Wainwrights Coast to Coast route and the West Highland Way I have yet to come across the start of a route which is begins with such a brutal climb as that the 139 steps out of Melrose to the summit of the Eildon Hills better known as “The Three Witches.” This was certainly a challenge to even the fittest and most well-prepared walkers let along those who don’t walk often or far. However, it was wonderful to see how the stronger walkers stayed behind to support and encourage those who were struggling so that eventually all eventually reached the summit. This set the pattern for the whole pilgrimage walk as everyone supported each other when they were finding the going hard especially on the uphill and muddy downhill sections where often one slithered and slid down slopes.

Each day of the walk began with morning prayer which included a short reading about the lives of the different saints of the early Northern church especially those connected with the spread of Christianity in this part of the United Kingdom. Hence each day we reflected upon the struggles of St Cuthbert himself as well as St Wilfrid, St Oswald, St Hilda and St Aidan as well as some of the less well-known saints of the time. As we prayed together, we recited our pilgrimage prayer ending with the most appropriate words of Bishop John Arnold “Stay with us Lord on our journey.” Then we relied upon the support teams of drivers who assisted us in ensuring that all walkers were transported to the start of the days walk. This logistical support was invaluable as it also ensured that at the end of each day well all pilgrims were also safely transported back to their accommodation.

For those who are unaware of the route following the descent from The Three Witches one travels through the picturesque village of Bowden with its iconic pant well an early source of water for the village and on through the rolling Scottish countryside alongside the beautiful River Tweed. This included passing the lovely 9-hole golf course at St Boswell which would be ideal course for Catenian golfers to play on as it is virtually flat. However, I’m quite certain that many would find it expensive replacing all the balls they might lose either in the courses’ water hazards as well as the River Tweed itself. As one travelled along either in companionable silence or during the recital of the daily rosary one could not help but be impressed by the beauty of the scenery that surrounded us as well as the variety of the flora and fauna we saw and which included herons, deer, cattle, peewits and even the odd snake.

As the week progressed the scenery changed once we’d passed Morebattle and started to ascend Wide Open Hill at the foothills of the Cheviots close to the little village of Kirk Yetholm the site of the end of the Pennine Way. Here we were once again faced with the challenge of a steep ascent up the now bleak moorland into the mist and low cloud that shrouded the summit of the hill. Once again it was lovely to see the support provided to all walkers by the group as in due course all reached the summit and noted that the halfway point had been reached.

Each day so far, the unpredictable British weather had been relatively kind with either cool cloudy mornings or days of gentle autumn sunshine excellent for walking. However, Monday morning, the day when we were to walk the 13.5 miles from Kirk Yetholm to Wooler, began with a real change. As I woke at 6.30 a.m. it was to hear the rain pelting against the windowpane whilst the wind was rattling the branches of the trees so that leaves, paper, and other litter were being swept along the street. However, by the time that we gathered for morning prayer the rain had dried up, and we recited our prayers under blue skies even though the wind remained exceedingly gusty. This change in the weather did not deter any of my fellow pilgrims as all strode off purposely to face the various physical challenges of the ascent up the Cheviots to the tiny hamlet of Hethpool where our noble photographer Graham at last was able to use his drone to obtain some of the stunning aerial shots of the walkers. By the time we’d lunched and then continued the wind had subsided and we strolled into Wooler having passed an adder, England’s only poisonous snake, who was out sunbathing in the later afternoon autumnal sun. Very sensibly, no one provoked him, and all gave him an exceedingly wide berth!!

Having crossed the Cheviots, we continued with the walk up to St Cuthbert’s Cave the place where the monks who’d rescued St Cuthbert’s remains from the Viking invaders and transported it to its final resting place in Durham Cathedral paused to rest on their journey. Consequently, we too paused and recited the rosary in one of the most iconic venues on the whole pilgrimage. Gathered together to pray where the monks who’d followed in St Cuthbert’s footsteps had stopped to rest on their journey to Durham was to us all a fitting place to pause on our journey to Lindisfarne.

The following day we began after morning prayer and the logistical effort of transporting twenty plus pilgrims to the edge of the causeway we began the walk across the sands by the traditional pilgrims route. Without asking I was so impressed that all who participated were determined to walk to Lindisfarne the traditional way barefoot across the sands following truly in the footsteps of St Cuthbert himself. Eventually as we reached the island itself, we gathered in the tiny chapel of St Aidan for the joyful celebration of Holy Mass by Bishop John and Fr Shawn O’Neill the parish priest of the area. In his homily Bishop John reminded us of the fact that a pilgrimage is a journey and that the walking of the St Cuthbert’s Way is a true pilgrimage as it give us all the opportunity to reflect upon our lives as ‘Ambassadors for Christ’ and ‘Missionary Disciples.’

It is always difficult to assess the success of any event and to evaluate its effect upon people but in the case of a pilgrimage it is even more difficult because it is such a personal thing. However, as the fearless pilgrims began their journey home and back to day-to-day life most passed on their thoughts to us. Consequently, comments such as “This pilgrimage has enhanced our understanding of how having a connection in faith helps deepen our connections to new friendships” whilst another said, “Great memories of love, friendship, support achievement, fun and laughter” whilst the final comment comes from a fellow pilgrim who like me has completed the Camino De Santiago simply said “Buen Camino!!”

So, my concerns at the outset were totally unfounded as the pilgrimage walk along the St Cuthbert’s Way was simply an outstanding week which enhanced my faith, strengthened my commitment to the values of the Association as well developing new friendships and providing great fun for all those who participated. An absolutely wonderful experience.

Andrew Sowerby.

The Catenians are a network of Catholic men who meet regularly to enjoy each other’s company

and to help and support each other throughout the world.

Founded in Manchester, Catenians can now be found in many countries and today are active throughout the U.K., Ireland, Australia, Malta, India, Bangladesh Zimbabwe, South Africa and Nazareth.

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Another Day in Paradise, but "Why are we walking?"

By Eddie Gilmore • July 21, 2025

I was in the north of Italy recently on the Via Francigena, the ancient pilgrimage path to Rome that begins in Canterbury. My wife, Yim Soon and I were with a group from L’Arche in France who are walking to Assisi in one-week sections. It was the second day, we were going up an interminably steep hill, it was hot, and we had ‘slept’ the night before on a floor, and with that motley group of twenty-five sharing two toilets (one of which had a door with no lock!). Yim Soon turned to me and asked, “Why are we walking?” The pair of us had done a lot of walking up until that point, and we had a lot of hiking still to come, so that was a very reasonable question to ask. One immediate answer was that we had the unexpected gift of time. I had moved to Ireland at the end of 2023 to take up a new job but things hadn’t worked out and I left in August 2024. We’d let out our house in the UK until June 2025 so Yim Soon had said to me, “Let’s walk!” I’d immediately agreed and our plans quickly took shape. We would do the Camino in Spain in October, the Lycian Way along the Turkish coast in February and March; then in April and May, we would follow the Way of Francis to Assisi and Rome. We also had an invitation to spend the winter with an old friend of Yim Soon from Korea who was now living with her family near Atlanta. This would include spending Christmas at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky, the Trappist monastery of Thomas Merton that I’d always dreamed of visiting. There is a pleasing simplicity to life on the road. You scrunch your sleeping bag and the rest of your stuff into a rucksack in the morning and you walk. That's it! A lot of the usual worries of life seem to drop away and the biggest anxiety becomes making sure you don't get lost! Or where the next café con leche is going to come from! There's just something calming and centring about the age-old act of putting one foot in front of the other. There is also something about it that brings people together and draws out their story. And what incredible people we met on our various walks, and what wonderful stories we heard. And how we laughed with one another. The beautiful scenery is therapeutic too. In Turkey we were treated to one amazing view after another as we paced up and down the mountains that fringe the Mediterranean. In Italy we passed each day through yet another stunning medieval fortified hilltop town. And since we were doing all 500 miles of the Camino Francés, we would see the stark changes in landscape as we crossed the north of Spain: from the Pyrenees and the mountains near Pamplona, through the flat, arid meseta, then into the verdant hills of Galicia as we neared Santiago. There is a heightened awareness of the natural world: the sunrises, the sunsets, little wild flowers that appear as if out of nowhere. Food is deeply appreciated and I don't think that a meal at a Michelin restaurant could have satisfied me as much as the bread, cheese, tomato and cucumber I ate one day on a beach in Turkey, which we'd reached by a rocky and slightly hair-raising trek down a mountain. On the Camino I developed the art of the second, or even third breakfast. We had earned it! I also loved the shared international meals, and there’s one that particularly stands out. I’d been looking forward to returning to the municipal albergue (pilgrim hostel) at a town called Nájera because of what had happened there nine years before when I’d been doing that same walk. I’d got in with a group of Koreans, partly on account of having a Korean wife, and they’d prepared a banquet and invited myself and my Australian friend James to join them. We’d also got in with the Italians and they wanted to feed us as well. Then a Spanish guy Gerado offered us food. We could have eaten three meals that evening, and I was determined that on this next visit it would be me doing the cooking for some of the lovely people we’d met on the way. I got to work in the kitchen, with a little help from my international friends, and a large group of us sat and shared a feast. There were people from different countries and continents and speaking different languages; there were twenty-year-olds who seemed happy to hang out with those of us who were three times their age; and there was a range of backgrounds and beliefs and reasons for walking. It was utterly joyous. And after we’d eaten I picked up a guitar and started the singing, and various members of the group took a turn, and we were joined by others in that very diverse dining-room. The first song I did was one I’d written after that first Camino in 2015 and I told the story of how it had been inspired. James and I had been sitting on a bench outside the albergue in the early morning, waiting for the water to boil for our tea. The sun was just starting to rise above the trees and there was the sound of rushing water from the river, as well as the first birdsong. We were sitting there in companionable silence and then James said, “Another day in paradise.” Those words became the title of a book about pilgrimage which I wrote years later. They are also the first line of the chorus of my song ‘El Camino’ which I sang in that same albergue in Nájera in October, 2024. And I was so touched when one of the young people in our group, Lucy from Croatia, remarked at the end, “Wouldn’t it be cool if one of us came back here in nine years’ time and cooked for the other pilgrims and kept this story going!” Why do we walk? Well, yes, it’s the food, the fellowship, the fun, the breathtaking scenery, the little daily miracles and random acts of kindness, and the opportunity to live a bit more simply and to discover that we can be very content with very little. But it’s also, as my friend James observed one morning when sitting with me on a bench outside a pilgrim hostel in Spain, an opportunity to give thanks for another day in paradise. Eddie Gilmore is a Hearts in Search of God project collaborator. For more about Eddie and his books click here .

Become a Pilgrim of Hope for a Day!

By Phil McCarthy • July 20, 2025

Registration for Day Pilgrims is now open. On some days there are new shorter sections. Registration will close on 21st August 2025, so REGISTER NOW to avoid disappointment! The theme of the 2025 Jubilee is ‘pilgrims of hope’ and this has inspired a national walking pilgrimage with four main Ways converging at the Cathedral of St Barnabas, Nottingham, on Saturday 13th September 2025, for shared prayer and celebration. The four main Ways, named after the Evangelists, SS Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, start at the Catholic cathedrals in Cardiff, Leeds, Norwich and London, and will bless our nations with a Sign of the Cross and with the Gospels. The routes use established hiking routes and are off road as much as possible. A small group of 4-6 'perpetual pilgrims' will walk the full distance of each Way, and up to 20 day pilgrims will be able to register to join for stages. On some days there are opportunities for shorter walks.

The Pilgrimage of Hope is open for day pilgrims to register!

By Phil McCarthy • June 5, 2025

Registration for day pilgrims to join the 2025 National Walking Pilgrimage of Hope is now open! The Pilgrimage of Hope is a national walking pilgrimage with four main Ways converging at the Cathedral of St Barnabas, Nottingham, on Saturday 13th September 2025, for shared prayer and celebration. The four main Ways start at the Catholic cathedrals in Cardiff, Leeds, Norwich and Southwark, London, and will bless our nations with a Sign of the Cross and with the Gospels. The routes are named after the Evangelists and use established hiking routes and are off road as much as possible. A small group of 4-6 'perpetual pilgrims' will walk the full distance of each Way, and up to 20 day pilgrims will be able to join for day stages. Stretches which are suitable for wheelchairs and buggies have been be identified. There will be opportunities for non-walkers to provide enroute support, hospitality and prayer. There are possible feeder routes to the four main Ways from all the other Catholic cathedrals of England & Wales for keen long-distance walkers, so people from every diocese can organise their own pilgrimages. More information and registration Information about how to support the Pilgrimage with prayer and hospitality and how to register to walk stages as day pilgrims can be found here . Wishing you every blessing and joy during this Jubilee year, as we strive to become ‘pilgrims of hope’. I hope to meet many of you in Nottingham on 13th September. Buen camino! Phil McCarthy, Project Lead

Walking in the steps of London's saints

By Colette Joyce /ICN • June 4, 2025

A group of 25 pilgrims gathered at the English Martyrs Church by Tower Hill last Thursday morning, Feast of the Ascension, to take part in the Westminster Way Jubilee Year Pilgrimage, led by Westminster Diocese Justice and Peace Co-Ordinator Colette Joyce. At each station we prayed and reflected on saints connected to London and the inspiration they continue to be for us today: St John Houghton and the Carthusian Martyrs of the Reformation, the missionary St Augustine of Canterbury, St Anne Line who sheltered priests and held secret Masses in her home during the Elizabethan persecution, St Erconwald, St Ethelburga and St Etheldreda. We remembered the scholars of the 7th century who brought learning and education to both men and women, and St John Henry Newman whose own spiritual journey of conversion and prophetic sense of the nature of the Church had a profound influence on the 20th century leading up to the Second Vatican Council. From the church we walked past the Tower of London, where so many Catholic martyrs met their fate during the Reformation, stopping to pray at the site of the scaffold where St John Fisher and St Thomas More were executed. Our next stop was Mary Moorfields, the only Catholic Church in the City of London. From here we walked to the Charterhouse, once a Carthusian priory and home to the first martyrs of the Reformation. The Prior, St John Houghton and Companions were hung and quartered for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy. Watching from his cell window, St Thomas More witnessed the monks being dragged on hurdles from the Tower of London on 4 May 1535. He is said to have admired their courage and faith as they went to their deaths, viewing them as "Cheerfully going to their deaths as bridegrooms going to their marriage." From here we walked to St Etheldreda's, Ely Place, one of the oldest Catholic churches in London. Built around 1250 as the town chapel for the bishops of Ely. After the Reformation It had several owners . For a a time it was used by the Spanish ambassador as a private chapel. During Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth, it was used as a prison and a hospital. The Rosminians bought St Etheldreda's in 1874 and have restored it beautifully. As we were walking during Laudato Si' Week, pilgrim leader Colette Joyce invited pilgrims to reflect on the flora and fauna of London on our way. London is a surprisingly green city, blessed with around twenty percent tree coverage - which makes it technically a forest! We are especially grateful to the Victorians who planted the ubiquitous London Plane trees which can be found in streets and parks all over the city, while there are more than 400 other species of tree to discover. "The entire material universe speaks of God's love, his boundless affection for us. Soil, water, mountains: everything is, as it were, a caress of God… contemplation of creation allows us to discover in each thing a teaching which God wishes to hand on to us." (Laudato Si', 84-85) After a stop at Corpus Christi Church in Covent Garden - where former parish priest Fr Francis Stanfield wrote Sweet Sacrament Divine and Mgr Ronald Knox preached his famous homilies on the Blessed Sacrament - we made our way down the Strand, past Traflagar Square, through Whitehall, down to Westminster Cathedral. On our arrival, we weary walkers were greeted by the Cathedral Dean, Fr Slawomir Witoń. We ended our pilgrimage with prayers in the Martyrs Chapel and a reflection from Fr Slawomir on the life and witness of St John Southworth, patron saint of clergy in the Diocese of Westminster. The pilgrims received the final stamp in their Pilgrim Passports and a blessing before returning home. Colette Joyce, Westminster Diocese Justice and Peace Co-Ordinator Read more about the Westminster Way: https://westminsterjusticeandpeace.org/2025/06/02/walking-the-westminster-way/ This article was first published on Independent Catholic News: Independent Catholic News Image: Pilgrims at Westminster Cathedral (Archdiocese of Westminster)

The Psychology of Pilgrimage

By Phil McCarthy • June 3, 2025

In this podcast I discuss the psychology of pilgrimage, especially as it relates to visiting First World War battlefields and cemeteries.

Walking the St Wulstan Way

By Peter Chisholm • May 31, 2025

Pilgrims joined Fr Gerry Walsh tracing St Wulstan’s life and legacy, from Worcester Cathedral to Clifton Cathedral as part of the Catholic Church’s Year of Jubilee, “Pilgrims of Hope” celebrations. Participants explored their faith while journeying through stunning landscapes and historic locations.