Several new pilgrims, as well as some familiar friends, joined this year’s St Wilfrid’s Way: our diocesan ‘camino’ walk over two days, from Leeds Cathedral to Ripon, via Knaresborough, by way of Sicklinghall, Bishop Thornton, and Markenfield Hall – and all the glorious West and North Yorkshire countryside in between! Here’s this year’s St Wilfrid’s Way in pictures – with a few accolades along the way, for our Pilgrimage Patron’s impact in our Diocese and beyond over the past decade!

This year’s Pilgrims’ Mass celebrated in the Cathedral’s Blessed Sacrament Chapel by the Dean, Canon Matthew Habron, whose father Stephen Habron first planned the walking pilgrimage route which became the St Wilfrid’s Way Camino, and which he led until retiring last year. Fr Matthew with pilgrims old and new about to set off on the first day’s walk. The ‘bus to Roundhay Park was cancelled, so this was the ‘Walk to the Start of the Walk’! Prayers were said at the start of the walk in Roundhay Park, led by Deacon David Arblaster who has become ‘Chaplain’ to St Wilfrid’s Way. As usual, St Wilfrid walks with us – and new and young pilgrims take it in turns to carry him!

St Wilfrid’s Way achievements over the past decade have included going from just six pilgrims in 2016 to between thirty and forty over the two day walk. Ours was the only diocesan pilgrimage permitted to continue being walked safely throughout the Covid pandemic, and later was an inspiration for Dr Phil McCarthy’s national project, ‘Hearts in Search of God’: Catholic Cathedral to Shrine Pilgrim Ways in every diocese across England and Wales!

As interest in our walking pilgrimages grew, we began traditions for special intentions, such as the Pilgrimage for Vocations ‘In Fr Brown’s Footsteps’, which began in 2024, 120 years after GK Chesterton first walked the same route over Ilkley Moor with Fr John O’Connor, the real-life Leeds Diocesan priest who inspired his famous literary creation, Father Brown. In common with all our walking pilgrimages, which can be viewed on this website’s Pilgrimages page, St Wilfrid’s Way is fully Risk Assessed and requires pilgrims to sign up. The weather has usually been kind to us, and hardy pilgrims turn out even in blustery, autumnal weather!

When we were all asked to journey together as ‘Pilgrims of Hope’ in the 2025 Jubilee, St Wilfrid’s Way pilgrims from across our own Diocese of Leeds helped to organise St Mark’s Way, the northern section of the Jubilee Pilgrimage of Hope from Leeds to Nottingham, visiting parishes, meeting and walking with people from across our neighbouring dioceses – establishing connections, collaborations and friendships which, when Bishop Marcus was later announced as Apostolic Administrator of those dioceses, have brought our Catholic communities closer together.

One community from our own Diocese which we will all miss, is that of the Carmelite Sisters at Wood Hall Monastery, who have now left for other Carmels across the country. As they have welcomed us each year since the Pilgrimage began, it was sad to pass by Wood Hall, but we prayed a decade of the Rosary for their intentions on our way to Sicklinghall. There we were welcomed at the Scotts Arms by parishioners Bill and Mary, and the kind landlady allowed us to east our packed lunches and provided tea and coffee. At the Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception, Bill told us the story of its founder, Peter Middleton, of nearby Stockeld Park and later of Ilkley’s Myddelton Lodge.

At the end of the first day, once we had all been welcomed by Peter and Viv at the Chapel of Our Lady of the Crag, Knaresborough’s beautiful mediaeval wayside shrine, we were hosted again by parishioners with tea and scones at St Mary’s in Knaresborough – and one parish family who own Pizza Pan in Starbeck donated some enormous and delicious pizzas!

Pilgrims on St Wilfrid’s Way have over the years come from dioceses further afield: Lancaster, Nottingham, Hexham and Newcastle, and even Clifton – and this year’s St Wilfrid’s Way was the Northern event in celebration of the Adoremus weekend in Southwark, to which a group of pilgrims from southern dioceses also organised and walked a pilgrimage, beginning in Maidstone in Kent. Over the years, we have been joined by pilgrims whose ancestry and heritage hails from across Europe, Africa, India, China and North America – and this year, from the Philippines. With the Universal Church stretching to the ‘ends of the earth’, it is, then, appropriate that our second day of St Wilfrid’s Way begins outside Knaresborough’s ‘Finisterre’: the World’s End pub!

The second day’s walk begins outside the World’s End pub in Knaresborough. Being a Saturday, more pilgrims are able to walk on the second day of the Camino. The accessible stage from Bilton to Ripley is along the Nidderdale Way. There was some consternation upon arriving at the village of Ripley, as there were dark rumours circulating that the pie shop had closed – but God is good to pilgrims, and it turned out that the shop had simply moved across the road …

We often describe St Wilfrid’s Way as ‘A Walk through History’, as so many of the places we pass through reflect centuries of pre- and post-Reformation Catholic heritage! Built about 1751, the presbytery at St Joseph’s Church in Bishop Thornton is the oldest Mass House in the Diocese, with the present church being built in 1809 – and the much-loved parish church of one of our most enthusiastic regular pilgrims! One recusant house we visit each year is Markenfield Hall. This moated manor house is still in the same family and was the mustering place for the Rising of the North: the attempt by Catholic nobles to depose the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I, and return Catholic monarch Mary Queen of Scots to the English throne. As ever, we were warmly welcomed by Lady Deirdre, and Deacon David led prayers in her private chapel.

Markenfield is our last stop before we reach Ripon and in good weather we can see the Minster, now known as Ripon Cathedral, which St Wilfrid himself founded in the C7th. Not all our newest pilgrims are Catholics, but all were happy to participate in the true spirit of a Catholic pilgrimage: attending the Pilgrims’ Mass at Leeds Cathedral and receiving a Blessing from the Dean; sharing our penitential humility and bearing cheerfully with one another in spite of downpours and tired feet; and joining in the Angelus and the Rosary prayed en route, this year, led by Deacon David Arblaster, who, along with his fellow Permanent Deacon, Martin Fenlon, assisted at the Vigil Mass at St Wilfrid’s Catholic Church in Ripon, which always closes the Pilgrimage, celebrated by the Parish Priest, Fr Jonathan Hart.

Mass was celebrated by Ripon Parish Priest Fr Jonathan Hart, assisted by Deacons Martin Fenlon and David Arblaster. Mass is always followed by a rest for weary pilgrims in St Wilfrid’s Parish Centre – and a hearty serving of ‘fizz and chips’ (and lots of genuine interest in the pilgrimage from owners and customers at North Street Fisheries!) before it’s time to look out for the number 36 ‘bus back towards Harrogate and Leeds!

Our walking pilgrimages have always been a major part of our diocesan sustainability initiatives, being specifically planned to be environmentally-friendly, giving opportunity to interact prayerfully with the natural world, and celebrating the beauty of God’s creation. Every attempt is made for the routes to be accessible via public transport – and also accessible to those who may not be walkers, emphasising that all who attend the Pilgrim Masses and Devotions, walk even the shortest distance, or provide any sort of prayer, support, or hospitality are pilgrims too! From 2018, St Wilfrid’s Way inspired first our short, Diocesan Laudato Si’ Mini-Pilgrimage walks and devotions, and during this Year of St Francis of Assisi, Patron Saint of Ecology and the Environment, pilgrims walked all or part of a 250-mile Joint Leeds and Hallam Pilgrimage, the Leeds Walsingham Way.

Happy Anniversary to St Wilfrid’s Way – and warm thanks to all our pilgrims, past, present, and future, who walk with us as members of our extended Diocesan Family! If you are interested in walking any part of St Wilfrid’s Way, next year’s Camino will be on Friday 8 and Saturday 9 October 2027… but before then …

‘Save the Date(s)’, as between Saturday 11 September and Sunday 19 September 2027, we have a NEW walking pilgrimage through the Bishop’s THREE Dioceses of Middlesbrough, Leeds and Hallam: THREE Cathedrals (Middlesbrough, Leeds and St Marie’s in Sheffield) and THREE Shrines (Osmotherley, Our Lady of the Crag Knaresborough, and the Padley Martyrs’ Chapel)!

Watch these pages for more information…!

Rowan Morton-Gledhill, Director of Communications, Diocese of Leeds