Many of you will already know about The British Pilgrimage Trust and might even have seen it’s founders Guy and Will speak at the OBOD Gathering one year. For those that don’t know, the Trust aims to promote pilgrimage in the UK. They act as a resource, not only creating new paths but documenting old paths as well.
Their goal is to “advance British pilgrimage as a form of cultural heritage that promotes holistic wellbeing, for the public benefit. Holistic wellbeing includes physical, mental, emotional, social, community, environmental and spiritual health, and we aim to make these benefits accessible to wide new audiences. Pilgrimage has the potential to promote community and diversity in Britain’s spiritual landscape, nurture our relationship with the land, and add meaning and purpose to people’s lives.
Will Parsons and the British Pilgrimage Trust has devised a path that will be of particular interest to Druids:
Anglesey (Ynys Mon) Druids Way – Caernarfon to Holyhead – 80 miles, 7 days.
A pilgrimage to heal the massacre of the druids on Anglesey by the Romans in the 1st Century AD. This route tracks the journey from the strategically-positioned Roman stronghold of Caernarfon Fort to Caer y Tawr, the mountain top of Holyhead, the holiest place in prehistoric druidic culture. Most of the journey is spent hugging the coast of the Isle of Anglesey, an island that uncannily feels like a world unto itself. The route’s coastline is astonishing with its crashing waves and silent pools, remote ruined island chapels sometimes cut off by the tide, and holy immersion wells on the edge of cliffs. Inland there are prehistoric chambered cairns like Bryn Celli Ddu and Barcoldiad y Gawres that have the feeling of extreme ancientness, standing stones that are many times taller than you, and the Giant’s stepping stones of Rhuddgaer with views opening out onto the sort of elegiac landscape that you become almost used to on this pilgrimage. The crown of the journey, the Holy Mountain, gives perspective on where you have come from, before descending to St Cybi’s Church in Holyhead. Then the journey home… you will almost certainly feel different to how you arrived.
Highlights
Stepping into an island mentality (in a good way)
High concentration of pre-Christian holy places
Magical tidal island churches
Discover your old primal self
Holy Places along route listed in our book Britain’s Pilgrim Places: Llanddwyn Island; Holyhead/Caergybi.
To find out more visit here
