Through the heart of the National Park and up the coast

The journey from Bellingham in the heart of the Northumbrian National Park to Holy Island takes less than seven days. We start walking on the Saturday before Palm Sunday (possibly after a short service with the local parish) and get to Lindisfarne in time for lunch on Good Friday. Despite being shorter, this Leg has several long days and occasionally some tough off-road walking. However the route has recently been tweaked to ease the load, and spread the mileage, so do come along and try it!

We traverse some beautiful countryside from flat farm land to rolling hills to open moorland taking in the magnificent views of much of Northumbria from Simonside. The route takes us along abandoned railway and forest paths and we even spend about half a day following the coast near Bamburgh.

The pilgrimage starts on Friday evening when we meet up in Bellingham. We share a meal, the leg members introduce themselves and we distribute responsibilities for the week so we can live, walk and express ourselves spiritually in the small community that we form. As well as providing for our own needs we interact with the communities we meet with and stay with along the way. Songbooks, Leg guides and red crosses, our badges as pilgrims, are also given out. The wooden cross, which we will be carrying as we walk, is assembled. It is about eight feet high and is carried by either two or three people at a time with frequent changes.