Pilgrim Ways to Walsingham

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The Pilgrim Ways to Walsingham

Before Henry VIII outlawed pilgrimage and the veneration of saints in 1538, Walsingham was the most popular pilgrim destination in England. The shrine to Our Lady of Walsingham was the fourth most important site in the Christian World, eclipsed only by Jerusalem, Rome and Santiago. A fantastical tale brought medieval pilgrims to Walsingham. In 1061 a local noblewoman, Lady Richeldis de Faverches, had a number of dreams or visions in which the Virgin Mary transported her soul to Nazareth, and showed her the house that had been her family home. Richeldis was told to build a replica in Walsingham, which she did. This, the Holy House, became a shrine that attracted pilgrims from all over Europe.

Walsingham Pilgrimages

Cley Next the Sea to Walsingham

Ely to Wheeting

Norwich to Walsingham‍

Thetford to Weeting

Wheeting to Walsingham‍

St Edmundsbury to Thetford

Coming into Walsingham

‍Remote churches are in plentiful supply as you approach the Catholic Slipper Chapel, from where you can walk the last mile barefoot to Little Walsingham village which, given its littleness, packs a serious spiritual punch with the ruins of the great shrine of Walsingham Abbey and the deeply revered Anglican and Catholic Shrines. Walsingham was one of the big pilgrimage sites destroyed by Thomas Cromwell – the memory of the destruction even has its own song, the Walsingham Ballad. Today, the shrine lives on.

Highlights from Bury St Edmunds‍

• St Edmundsbury Cathedral
• Forest riverscape of St Helen’s Well and Santon Downham Church
• Prehistoric landscaping of Grime’s Graves
• Ancient walking along Peddar’s Way
• Past glory of Castle Acre Priory

Highlights from Norwich

• ‍‍Norwich Cathedral
• Shrine of St Julian, Norwich
• Protected nature of River Wensum
• Stiffkey Wooded Valley

Slipper Chapel, Abbey ruins and Anglican Shrine, Walsingham.

Holy Places listed in Britain’s Pilgrim Places book: Bury St Edmunds; Houghton-on-the-Hill; Norwich Cathedral; Little Walsingham.

Low-cost hostels along route – Castle Acre; and across region.

Highlighted holy place: Walsingham Abbey Shrine

There are two modern shrines in the village of Little Walsingham – the Anglican and Catholic shrines. However, in the footprint of the abbey ruins is where the true shrine remains. Here the young noblewoman Richeldis de Faverches had three visions of the Virgin Mary and consequently desired to replicate the Holy House of Nazareth, where Mary herself had had her most famous vision, the annunciation – at the spot in the photo. Construction was difficult but, in the end, it was built miraculously (not by humans). Walsingham eventually became one of the greatest pilgrimage shrines in medieval Europe before it was destroyed by dastardly Henry. The poem Pynson Ballad remains to tell of its greatness.

View routes on OS Maps app:

‍Norwich to Walsingham

‍Weeting to Walsingham

‍Ely to Weeting

‍Thetford to Weeting

‍Bury St Edmunds to Walsingham

‍Coast to Walsingham