St Edmund Way

St Edmund Way: Manningtree via Bury St Edmunds to Brandon – 79 miles, 8 days

This route honours St Edmund, England’s original patron saint before Edward the Confessor first replaced him, and then St George. Edmund was martyred in 870AD by the Danes in battle for not renouncing his faith, tied to a tree, shot with arrows and had his head chopped off, which was then reattached by a speaking wolf. His relics were translated from his unknown site of martyrdom to Bury in the early 900s. King Canute built a stone shrine in 1020, and by 1095, the silver and gold pilgrimage shrine at Bury Abbey was one of the most famous, wealthy and miracle-working in all England. Beyond that, we know little about Edmund.

The route does its best to introduce you to the non-hilly but characterful land that Edmund would have known, by using the River Stour valley path in East Anglia, then in Suffolk passing Bures St Mary, where King Edmund may have been crowned, to Bury St Edmunds, where he was buried, then along the River Lark Valley path to the ancient Icknield Way at West Stow, where there is an astonishing, fully-reconstructed Anglo Saxon village with wooden huts with fires burning inside them. Then it’s the King’s Forest, which is bleak and huge, and just before Thetford is the Barnham Cross, the ancient boundary stone between Suffolk and Norfolk. Thetford’s ruined Priory and Motte and Bailey will impress before you walk the river path alongside the Little Ouse that brings you to the secluded forest well of St Helen, the magical tiny church of Santon Downham and finally Brandon, where the Edmund Way ends.

Highlights

• ‍‍River Stour Valley Path
• Bures St Mary, where Edmund was probably crowned
• St Edmundsbury Cathedral and ruined Abbey
• River Lark Valley Path
• West Stow Anglo Saxon Village
• Thetford Priory
• St Helen’s Forest Well and Santon Downham Church

Thetford Priory to Bury St Edmunds - 22 miles, 2 days

This a modified section of the complete route in order to take account of English Heritage sites in Thetford.

You begin at Thetford Priory, an important medieval monastery, near the Priory of the Canons of the Holy Sepulchre, who aided medieval pilgrims to Jerusalem. Next is the medieval stone Barnham Cross that marks the boundary between Norfolk and Suffolk, and along the Icknield Way through the King’s Forest to West Stow, a reconstructed 5th-7th-century Anglo-Saxon village. A succession of four beautiful Suffolk churches follows before you arrive at Bury St Edmunds, with its ruined abbey standing side-by-side with the cathedral, where you can hear its choir sing evensong. (Scroll down to bottom for logistics).

St Edmundsbury Cathedral Pilgrimage in a Day. Click here.

Holy Places listed in Britain’s Pilgrim Places book: Bures; Bury St Edmunds.

Low-cost hostels along route – East Bergholt and Milden; and across region.