St Wilfrid's Way (Hexham to Edinburgh)

St Wilfrid’s Way: Hexham to Edinburgh – 150 miles, 15 days

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‍Inspired by the example of C7th saint and bishop, Wilfrid, this pilgrimage whisks you away from majestic Hexham Abbey, which Wilfrid founded, to walk for two weeks taking in Hadrian’s Wall, followed by a steady ascent into the Cheviot Hills, then down over the Scottish Border into a lowland landscape beset with prosperous market towns and the ruins of great abbeys, along twisty hillside paths and disused railway lines to the mysterious and uncannily powerful Rosslyn Chapel. After that, more hillwalking through the Edinburgh’s volcanic past, the Pentland Hills, amid high crooked extinct volcanoes, and down along famous waterways into Scotland’s romantic capital city, Edinburgh, and to the Roman Catholic St Mary’s Cathedral.

The route follows waymarked paths such as Hadrian’s Wall, the Pennine Way, the Borders Abbeys Way, and the Waters of Leith Walkway. Due to the rugged and diverse borderland nature of the landscape this is a remote pilgrimage, during which you can walk for miles without seeing anyone, or signs of human activity, until sudden interruptions by landscapes and buildings that once bustled with 1st-century Roman soldiers or 14th-century monks. Be prepared to plan ahead each day for food and accommodation and your reward will be an ascension into the ‘mountains of the mind’.

Highlights

• ‍‍Lovely feeling inside Hexham Abbey
• Awe-inspiring landscape of Cheviot Hills
• Volcanic Pentland Hills
• Walking the Pennine Way, Hadrian’s Wall and other waymarked paths

Holy Places along route listed in our book Britain’s Pilgrim Places: Hexham; Bellingham; Edinburgh.

Independent Hostels available to book at: Humshaugh; Bardon Mill; Peebles; Edinburgh 1; Edinburgh 2; Edinburgh 3, Hostel World and across Northumberland region and Edinburgh region.

Visit St Wilfrid's Way official website.

Buy the St Wilfrid's Way official guidebook on Amazon.