The Celtic Way – 758 miles – 3 months – Strumble Head, Pembrokeshire to St Michael’s Mount, Cornwall. Long ago, Neolithic peoples gathered blue stone from the Preseli Mountains in Wales, and brought them over hill and vale to Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain. Centuries later, the peoples of Wales and “West Wales” (Devon and Cornwall) were united by a common Christian faith and a common language, quite apart from the pagan English. Ranging almost 800 miles from Strumble Head, near Fishguard in Wales, to the tip of Cornwall, this pilgrimage reflects this long history, allowing you to encounter hundreds of prehistoric and Christian sites through South Wales and the South West. It is based partly on the Lands End Way, with alternative routes over Exmoor or across Wessex also on offer. If you have a few months to spare, and want to connect with the ancient stones and sacred waters of Pembrokeshire, Stonehenge, Glastonbury and St Michael’s Mount, this may be for you.
If you take on the challenge, you will encounter a kaleidoscopic array of wild landscapes. There are the majestic Preseli Hills, the wild Black Mountain range and lush Waterfall Country in Brecon Beacons, the geologically prehistoric Heritage Coast near Llantwit Major and Vale of Glamorgan. You exit Wales via ancient fortified sites before emerging in England, where you encounter the great prehistoric monuments of Avebury and Stonehenge, both World Heritage Sites, and the great Pagan and Christian pilgrimage site of Glastonbury and its springs, then Sherborne Abbey, the abbey and naked figure of the Giant carved into the chalk hillside at Cerne Abbas, the colossal Iron Age hill fort of Maiden Castle, then Exmouth, where the River Exe meets its end, across enigmatic Dartmoor and through magical Cornwall before arriving at the destination of St Michael’s Mount.
Highlights
Incredible wild scenery
Beautiful waterfalls and lakes
Stone circles and burial chambers aplenty
Getting to know the old Brythonic lands
Holy Places along route listed in our book Britain’s Pilgrim Places: Llanwnda; Llandeilo; Llantwit Major; Caerleon; Caerwent; Mathern; Beachley; Glastonbury; Sherborne; Cerne Abbas; Tavistock.
Low-cost hostels along the route: YHA Pwll Dewi, Fishguard, YHA Newport, Brechfa, YHA Llandeusant, Chepstow, Stonehenge, YHA Street, YHA Litton Cheney, YHA Beer, YHA Dartmoor, YHA Perranport, YHA Portreath, Penderleath, YHA Penzance and across Welsh region and South-West England region.
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Instructions for using a GPX file to show you the route offline on your smartphone
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- Tinkinswood (Chambered long cairn for burial). South Wales. Photo credit to FatManPhotoUK, iStockPhoto.
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- Pentre Ifan, megalithic communal stone burial chamber dating from approx 3500BC in Pembrokeshire. Photo credit to Andrew_Deer, iStockPhoto.
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- South Wales waterfall country, Sgwd Yr Eira, (the waterfall of snow). Photo credit to ricsiv, iStockPhoto.
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- Melincourt Waterfall, Resolven. Photo credit to leighcol, iStockPhoto.
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- Henrhyd Falls near Coelbren, with a drop of 90 feet it’s the highest waterfall in South Wales. Photo credit to leighcol, iStockPhoto.
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- Dammed Lake, Llyn Y Fan Fach on the Western border of the Black Mountains (in the Brecon Beacons) near Llanddeusant Carmarthenshire. This is the lake from the folk tale of ‘lady of the lake’ and the Physicians of Myddfai. Photo credit to AdrianDavies, iStockPhoto.
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- Cerrig Duon is beautiful and remote, on the western half of the Brecon Beacons National Park, in an area called the Black Mountain. The large standing stone on the other side of the circle at the back is known as Maen Mawr (Big Stone).Photo credit to Andy-Coleman, iStockPhoto.
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- The Cerne Valley, nestled in the rolling landscape of England’s Dorset Downs. Photo credit to JoeDunckley, iStockPhoto.
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