Overseas Walks: Irelands most celebrated pilgrim paths identified
No doubt Ireland’s medieval pilgrims would be rather bewildered and quite possibly very amused to learn that people are still following in their footsteps across the Irish countryside.
When they set out through Ireland’s luxuriantly green hills and valleys these pilgrims on spiritual quests had no option but to walk or, if they had the means, to ride, from one holy site to another.
The gear carried by a 21st century walker might also confound them: “How did we manage with a simple wooden staff and a piece of bread tied up in the corner of our shirt?”
However, I like to think that they would also be pleased that hundreds of years after they had made their own journeys people are still drawn to tread the same paths.
To be sure (as the Irish mostly only say in films and comedy routines) Ire-
land’s pilgrim paths have for a long time been somewhat neglected, apart from the most celebrated such as the route leading to the top of Ireland’s most sacred mountain, Croagh Patrick.
But that is fast changing now as Ireland has identified 12 of the most celebrated and significant pilgrim paths and begun promoting them to walkers from all over the world.
Three of the routes even entitle those
who complete specified kilometres to have their walk counted as part of the much better-known Camino de Santiago (the Way of St James) in Spain. As it happens, many of Ireland’s pilgrim paths actually predate the Way of St James.
Of course, there is no prerequisite to have any religious leanings of any kind to undertake Ireland’s pilgrim paths. For some people, the idea of a spiritual dimension to the activity is a bonus but what I love about these routes is that they encompass some of the best of Ireland’s glorious countryside and coastal scenery; a morning spent on a heathery hillside overlooking County Kerry’s cliffs and sheltered bays, is food for any soul.
Over several years, I’ve walked sections of many of the newly designated Pilgrim Paths. Ireland is called the Emerald Isle for good reason, you don’t get grass as green unless there is a regular blessing of rainfall. I’ve been out in
drizzle (merely a sea mist, says my longtime Irish friend and walking guide) or hot sun but I always get the sense that I’m treading on earth that shaped by humans for thousands of years.
And yes, I did say hot sun. Ireland can turn on brilliantly fine weather - when that happens the walking routes are devoid of Irish who flock to their beaches, turn pink en masse and then retire to the nearest pub and cause a run on ciders and ice, for once turning their backs on ubiquitous Guinness.
The only other place my heart sings quite the way it does walking in Ireland is in New Zealand but for very different reasons.
In Ireland there’s ancient history under one’s feet, a landscape softened (not necessarily tamed) by time, where sheep cluster around beehive huts that once sheltered Celtic tribesmen, or where pink sea thrift clings to cliffs beneath a 19th century Martello tower built as defence against French invasion.
Although interest in these pilgrim paths is growing, guided walking along a selection of these routes is very new. So, now is the time to do it before the special character of these walks inevitably changes with increased popularity.
Frank, my Irish friend and I are guiding a tour this September on sections of five of the pilgrim paths. The aim is to experience the concept of pilgrimage but also take walkers through some of Ireland’s most spectacular scenery, from counties Kerry and Cork in the south to County Donegal in the north. We will be taking just 15 people.
We’re also going to make a couple of extra journeys along the way, both of which fit very neatly into the pilgrim theme. One is to Skellig Michael, the spectacular rocky outcrop off the Kerry coast, which has recently acquired stardom though its appearance in the two latest Star Wars films.
Skellig Michael was once a haven for a small community of monks who, finding life on the mainland too distracting, travelled by tiny coracles out to live in solitude in tiny stone cells clinging to its precipitous cliffs.
Getting to the island has become increasingly difficult these days, because of its popularity with Star Wars fans. Thankfully, we do have guaranteed access (weather permitting).
We will also go by sea to the Aran Islands of Inish Mor and Inish Maan. Galway, known as the Islands of Saints and Scholars. History here, as in much of Ireland, predates Christianity. One of the most spectacular sites in all of Ireland is Dun Aonghasa, the bronze / iron age fort on Inish Mor.
Our pilgrim walks will include St Kevin’s Way in County Wicklow, which ends in the magical Glendalough valley, chosen by St Kevin as a hermit’s retreat but which later developed into a monastic city.
Then we head south to County Cork to St Finbarr’s Way, which many walkers consider having the finest scenery of all the walks (I find that an impossible call to make!).
We will stay in County Kerry, which is inextricably linked with St Brendan (or Brandon) the Navigator). One of my favourite places along Brandon’s walk is the Gallarus, a perfectly intact and still totally watertight stone chapel that was built between the 7th and 12th centuries. For the more intrepid walker there’s the opportunity to climb Mt Brandon too.
There will be a chance to ascend Croagh Patrick, Ireland’s most sacred mountain, that rises 764 metres above Clew Bay in Country Mayo. A site of pagan pilgrimage as far aback as 3000BC, there are druidical sites, holy wells, burial sites and standing stones attesting to its spiritual significance across the centuries.
Our last walk will be in the footsteps of St Columba on the cliffs and valleys of County Donegal. This remains one of my favourite walks in all of Ireland, situated as it is on the very edge of Europe, where the wild Atlantic makes landfall.