The movement grows: pilgrimage in Britain

The pilgrimage movement in Britain continues to grow

Over the past decade, pilgrimage has come alive again in Britain. What was once an almost forgotten tradition has become a living, breathing movement – and the British Pilgrimage Trust has been at the heart of this revival.

What we're seeing is extraordinary — and inspiring

More people are using our website to support their pilgrimages

• Close to 390,000 pilgrims have come to our website in the first half of 2025 — on track to be our biggest year yet!
  
  
• Thousands have downloaded GPX route files and saved routes — people are walking!
  
  
• This year so far, we’ve added dozens of new pilgrimage routes and sacred places, and we now have 60 Sanctuaries to offer pilgrims low-cost accommodation in the community. (To find Sanctuaries, go to our Places map, filter by Sanctuary place type and move around the map. To find Sanctuary Routes, go to our Routes map, filter by Sanctuary route type, and move around the map.)
  
  
• And this month, our digital pilgrimage map has been fully rebuilt on the latest mapping technology — making it faster and easier to use. (We'd love to hear your feedback. See our quick survey here.)

Join us in London at the Pilgrimage Gathering

To celebrate the pilgrimage in Britain, we are busy preparing for our flagship Pilgrimage Gathering at Ladbroke Hall on 2nd October, a day of big questions, moving talks and shared celebration.

Please join us. It would be wonderful to see you there in person to help us celebrate the pilgrimage together.

👉 Book your place now »

Pilgrimage supports healing

Over the past year we've led bereavement pilgrimages, developing emotional healing journeys, and carried out research into the long term benefits of pilgrimage in supporting emotional needs.

We launched a new Holistic Education guide training (fully booked, with demand soaring).

People are finding solace, clarity and community in sacred landscapes — and often, themselves.

Partnerships with purpose

We’ve deepened partnerships with Vivobarefoot, Daylesford Organic, Outdooractive, and more — bringing our mission to new audiences. We’ve been featured in NatGeo, Channel 4, and Radio 4, and new conversations are blossoming with more wonderful, forward-thinking organisations as well as public health academics exploring the future of socially prescribed pilgrimage.

New ideas are taking root

Educators are now using pilgrimage for children — using trees, silence and song as tools for connection — and through our Holistic Education training, we’re equipping guides to lead meaningful youth pilgrimages across Britain.

We supported and underwrote a revival of Rogation festivals, an ancient community tradition seek blessings both for the land's bounty and collective wellbeing.

Pilgrimage is being explored as a tool for spiritual ecology, mental well-being, and even urban design.

This is more than walking — it’s a cultural renewal, step by step.

Celebrating our anniversary

Shortly we will be celebrating our eleventh year as a charity. Our vision since our founding in 2014 remains simple: pilgrimage open to everyone, everywhere, every day. We wrote about the first ten years last September. It's wonderful to see how much has happened just since then!

We believe pilgrimage — walking with meaning through Britain’s sacred landscapes — offers answers to the disconnection, anxiety, and loneliness of modern life. And it’s working.

Since 2020, the Trust has:

• Published the bestselling book Britain’s Pilgrim Places, inspiring tens of thousands to set out on foot.
• Published over 250 pilgrimage routes and close to 400 sacred places across Britain in a digitally-accessible way, for people of all faiths and none.
• Welcomed hundreds of thousands of visitors to our website each year, making pilgrimage in Britain more visible and accessible than at any time in living memory.
• Led guided pilgrimages to cathedrals, churches, farms, coastlines and cities – from Stonehenge to Wells, from the South Downs to the Scottish Borders.
• Partnered with major cultural and ecological organisations such as the Church of England, Daylesford, Vivobarefoot, the Sustainable Food Trust, and many more.
• Brought pilgrimage into the national conversation through BBC, Channel 4, The Times, The Guardian, The Economist, Radio 4, and beyond. (See recent news.)
• Developed a Sanctuary Network of churches, farms and communities offering pilgrims places of welcome and rest.

Thank you for helping us walk this path. Whether you’ve joined a pilgrimage, made a donation, followed us online, or simply shared the idea — you’ve made this revival real.

If this movement, and our work, speaks to you, help us grow it

Walk with us, donate, attend our events, become a Giving Pilgrim, or join our Angel Circle — and help bring pilgrimage back into everyday British life.

👉 Support our work today»

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With deep thanks for your support,

The British Pilgrimage Trust team