Great Yarmouth to Walsingham, Norfolk

Great Yarmouth to Walsingham (via St Benet's Abbey) - 60.8 miles, 6 days

Revival of a long-forgotten medieval route

This pilgrimage follows a wonderful route from the pilgrim port of Great Yarmouth through the Norfolk Broads and on via the peaceful Bure Valley to Walsingham.

From Great Yarmouth Minster it follows the river to Ludham, where the font at St Catherine’s church mixes symbols of the four evangelists with two club-wielding pagan figures, and on to St Benet's Abbey.

St Benet's was the only abbey not to be suppressed at the Dissolution. Instead, Henry VIII made the abbot Bishop of Norwich, and the present bishops still conduct an annual service here.

A causeway runs east from St Benet’s to the village of Horning, where St Benedict’s church houses a fourteenth-century depiction of the Jaws of Hell, with Satan feeding sinners to a monster.

The path runs alongside a preserved railway from Hoveton to Aylsham, and visits Great Hautbois, where a shrine was established to a local saint, St Theobald, in the now-ruined round-tower church of St Mary, in the thirteenth century.

More Information

There are 6 stages to the route spread over 3 gpx maps. This newly-revived route is featured in Norfolk's Pilgrim Routes by Andy Bull. More information on the book and the route is available here.