How to plan your walking pilgrimage to Walsingham
Thinking of a pilgrimage to Walsingham in 2026?
Increasing numbers of pilgrims are walking to Walsingham, following the newly revived medieval route from London. My book, London to Walsingham Camino: The Pilgrimage Guide gives you all the information you need to plan your walk, including gpx mapping of the route so you can follow it on your phone, ensuring you never lose the path.
Not sure this is for you?
Lonely Planet has placed the London to Walsingham Camino at No 4 in its Top 15 things to do in East Anglia
They say: ‘You don’t need faith to hike Walsingham’s pilgrim trail. The medieval path from London to Walsingham – where an Anglo-Saxon noblewoman had a vision of the Blessed Virgin in 1061 CE – meanders through 180 miles (290km) of green, serene English countryside.’
Also, two key organisations, The British Pilgrimage Trust and the Long Distance Walkers Association, have added London to Walsingham to their list of recommended routes.
In the following pages in this section of the website I will be sharing highlights on each of the 13 day-stages of the walk, plus a bonus section on walking on from Walsingham to England’s Finisterre, at Wells-next-the-Sea.
I chatted about the journey on the Sacred Steps Podcast with Kevin Donahue. Click here to listen,
See video highlights from each stage of the camino
You can either go to the drop-down menu at the top of this page, or select from the links below
Stage 1: London to Waltham Abbey
Stage 2: Waltham Abbey to Ware
Stage 3: Ware to Stansted Mountfitchet
Stage 4: Stansted Mountfitchet to Saffron Walden
Stage 5: Saffron Walden to Withersfield
Stage 6: Withersfield to Stansfield
Stage 7: Stansfield to Bury St Edmunds
Stage 8: Bury St Edmunds to Thetford
Stage 9: Thetford to Brandon
Stage 10: Brandon to Gt Cressingham
Stage 11: Gt Cressingham to Castle Acre
Stage 12: Castle Acre to Fakenham
Stage 13: Fakenham to Walsingham
BONUS Stage 14: Walsingham to Wells-next-the-Sea
More on the London to Walsingham Camino, from the publisher
This is a pilgrim path that offers a wonderful long-distance route, on footpaths and quiet lanes, across the glorious east of England.
London to Walsingham Camino guidebook is a full colour guide to walking the re-established pilgrimage route from the Church of St Magnus the Martyr, with its shrine to Our Lady of Walsingham to the Anglican and Catholic shrines at Walsingham in Norfolk.
It is available from the publisher Trailblazer, from Amazon and all online and bricks-and-mortar bookstores.
The experience of walking the route is described in this illustrated book with the step by step walking directions and gpx files being downloaded from the Trailblazer website.
The whole 177.8 mile pilgrimage could be accomplished by a fit walker in a fortnight or less. But maybe you want to walk for fewer miles each day, or just at weekends, or on odd days when you have the time and energy.
This guide caters for multiple approaches.
Walsingham was England’s Nazareth. A fantastical tale brought pilgrims – kings, queens, and commoners alike – to Walsingham in the Middle Ages.
In 1061 a Walsingham noblewoman, Lady Richeldis de Faverches, had a vision in which the Virgin Mary transported her soul to Nazareth and showed her the house where the Holy Family once lived, and in which the Annunciation of Archangel Gabriel, foretelling Jesus’s birth, occurred.
She was told to build a replica of the house in Walsingham, and did so. The Holy House, initially a simple wooden structure, later richly decorated with gold and precious jewels, became a shrine and attracted pilgrims to Walsingham from all over Europe including numerous kings.
Walsingham was by far the most important pilgrim shrine in England until Henry VIII outlawed pilgrimage and the veneration of saints in 1538. It was much more popular than Canterbury.
Not only that: in the whole of the Christian world it was eclipsed by just three other places: Jerusalem, Rome, and Santiago de Compostela.
Those places have enjoyed an unbroken tradition of pilgrimage and veneration stretching back a millennium or more. Not Walsingham. It reverted to being just a village in Norfolk once the pilgrims stopped coming. The road from London ceased to be the most important route in England, and faded into obscurity.
For 400 years, no pilgrims walked to Walsingham. Since the 1930s, when both Catholic and Anglican shrines were re-established here, Walsingham has undergone a revival. It draws around 300,000 pilgrims each year, but hardly any of them walk much more than the final Holy Mile, and only a few church and other groups trace the full route from London.
The London to Walsingham Camino guidebook is part of an attempt to change that: to re-establish a walking route which, while being as true to the original way as possible, takes account of the modern realities on the ground. A pilgrim path that offers a wonderful long-distance route, on footpaths and quiet lanes, across the glorious east of England. A truly pleasurable and uplifting walking experience.
*Foreword by The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York
*The trail leads from London to Waltham Abbey, Ware, Stansted Mountfitchet, Saffron Walden, Withersfield, Stansfield, Bury St Edmunds, Thetford, Brandon, Great Cressingham, Castle Acre, Fakenham, and ends in Walsingham.