Scottish Catholic Observer

Churchgoers from St Andrews and Edinburgh Archdiocese are working to re-establish an ancient Scottish pilgrimage route, which they hope will one day rival the world famous Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

Buoyed by the support of Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, lay Catholics and volunteers from the archdiocese are hoping to establish The Way of St Andrews as a genuine pilgrimage route, and are set to launch the journey formally in July.

Hugh Lockhart, a parishioner of St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh, is part of the group working towards establishing The Way of St Andrews and he explained to the SCO that he hopes it will become a ‘rolling pilgrimage,’ whereby people can undertake their own journey at any time, starting from any place.

Proposal

To help fortify plans, however, a formal pilgrimage date has been set to leave Edinburgh on the first Sunday of July with a view to arriving in St Andrews to coincide with the New Dawn celebrations on Thursday July 5.

The initial journey will follow a bicycle route out of Scotland’s capital city to South Queensferry before travelling along the Fife coastal route to Earlsferry, where the pilgrimage will then lead north to St Andrews.

“The cardinal has been very supportive and we are trying to encourage as many people as possible to get involved,” Mr Lockhart said. “The pilgrimage will be open to all, regardless of personal belief, and we hope people will learn something along the way.”

Historic site

St Andrews was established as a pilgrimage site more than 1000 years ago with thousands of pilgrims making their way to the historic town, which is still dominated by the ruins of the huge cathedral there, until the Reformation.

The town made the headlines last week when road works in the town centre uncovered what are thought to be the remains of 15th century Franciscan monks known to have lived in St Andrews.