After walking the Camino Primitivo last autumn (2017), I was seized by the crazy notion to loosely replicate the routes the Irish Saints might have taken from Ireland to reach Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
According to the British Pilgrimage Trust, ancient shipping records evidenced that pilgrims sailed to Lelant, Cornwall, en route to Santiago de Compostela, then travelled overland to Marazion to avoid the treacherous waters off Land’s End. They would then take to the sea once more and sail to the ports of Ferrol and A Coruña on the northern coast of Galicia, before continuing their pilgrimage on foot to Santiago de Compostela.
The Cathedral of Santiago recently agreed to grant a Compostela to people who can prove that they have walked a certified 25km route in their country of origin, and then walked the Camino Inglés, to obtain their certificate.
I only needed to complete one pilgrimage path in Ireland and then walk from A Coruña to qualify for the “Celtic Camino.” But I reasoned that, since I was in Ireland, I might as well take the opportunity to walk five paths and bag my Teastas Oilithreachta at the same time…
So, I set myself the challenge of walking five Pilgrim Paths in Ireland, then walking St Michael’s Way in my home county of Cornwall, then travelling to the shores of Northern Spain to walk the Camino Inglés to Santiago de Compostela.
Those five pilgrimage routes are:
- St Finbarr’s Way, Cork (37 km / 23 miles)
- Cnoc na dTobar, Co Kerry (9 km / 6 miles)
- Cosán na Naomh, Co Kerry (18 km / 11 miles)
- Tóchar Phádraig, Co Mayo (30 km / 18.5 miles)
- St. Kevin’s Way, Co Wicklow (30 km / 18.5 miles)
The aim of this trip was to travel as much of the Wild Atlantic Way (WAW) as I could, whilst bagging the Five Pilgrim Paths en route. Travelling the WAW had been a dream for years, and having recently achieved another dream- owning a VW T5, the ‘Beast’—that dream could also be realised
The Journey Begins
Friday, May 4th, 2018
After a 6 am start and a frantic finish of some van jobs, I was finally ready to hit the road. By 2 pm, I was off, heading for Fishguard to catch the overnight Ferry to Rosslare. I made good time, passing over the Severn Bridge into Wales by early evening, and pulled into the Ferry Port by 9:30 pm.
The Beast purred like a kitten all the way. I hit some congestion from Swansea, but apart from that, it was smooth. They greeted me by name at the ferry terminal, which made me giggle. Then it was a long sit in lane 3 until loading, a lengthy affair, with lorries and coaches going first.
Much to my joy, a group of Irish bikers was in front of me. A coachload of rugby players also arrived, already in fine voice and sounding like they may have enjoyed a few beers; it could be an interesting night.
Finally on board, after exploring the ferry, I found a comfortable place to spend the night, watching movies and snoozing. We set sail 11.30 pm; I could hear car alarms going off, and hoped it wasn’t mine.
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