I’m delighted to invite you to join us for the next SCR Walk taking place on Sunday 24th November.
We are grateful to Keith Taylor who will be leading the walk which will take us on the pilgrimage trial from Finchale Priory to Durham Cathedral which was the first stag of the English Camino to Santiago de Compostela in County Durham.
We will be setting off in the College minibus from the College Forecourt at 9.30 in the morning to be dropped off at Finchale Priory and commence our walk into Durham. After we arrive in Durham and visit the Cathedral we will be finishing with a well deserved pub lunch at the Court Inn.
Date: Sunday 24th November
Time: 9.15am, depart 9.30am
Meeting Point: College Forecourt
Before the Reformation in the C16th, Finchale was the starting point for many pilgrims from the North of Europe on their way to Santiago. St Godric of Finchale was one of the first English pilgrims historically documented. According to Reginald of Durham, St Godric undertook two pilgrimages to Jerusalem. On his return from his second one, he passed by Santiago de Compostela to visit the tomb of the apostle (most likely in 1102). Back in England, the bishop of Durham, Ranulf Fambard, let him live as a hermit in the grounds of Finchale. Priory. During the last seventy years of his life, St Godric was visited by pilgrims from Great Britain and the North of Europe, who came to ask for advice about doing the Camino. The Reformation put an end to these religious pilgrimages, carried out by a great amount of people (records show that in the C14th 17,400 pilgrims arrived in Santiago de Compostela from England). Now we have an officially stretch of the Camino Inglés, the route traditionally taken by English pilgrims, in County Durham.
The pilgrimage that is to take place this term is the first part of the Finchale Camino Inglés from Finchale Priory to Durham Cathedral. In the future we hope to organise two further walks that take us on a journey to Auckland Castle, once home of the Prince Bishops. Perhaps next academic year we can even go further along the route to Gainford (currently the endpoint but who knows by then!). We will be able to use pilgrim passports to acknowledge our journey. These will be stamped at various places along the Camino to prove that we have walked the Way correctly. If anyone is inspired by these walks they can use the evidence as part of the route in the Camino Inglés in Galicia from Coruna.
We do have limited spaces for this walk so to book a place please email [email protected] by Wednesday 13th November confirming the names of those attending, a contact mobile number and any specific dietary requirements for the pub lunch.
Any queries please do get in touch.