Journeying | Pilgrimage Holidays | Christian Walking Holidays | Christian Short Breaks

We are delighted to announce that Rosemary Power's poem entitled Glen Nant is the winner of Journeying's inaugural poetry competition: Glen Nant That day before spring The westering sun touched brown boughs pale gold and birch trunks glowed soft silver. Did once tired feet seeking elusive Love come down the glen and see the pilgrim path alight with hint of hope beyond their time? Did the Nant wash stained bruises, soil, off soles, _and Cruachan raise her crown, white still and wheeled_ with eagles, her flanks sheltering deer? Did the sun touch plague-weary wanderers of our time, rootless and yearning for lands behind the light? Was each enclosed in glow that day embracing hungry body and defeated mind, and shine pale gold? (Glen Nant, near Taynuilt, Argyll, Scotland is part of a medieval pilgrimage route). David Arkell, one of the judges…

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When people feel passionately about an issue, walking is quite often a response. This is definitely the case with Climate Change and it sounds as if there may well be a significant number of walkers arriving in Glasgow at the start COP26 in November. Here are two initiatives that it would be good for people in the Journeying Community to be aware of if you are not already... The Young Christian Climate Network describes itself in this way: "We are an action-focused community of young Christians in the UK aged 18-30, choosing to follow Jesus in the pursuit of climate justice." They decided to organise a relay walk from Carbis Bay in Cornwall which started on June 14th and at…

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Welcome to the first Journeying Poetry Competition! Poems inspired by a pilgrim-journey to one or other of the Christian pilgrimage sites of Britain and Ireland, or by a longing to undertake that journey, are invited for the first Journeying Poetry Competition. Getting your entry in Entries should be emailed to info@journeying.co.uk and arrive no later than midnight (GMT) on Saturday 23rd October 2021. The winning entry will be announced on the 15th November 2021. Just one entry per person. There is no charge. Keep it original Entries must be original and not previously published elsewhere. All entries will be judged anonymously. Copyright remains with the author. The prize The winner will receive a first competition certificate signed by the judges and a ten percent discount on…

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Saturday saw most of us arriving on the Island by air or sea, with our leaders transferring us to Peel on the west coast of the Island. Our group were housed in different properties overnight, but the Deanery was our base where we prepared & ate food, got to know each other, had times of prayer & reflection - and tackled a fiendish 1000 piece "turkey" jigsaw throughout the week! Sunday morning offered a choice of churches for those who wished to join in communal worship. After lunch, Rosemary & Karen led us up to the viewpoint on Peel Hill and along the cliffs. Meanwhile, Phil had collected our final arrival from Douglas, and they caught us up along the coast…

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On Day 1 we all arrived at our hotel in Grange-Over-Sands and got to meet one another in our allocated sitting room before dinner. As this was the first Journeying trip to take place since 2019 we were all very Covid aware, but the hotel was completely geared up for the safety of their guests so we need not have worried. On Day 2 after morning worship we went to Cartmel and looked around the Priory, where there was an interesting exhibition of painted masks, made by people to express how they had felt during the pandemic. It was very thought provoking. Some of us then partook of the famous Cartmel sticky toffee pudding, before walking quite a long way around…

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In June 2005, leaders Cate Macfarlane and Steve Evemy, travelled with a group to the West of Ireland. They climbed Mount Brandon. These are Cate's thoughts on that climb... Vast, immovable, haughty in her grandeur, the mountain drew us towards her. Soft and rough, grey and green, she revealed more of her great expanse as we climbed ever upwards. Reciting Brendan's Prayer, we remembered fellow pilgrims who had conquered different trails on the towering rock. Mount Brandon, on the south-west coast, in Dingle, Co. Kerry, is the second highest mountain in Ireland, 953 metres high. The ruins of St Brendan's Oratory mark the summit of the mountain. The legend is that the navigator saint climbed the mountain with his seafaring monks to prepare them physically and…

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Marooned on a tidal island; rescued by a minibus driven through a rapidly rising tide; becalmed on a ferry with engine trouble; towed to shore by the rival firm! Our first journey to Ireland was to prove a time of high adventure... Late afternoon, September 14th 1994, and twelve pilgrims are on board the old mail boat noisily pushing its way through a breezy sea toward St Colman's island home, Inishbofin, a few miles off the coast of County Galway. Midway through the voyage a sudden judder from the engines broke the friendly banter and craic of the travellers; we stood in unexpected silence, save for the wash of the sea against the hull and the cry of gull's overhead. We…

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I had the good fortune to spend the first five days of October 1996 at the hermitage on Bardsey Island. I am writing these reflections because, in the context of the current resurgence of interest in Celtic Christianity, I do not think the importance of Bardsey has been properly understood. Iona is regarded as the most important island in Scotland associated with Celtic Christianity, and Lindisfarne has a similar importance in England, but Bardsey, which is the most important island in Wales associated with Celtic Christianity, is not so well known. I would like to make a few comparisons which will begin to establish the significance of this island for us today. Firstly, the island, unlike Iona and Lindisfarne, was situated on…

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