Benefice Pilgrimage

Building on last year’s Pilgrimage to Fountains Abbey, a small group of us have been meeting since April to prepare a series of short pilgrimages between the 
various churches in the benefice. These will be supported by welcome boards in the churches (and in some cases, activities for children), leaflets to describe
the walks - with Ordnance Survey map selections and QR-coded links to a website (possibly the North Yorkshire Tourism site). In time, we anticipate being
linked to the British Pilgrims’ Association & the Camino Ingles. There will be 3 inter-locking routes, with a formal launch before Easter.

The launch of the 9-mile Southern Route (St Michael and All Angels’, Sawley; St Cuthbert & St Oswald, Winksley; St Lawrence the Martyr, Aldfield; and St Mary’s, Studley) will coincide with Yorkshire Historic Churches Day, on Saturday 13^th September, 2025.

For more info, watch this space!

Last year around 20 people - and 3 dogs - walked from Winksley through Studley Deer Park to Fountains Abbey today as a continuation of our thinking about
pilgrimage (the Lent Course 2024).
We were joined by a handful of others and had a short service in the Abbey, followed by a picnic lunch. We were blessed with dry and warm weather, and
even a little  .