Walkers invited to join new pilgrimage route near Ripon

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Walkers are being invited to join the first of three new pilgrimage routes around the Fountains area, near Ripon, this weekend.

The Abbots’ Way is a nine-mile route around Sawley, Fountains, Winksley and Aldfield, which includes four churches.

It is the first of three new walks collectively known as Fountains Ways – Ancient Paths for Modern Pilgrims.

Prepared by the Fountains benefice in the Ripon episcopal area of the Diocese of Leeds, they reflect a growing trend for pilgrimage routes that enable people of all faiths to enjoy the countryside and visit holy sites.

The Abbots Way name reflects the monastic heritage of Fountains Abbey.

The route passes St Michael and All Angels at Sawley, William Burges’ famous St Mary’s Church at Studley Royal, St Cuthbert and St Oswald at Winksley and St Lawrence’s at Aldfield.

Saturday’s walk, which coincides with Yorkshire Churches Day, starts on the village green in Sawley at 10.30am. It is scheduled to finish at the same spot at 3.30pm. Pre-booking is not required and everyone is welcome.

The benefice has also mapped shorter walks of about 4.5 miles known as Curlew Way, which includes Winksley, Dallowgill and Kirby Malzeard, and Fisher’s Way, which starts at Kirkby Malzeard and also includes Grewelthorpe and Mickley.

Revd Andrew Cromarty, associate priest in the benefice of Fountains, said: “I am privileged to have helped draw together a highly capable project group, through whom this idea has taken shape and gained traction.”

Tom Ramsden, chairman of the Yorkshire Historic Churches Trust, which organises Yorkshire Churches Day, said: