Pilgrimage trails and shrines

	Walking the new stretch of the Walsingham pilgrimage

As far back as we know, in all faiths and cultures, people have celebrated sacred places, created wayside shrines, and made long and often arduous pilgrimages.

Sometimes we all need to step outside our normal lives and familiar patterns and go on a journey. And when we come back, if it has been a pilgrimage, we will be able to see the ordinariness of our lives as extraordinary and special once again.

This part of the Sacred Land project not only celebrates the past, it also makes sure there will be pilgrimage routes and places for people to visit well into the future.

• At Walsingham in Norfolk the local community re-directed part of the famous pilgrimage trail away from the busy main road. Find out more

• In Wales a group of walkers connected all 16 Cistercian Abbeys in one long pilgrimage trail which is set to open in 2008 as the longest footpath in Wales. Find out more

• At Abercynon an almost forgotten Welsh Lourdes is being re-discovered. Find out more