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Contemporary Pilgrimage

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Isle of Man – 2018

The ancient Christian sites of the Isle of Man were my destination in my pilgrimage in the spring and early summer of 2018. I walked north from home, roughly following the Offa’s Dyke Path up the Welsh border with England. I then continued on my way across the Wirral peninsula and through the great, international city of Liverpool. From there, I walked on the two-hundred year old canal network until I could see the mountains of the Lake District in the north of England.

Taking the ferry over to the Isle of Man, I arrived on the island to take part in the Praying the Keeills event. This annual festival celebrates the Christian heritage of the Isle of Man through walks and other activities around the Keeills – these being the ancient Christian chapels on the island.

  • Visiting a Methodist Chapel in my local area as I set out.
  • Easter garden in a church in mid-Wales
  • The Chinese Arch in Liverpool- the biggest of its kind outside China
  • Over to the Isle of Man – here the Norman Cathedral on the ancient Christian site at St Patrick’s Isle
  • A church with prayer activities provided for visitors
  • On the beautiful west coast of the island on my way to the remote keeill at Lag Ny Keeilley
  • Celebrating the Norse era in a modern sculpture
  • Lovely reflective prayers at the new gardens around the Cathedral in Peel – here the sculpture remembering those interned on the Isle of Man during the two World Wars
  • One of the keeills – low walls are all that’s left of a chapel that may date back a thousand years or more
  • Took part in a walk and lovely Celtic-style prayers at Skyhill Keeill, an ancient pre-Christian site on an exposed hillside
  • St Maughold is one of the saints who may have brought the Christian faith to the Isle of Man from Ireland in the fifth century
  • The greatest number of early Christian crosses is found on the Isle of Man. Here the beautiful cross at Kirk Lonan

© 2021 Anne Hayward