Four pilgrim routes, Canterbury, Kent

Distance/duration: between 7 and 12 miles/1 day each

Route one: Old Way (Patrixbourne start, 8 miles to cathedral)

Route two: North Downs Pilgrims Way (Chilham start, 7 miles to cathedral)

Route three: Augustine Camino (Faversham start, 12 miles to cathedral)

Route four: Via Francigena in England (Sheperdswell start, 11 miles to Cathedral)

Canterbury was where St Augustine first settled, on a mission from Rome to convert England to Christianity, and where Thomas Becket, the 12th-century Archbishop, was murdered. The city has welcomed pilgrims for over 1,000 years, attracted by St Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury Cathedral and St Martin’s Church – the oldest church in the English-speaking world – and its many other ancient churches, saints, holy springs, and, latterly, Chaucer’s tales.

St Edmund Way, Suffolk

Distance: 22 miles
Duration: 2 days
Start: Thetford Priory
End: Bury St Edmunds Abbey 

English Heritage properties visited: Thetford Priory, Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Bury St Edmunds Abbey

You begin at Thetford Priory, an important medieval monastery near the Priory of the Canons of the Holy Sepulchre, who aided medieval pilgrims to Jerusalem. Next is the medieval stone Barnham Cross that marks the boundary between Norfolk and Suffolk, and along the Icknield Way through the King’s Forest to West Stow, a reconstructed 5th-7th-century Anglo-Saxon village. A succession of four beautiful Suffolk churches follows before you arrive at Bury St Edmunds, with its ruined abbey standing side-by-side with the cathedral, where you can hear its choir sing evensong.

The Abbesses’ Way, Shropshire

Distance: 20 miles
Duration: 2 days
Start: Wenlock Priory
End: Shrewsbury Abbey

English Heritage sites visited: Wenlock Priory, Langley Chapel and Acton Burnell Castle

You begin at magnificent Wenlock Priory, once a great pilgrimage site of 8th-century abbess St Milburga’s relics. Visit Much Wenlock’s holy wells of St Milburga and St Owen before ascending the ridge of Wenlock Edge. Revel in the rolling Shropshire landscape, before descending to Langley Chapel and Acton Burnell, with its church next to a castle built by a bishop. Then by field and road to St Eata’s Church, Atcham, before the final approach via the River Severn and Rea Brook to Shrewsbury Abbey, where part of the shrine to the 7th-century abbess St Winefride survives.

Cumbrian Cistercian Way, Cumbria

Distance: 24 miles
Duration: 2 days
Start: Piel Island
End: Cartmel Priory

English Heritage properties visited: Piel Castle, Bow Bridge, Furness Abbey

A pilgrimage through the calming landscape of South Cumbria. You start with the tiny ferry to Piel Island, owned by the medieval monks of the nearby Furness Abbey – once the second wealthiest and most powerful Cistercian monastery in England. Then you come to Urswick church, with its Arts and Crafts wooden carvings and Saxon ‘Tunwini Cross’. Climb the brow of Birkrigg Common to its stone circle overlooking Morecambe Bay, which you then traverse by train across the bay to Cark, before walking the final stretch to the magnificent Cartmel Priory.

Finchale Camino Ingles, County Durham

Distance: 22 miles
Duration: 3 days
Start: Finchale Priory
End: Escomb Church

English Heritage properties visited: Auckland Castle Deer House and Finchale Priory 

This route is a recognised English section of the Camino de Santiago. Start from the spectacular ruins of Finchale Priory, where the 12th-century hermit Godric lived for 50 years, and from where he made one of the earliest recorded pilgrimages from England to Santiago in Northern Spain. Then walk the Weardale Way to Durham Cathedral, where the shrines of the Venerable Bede and St Cuthbert are housed, and hear the cathedral choir sing evensong. Journey through Weardale before reaching Bishop Auckland. Auckland Castle houses paintings of Jacob and his twelve sons by the Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbarán. You eventually end at the complete Saxon church of Escomb.