.

"Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veine in swich licour
Of which vertu engendered is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halve cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodie,
That slepen al the night with open ye
(So priketh hem nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages..."

 

So begins one of the most famous works in English literature - The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.

Pilgrimages are as old as religious history. People have always identified certain places as sacred or holy. This may be because of a sense of something spiritual about the place. It may be because someone of great holiness lived there.

There are as many reasons as there are sites.

This mini-wellspring draws together a few of the many sites of pilgrimage in the British Isles. 

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