The Walking Pilgrim

Ports

• Medieval: pilgrims will have travelled in either a normal trading ship or in a ship specifically hired to carry pilgrims; if the former, they will have had to disembark where the ship landed; most of the latter will have headed for Corunna and the Camino Inglés.
  • In France, the most important ports were, from the north: Dunkirk, Boulogne (where there was a cult of the Virgin), Dieppe (where the church of St-Jacques was the subject of a local pilgrimage), Fécamp, Honfleur/Harfleur and Rouen, Caen, Cherbourg/Barfleur, St Malo/Mont-St-Michel area, Tréguier, Landerneau, Bourgneuf-en-Retz/Noirmoutier area, La Rochelle (where documents from the Hôpital St Jacques, founded in 1349, specifically mention pilgrims to Santiago), Gironde estuary (Soulac/Talmont) and Bordeaux, Bayonne
  • In England, analysis by Constance Storrs of licences granted to ship-captains to carry pilgrims to Santiago show the most-used ports were all in the SW: Bristol, Fowey, Plymouth, Dartmouth, Poole. Interestingly, Bristol had a Benedictine priory dedicated to St James, and Poole's parish church is also dedicated to St James.
    Crossings from Kent, as the shortest sea-crossing, were of course particularly important for those making an overland pilgrimage, and particularly Sandwich (which replaced the most important Roman port at nearby Richborough) was pre-eminent in export of wool to Flanders. Dover, the most important Kent port of today, also has a medieval church of St James. London, Bristol and Southampton dominated the large importation of wines from Bordeaux, though other ports on the S coast such as Fowey, Weymouth and Poole all grew substantially in the Middle Ages due to trade with SW France.
• Modern; see channel ports page for continuation routes in France
  • Spain: Bilbao (from Portsmouth by ship, from Bristol or Stansted by plane); Santander (from Plymouth by ship, from Stansted by plane); Gijón/Avilés (from Stansted by plane)
  • France: Dunkirk and Boulogne can be reached by ferry from Dover, but no foot-passengers, who can cross to Calais and connect with Boulogne via coast path; Dieppe (from Newhaven); Le Havre is modern replacement for Honfleur/Harfleur, Ouistreham is modern port for Caen (both from Portsmouth); Cherbourg (by ship from Poole and Portsmouth; by plane from Southampton); St Malo (by ship from Poole, Portsmouth and Weymouth, by plane to Dinard from Stansted and Luton); La Rochelle (by plane from Birmingham, Southampton and Stansted); Bordeaux (by plane from Southampton, Bristol, Birmingham, Nottingham, Manchester); Bayonne/Biarritz (by plane from Stansted)