Pilgrims Way
Winchester, Alresford; Alresford, Farnham; Farnham, Canterbury, Dover
The ancient prehistoric track along the south slopes of the N Downs between Hampshire and Kent is widely known as the 'Pilgrims Way'. The modern N Downs Way National Trail broadly follows this, but as the history page on their website explains, the name dates from the 19th century, and it's doubtful how much it was actually used by pilgrims. It provides a good link to the Medway valley and Rochester, and to the coast at Folkestone/Dover. However, no sensible pilgrim would have taken such a lengthy detour to get from Rochester to Canterbury. For the modern walker, it does however provide a good largely off-road route.
The N Downs Way itself runs from Farnham to Canterbury. Although they are not part of what's usually called the 'Pilgrims Way', I include here also the link with the other historic shrine at Winchester as provided by St Swithun's Way from Farnham to Winchester. For completeness I also include the NDW's southern loop to Folkestone, even though this has little to do with pilgrimage (even if the Ordnance Survey marks this route as Pilgrims Way and not that via Canterbury).
The N Downs Way between Canterbury and Dover is now also being billed as part of the Via Francigena, though the idea that the road from France to Rome starts in Canterbury is a rather strange modern one. It was however a 'Via Francigena' is the sense that it was used by travellers from France to Canterbury, London and beyond.
Detailed mapping for sections (compare with list above):
- Farnham-Dover
- Winchester-Alresford
- Alresford-Farnham
| km | cumul km | view on map | ||
| 1-Farnham to Guildford | 17.96 | 17.96 | ||
| 2-Guildford to Dorking | 20.41 | 38.37 | ||
| 3-Dorking to Merstham | 15.47 | 53.84 | ||
| NDW Merstham to Westerham | 19.31 | 73.15 | ||
| NDW Westerham to Wrotham | 22.45 | 95.60 | ||
| NDW M20 to Rochester | 17.51 | 113.11 | ||
| NDW Rochester to Coldblow | 20.03 | 133.14 | ||
| NDW Coldblow to Dunn Street | 21.97 | 155.11 | ||
| 9-Dunn Street to Etchinghill | 24.11 | 179.22 | ||
| 10-Etchinghill to Dover | 20.85 | 200.07 | ||
| St Swithuns Way: Winchester-Alresford | 13.89 | 213.96 | ||
| St Swithuns Way: Alresford-Farnham | 39.33 | 253.29 | ||
| a | NDW Boughton Lees-Canterbury | 19.65 | 19.65 | |
| a | Canterbury-Patrixbourne | 5.26 | 24.91 | |
| a | Patrixbourne-Woolage | 8.04 | 32.95 | |
| a | Woolage-W Langdon | 9.60 | 42.55 | |
| a | W Langdon-Dover | 6.88 | 49.43 | |
| b | Patrixbourne-Kingston | 4.76 | 4.76 | |
| b | Kingston-Barham | 2.12 | 6.88 | |
| b | Barham-Geddinge Farm | 4.38 | 11.26 | |
| b | Geddinge Farm-Kearsney | 6.54 | 17.80 | |
| b | Kearsney-Dover | 4.37 | 22.17 | |
| v | Woolage-W Langdon | 8.78 | 8.78 | |
| v | Barham-Geddinge Farm | 5.66 | 14.44 |
| Section overview | All sections | Individual section (select above) * | |
| OS (GB) | view | view | view |
| OpenStreetMap | view | view | view |
| Bing maps | view | view | view |
| Google maps** | view | view | view |
- opens in separate tab/window
- viewing all sections may take long time to load on slow lines and/or machines
- OpenStreetMap/Bing/Google cover all countries; national topo maps only sections in that country
- * display of individual section does not work in popup on route overview page
- ** initial load of Google maps takes longer
Id: pilgrims