Land’s End Trail and Mary Michael Pilgrim’s Way: Accommodation.
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The Land’s End Trail and the Mary Michael Pilgim’s way are a great introduction to long distance walking in the West Country.
Both routes start at Land’s End and finish at Avebury taking slightly different routes up the spine of the west country.
Independent Hostels provide accommodation that can be combined with YHA hostels or B&Bs to create complete a route itinerary.
The Land’s End Trail (Red) and Mary Michael Pilgrim’s (Orange) both begin at Land’s End and finish at Avebury but take in different parts of the area. The Mary Micheal Pilgrim’s way specialising in connecting significant Christian and Pre-Christian sites.
The Land’s End Trail is a great alternative for walking in the west country to the South West Coast Path. There is a lot of information on the route on the land’s End Trail section of the Oliver’s Cornwall Website and on the Long Distance Walkers website.
The Mary Michael Pilgrim’s Way is a vision created by the Mary Micheal Pilgrim’s Way non-profit organisation. The idea is to create a pilgrimage that connects significant Christian and Pre-Christian sites across the south of England from Land’s End in Cornwall to Norfolk. So far the section from Land’s End to Avebury has been documented in two guidebooks available from the organisation’s website and is also covered on the British Pilgrimage Trust
Land's End Trail and Mary Micheal Pilgrim's Way
How the Lands End Trail differs from the Mary Michael Way
The route takes the walker from Land’s End, via the Tinners Track over the countryside and the Camel Trail to Bodmin Moor. It climbs “Brown Willy” Cornwall’s highest point with the Cornish section ending in Tavistock. The Land’s End to Tavistock section is over 13 stages of between 7 and 15 miles. From Tavistock the Lands End trail crosses Dartmoor via a choice of high or low routes, it then takes the Tarka Trail to southern Exmoor before crossing the Quantocks and Somerset Levels to Glastonbury. From then on the route crosses Pewsey Vale and Salisbury Plain until it finishes at Avebury.
The Mary Michael Pilgrim’s Way takes a slightly more southern route than the Land’s End Trail at least until it gets to Dartmoor. It then skirts the northern edge of the moor before taking a more southern route again. At Glastonbury, the two routes cross and the Mary Michael Pilgrims way heads to Avebury via Shepton Mallet and Trowbridge. There are plans to extend the Mary Michael Pilgrim’s Way to Norfolk!
Details of the full routes are available on the LDWA website.
The St Mary Micheal’s Way crosses both routes on the line between Penzance and St Ives. This is a one day coast-to-coast micro-pilgrimage offering ancient stones, lost miracles, and holy wells. Details are available on the website of the British Pilgrimage Trust
The Lands End Trail
The Land’s End Trail is a great alternative for walking in the west country to the South West Coast Path. Heading from Land’s End right up the spine of the west country it finishes in Avebury on Salisbury Plain. The 303 mile route was conceived by local Cornishman Hugh Miners and developed and published by Robert Wicks, Robert Preston, and Robin Menneer in the 1990s. It is hard to find a published route now but there is a lot of information on the route on the land’s End Trail section of the Oliver’s Cornwall Website and on the Long Distance Walkers website.
How the Mary Michael Way was created
The Mary Michael Pilgrim’s Way is a vision created by the Mary Micheal Pilgrim’s Way non-profit organisation. The idea is to create a pilgrimage that connects significant Christian and Pre-Christian sites across the south of England from Land’s End in Cornwall to Norfolk. So far the section from Land’s End to Avebury has been documented in two guidebooks available from the organisation’s website and has been covered on the British Pilgrimage Trust website. The section from Brenton (west Dartmoor) to Glastonbury has also been waymarked.