On This Holy Island: A Modern Pilgrimage Across Britain

by Oliver Smith

Acclaimed travel writer Oliver Smith sets out to radically reframe our idea of 'pilgrimage' in Britain by retracing sacred travel made across time, from murmurs of ritual journeys in the depths of Ice Age to new pilgrimages of the 21st century. He embarks on an epic adventure across sacred British landscapes – climbing into remote sea caves, sleeping inside Neolithic tombs, scaling forgotten holy mountains and once marooning himself at sea. Following holy roads to churches, cathedrals and standing stones, this evocative and enlightening travelogue explores places prehistoric, pagan and Christian, but also reveals how football stadiums and music festivals have become contemporary places of pilgrimage. The routes walked are often ancient, the pilgrims he meets are always modern. But underpinning the book is a timeless that making journeys has always been a way of making meaning. So often, Oliver finds, “the unravelling of a path goes in tandem with the unravelling of the soul.”

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, History, British Literature

256 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 28, 2024

Reviews

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely adored this book. In it, the author selects a number of British pilgrimages and poetically lays out their experience undertaking them. Some are well known, others more of a mystery. Who knew that the ‘holy grail’ had links to Bristol? It encourages you to look at Britain in a different way and stop and question the land you are on. It’s quirky, reflective and mindful - and made me want to set out on the pilgrimages myself!

[Ros Huxley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The idea of pilgrimage, walking towards a point, an understanding, a sense of something bigger, is hugely attractive.

I've just celebrated my birthday in Santander sipping a delightful Albarino on a smart curb side restaurant. Every few minutes a Camino de Santiago pilgrim passed, sporting a scallop shell, carrying dusty backpacks, sometimes limping, but mostly smiling.

“I’d like to do that,” I kept saying, but although we were averaging 20000 steps a day around galleries and restaurants, I knew I would probably never do it. I enjoy a comfortable bed too much and hate sharing bathrooms. In this book Oliver Smith looks at pilgrimages in Britain. Some ancient, some new. Secular and religious.

Oliver explores in a particularly intense, well-researched and often very funny manner. He's not like some travel writers who mansplain too often. He is thoughtful, intelligent and gets the best out of the people he meets on his journeys.

Oliver is a regular travel writer for the Financial Times, The Times and Outside, He has been voted Travel Writer of the Year three times and on the strength of this book I can see why.

[Alex Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5*. Very British writing, in a nice way. A Sunday afternoon in the garden type of book

[Helbob · Rating 5 out of 5]

The idea of modern pilgrimage seems more necessary and important than ever right now. Walking becomes journey, the journey has meaning, the meaning can be elusive even at journeys end but something changes and something settles. I realise now that I’ve often talked about some walks or travels that I’ve done as being ‘something of a pilgrimage’, I have more understanding of that now.

[Meagan | The Chapter House · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh I got bored after about 40 pages so am DNFing. Super interesting topic, and the introduction was so engaging—but that didn’t end up panning out in the read, sadly.

[Amy Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

The perfect blend of informative and entertaining, infamous and unfamous, modern-day and historical, religious and secular. It captured the magic of exploring my own country, that staycations can be worlds apart from staying-in. A walk around the outer stones of Avebury and climbing the vertebrae of Skirrid are now firmly on my travel bucket-list.

[Steven R. McEvoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume came recommended by a professor I follow on twitter who focuses on Pilgrimage. I had some pretty high expectations based on the hype I has seen. My first disappointment was that the volume was not available in North America. I had to skirt some corners to get the eBook through an account registered in the UK (thank you old work address). Once I got it; it did not go as expected. It took me a while to get going and it took a while to read.

The description of this book states:

“Acclaimed travel writer Oliver Smith sets out to radically reframe our idea of 'pilgrimage' in Britain by retracing sacred travel made across time, from murmurs of ritual journeys in the depths of Ice Age to new pilgrimages of the 21st century.

He embarks on an epic adventure across sacred British landscapes - climbing into remote sea caves, sleeping inside Neolithic tombs, scaling forgotten holy mountains and once marooning himself at sea. Following holy roads to churches, cathedrals and standing stones, this evocative and enlightening travelogue explores places prehistoric, pagan and Christian, but also reveals how football stadiums and music festivals have become contemporary places of pilgrimage.

The routes walked are often ancient, the pilgrims he meets are always modern. But underpinning the book is a timeless truth: that making journeys has always been a way of making meaning. So often, Oliver finds, "the unravelling of a path goes in tandem with the unravelling of the soul."”

The chapters in this book are:

Prologue
1 A Causeway
2 A Cave
3 A Ridge
4 An Island
5 An Archipelago
6 A Road
7 A Mountain
8 A Well
9 A Railway
10 A Pub
11 A Stadium
12 The Stones

I highlighted a few passages early in the volume, but gave up part way through. Those I highlighted are:

“I made myself a promise–if I lost my job, I would walk the Camino de Santiago. I pictured the revolving doors of a grey office spinning to reveal silver estuaries and snowy cordilleras. I imagined I would carry my cardboard box of redundancy clutter–my hole punch, my desk lamp–across Galician pine forests, into meadows where my footsteps roused clouds of butterflies. Into walled towns where bells of ancient bronze rang from high towers. I would nap in the shade of a monastery cloister, using my P45 as a pillow.”

“After the end of the first millennium (when everyone was relieved the world didn’t end in the Earth’s thousandth year) cathedrals soared, shrines flourished–this was a time when the pilgrim pathways climbed high, and everyone trod the trail. Chaucer wrote a poem about it. It dipped, then dropped off a cliff edge after the Reformation–when pilgrimage was outlawed in the reign of Henry VIII, the shrines were demolished and the paths became overgrown. They never scaled the same giddy heights again.”

“I did not belong to any religion. Rather, my faith was in the road. I had worked most of my career as a salaried travel writer for a publishing company.”

“This book charts ideas of pilgrimage across time and landscape–from a Palaeolithic burial in a sea cave to modern music festivals–via holy wells, holy mountains, and above all holy islands.”

“This is not a memoir of a troubled soul hoping to be fixed by the road. Nor is it about re-enacting the journeys of the Middle Ages. It is not a definitive catalogue of pilgrimage destinations–but a personal selection of journeys that you might perhaps choose to undertake yourself. It is a very modern pilgrimage: of ancient paths but also of Gore-Tex, of sacred spaces and also of Welcome Breaks and Ginsters pasties along the way.”

I have read many volumes about pilgrimage, mostly about Santiago de Compostela
City in Spain, and other in the CTS Christian Shrines series. And a few written nearly 100 years ago by Alice Curtyane about sites in Ireland. But though I started this volume with great excitement it waned as I progressed and I started taking longer and longer to get back to reading it. To be honest I only finished it because of the effort I went through to get it, otherwise it likely would have ended up on my ‘did not finish’ pile. Of the dozen chapters\sites there were 2 I really enjoyed, 3 I found interesting and a few I just did not get the point.

Overall I finished the book feeling flat. Like those in the final chapter looking back at the glory days of their movement and Stonehenge. The writing is decent. The sites and pilgrimages, their history often interesting. The book just did not click with me.

[Mol T · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book up randomly in a small local book shop as it sounded like it covered topics I’d usually spend hours reading Wikipedia articles about (I’m very much someone that passes a building that captures my attention and needs to know everything about it, or will hear mention of an old folk tale in passing and be excited to research it when I get home). I had recently learned of the Santiago de Compostela which piqued my interest in the idea of modern pilgrimage, so found the idea of modern pilgrimage in Britain fascinating.

On This Holy Island captured my attention from the very start; Oliver’s witty comments, self awareness and dry humour elevate the journeys throughout, and has inspired me to travel to many of the sites/walk the paths he explores throughout the book. I thought this book was excellent, empathetic and written with an open mind as he explores a range of sites from the Neolithic to the modern and acknowledges and dives into different interpretations of each.

Each chapter is dedicated to a different pilgrimage site/path in the UK and covers everything from the history of the site, different interpretations from different communities, Oliver’s own experience of it and the stories and perspectives of those he meets along the way. I love how Oliver didn’t shy away from considering all manner of stories or theories of the sites history (from the well documented and widely accepted to the personal beliefs of those he meets and even his own thoughts) and especially enjoyed his own investigations, and interviews with a manner of individuals and groups connected to each site. Oliver seeks out speaking with those who have first hand experience with the sites and paths, spends time with them and really does their personalities and stories justice with his writing. He strikes the perfect balance of non-judgemental and questioning, and his sense of humour and commentary throughout made the book feel like a conversation with a friend. This book became my comfort reading and reignited an interest in exploring the UK for me at a time when it’s so easy to hop on a flight elsewhere for a weekend.

After reading the book I spent an entire afternoon on a slow Friday in the office reading all of his FT pieces which I really enjoyed, some of which cover the sites in the book. I’ve never really been one to read a travel blog or travel writing but Oliver has converted me. I have also signed up to the British Pilgrimage Trust and will be attending one of their events soon, hoping to embark on my own journey and build my own relationship with these sites on the island we call home.

I have recommended this book to everyone I know, and trust they’ll all love it as much as I do. I won’t however be lending my copy to anyone as I will need to keep it as reference for my own planning.

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were things I loved about this book - the wonderful descriptions of the places travelled through and to, the rich, beautiful variety of the people encountered, the history connecting people through generations, centuries, even millennia - but others that irritated gently like a tiny stone in your shoe. A couple of anomalies on Iona that marked the author as definitely not Scottish, his irresponsibly reckless behaviour in trying to take an inflatable boat into the seas around Iona alone, his seeming lack of planning of his walk along the Pilgrims Way as church after church was closed - could this not have been foreseen and maybe planned for by contacting the relevant church officials? - and the disjointed nature of some of the writing.

All that said, I did find On This Holy Island fascinating and illuminating and it will definitely have sparked other avenues of books to read.

[William Bentley · Rating 3 out of 5]

An attempt to tie millennia of pilgrimage to the modern day that largely disappoints

Evocative when describing older pilgrimage routes and interesting in parts , yet the author is desperate to jump to takes of the post 1850 quacks and entrepreneurial spiritualists who have some connection to a place of pilgrimage . If you are into such things,you will enjoy large sections of the book later on. An attempt to build a national story around pilgrimage that doesn't really take off, yet is written well enough to keep your attention.Well researched in parts ,with accounts of meetings with modern druids and pilgrims which add little. It Isn't quite what was I was expecting, in a fairly disappointing way.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so British in the best of ways. A reverence for pubs and dingy old town churches. A love of walking. The weird people you might encounter in fields. It made me want to go on a really long walk and find something greater. I really liked it!!!!

“People are awakening. People are trying to find out why we are here, what is our purpose. Right now they’re keeping us in nine-to-five jobs: telling us to just buy a car, buy a house, make lots of money. But it’s not about that. The time is coming.”

“IT IS ETERNITY NOW. I AM IN THE MIDST OF IT. IT IS ABOUT ME IN THE SUNSHINE.”

[Pauline Bicknell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but for some reason I struggled to get through this book

[Paul Below · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting in descriptions of existing special places and modern equivalents.

[Grant Cronin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant history and travelogue of Britain, told through the prism of religious, pagan and secular pilgrimages - I've added a few of these onto my list of places to visit already.

[Johnny G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

My bad for thinking that I would get a whole lot more of the terrific landscapes and the narrator’s backstory for wanting to go on these pilgrimages/walks around Britain. Double my bad for thinking that I could wade through a lot of the historical references - I’ve only been over there for about nine months of my life and don’t understand the context of these places as well as I should (outside of East Anglia). While there are many attempts to get a flavor for the sites Oliver Smith visits, I just felt like I was bogged down in long sentences any with colons and semi-colons), and the feeling like many of the police images are happening too late for him and everyone else. I did like how the chapters were organized, start to finish. A map in the front would have been helpful.

[Jmolentin]

Interesting premise and choice of pilgrimage sites written by a travel writer, not a pilgrim.

[Catherine Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

so good ... would read it again !!

[Mr P · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book more because I know some of the places the author visits well. I’d question some of the facts but that didn’t deter from my enjoyment.

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just wonderful. I liked the choice of places and the balance of history and the conversations with people he meets.

[Bryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good opening chapters, weak last third, good last chapter. Best when kept personal, not too interesting giving the history of mass pilgrimage sites.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully-written trip through places and journeys of pilgrimage, and some fascinating associated stories, from the conventional (Lindisfarne, Canterbury and Iona) to the less so (a pub and Anfield stadium). I loved Smith's openness to and interest in people's motivations, spiritual or otherwise, maintaining the right degree of journalistic objectivity, while never tipping over into either cynicism or sentimentality. He brings to the surface (for example, in his chapter on Skirrid) how history can mark places in fundamental ways while also being little-known. And he also unearths some quirky and fascinating tales, like that of the blue bowl that turned up in Bristol rather eccentrically touted as the Holy Grail. I loved his chapter on Walsingham - very respectful of what it represents while capturing well both its slight weirdness and the universality of its story that explains the appeal of this otherwise very English place, for example, to immigrant communities. Recommended.

[Gary Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read! Even though I grew up in England & Wales I knew hardly anything about the history of many places Oliver writes about. I did see Hawkwind but at the Glastonbury Festival in 1980 when it was sponsored by CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament). Food for thought when I go back to visit the UK, places I now need to see!

[Arthur Cowslip · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. While it says nothing really new, Oliver Smith has a really approachable directness and a way with words. It does exactly what it (probably) sets out to do, which is to make you want to visit the places he writes about.

[Catherine Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

inspirational

Loved every minute of this book didn’t want the path to end thank you Oliver Smith.
I will return to the old stones next solstice.