A NEW pilgrimage route from Annan to Glasgow has been officially launched.
Bothwell couple Bill and Christine Jack mapped out an off-road route that St Kentigern, also known as St Mungo, would have likely travelled between Dumfries and Galloway and Glasgow in the 6th century.
They set off on the inaugural journey from Annan, close to the missionary’s seat at Hoddom, last Friday and hope to complete the route by the October 19.
The final destination of the Kentigern Way is Glasgow Cathedral, where the missionary’s burial crypt is located.
It took the couple, who are in their 80s, about four years to create the route which has been plotted with marker posts, adorned with the Kentigern Way logo of a salmon.
Walkers will pass by Moffat, Peebles, Biggar, Lanark and Bothwell to reach Glasgow, and can undertake the route in a single expedition or in separate outings because it is divided up into 12 sections.
Dr Jack said: “The idea for the walk originated about four years ago from a chance remark by Rev Jim Gibson who was our minister at Bothwell Parish Church at the time.
“He had returned from a holiday with parishioners, walking part of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain and he suggested it would be possible to create a pilgrim route along the Clyde Valley to Glasgow Cathedral.
“This fired our imagination and we started researching the life of Kentigern/Mungo and established the connection with Hoddom.”
Kentigern was gifted a piece of land at Hoddom and established an episcopal seat, which is said to have rivalled Lindisfarne in importance.
It is assumed that he travelled widely throughout Clydesdale, upper Tweeddale and Annandale on his missionary activities and would have journeyed periodically between Glasgow and Hoddom.
For more information visit: www.kentigernway.com
