• Chris Headon
In 6 days
  • Chris Headon

The Way of St Oswald

5 days until the adventure begins Read more
  • I'm off again!

    20 minutes ago in England ⋅ 🌧 15 °C

    The FindPenguins app tells me that it's 6 days to go!

    Where to this time?
    This time I'm heading back to Lindisfarne, but from further south.
    This is St Oswald's Way.

    This is what the British Pilgrimage Trust has to say about St Oswald's Way:
    This route follows the trajectory of the great battle king Saint Oswald, born in the early 7th century. You start at Heavenfield, where Oswald erected a wooden cross under which he prayed before defeating the Welsh and Mercian forces in a decisive battle that allowed him to take control of Northumbria, a very powerful kingdom at the time. He suffered a terrible fate, and his severed head was eventually buried with Cuthbert, perhaps first at Lindisfarne, where this route ends. The church built over that fateful spot at Heavenfield seems to feel pivotal in its placement both in the landscape and in Christian history. After all, King Oswald was the great benefactor of St Aidan, who founded the monastery at Lindisfarne.
    The scenery is stunning – following almost the entire length of the Northumberland Coast Path. You will visit castles at Warkworth and at Oswald’s royal seat of Bamburgh, Norman churches, medieval abbeys, neolithic sites with rock art, gentle remote villages, sites of special conservation and meet much wildlife, especially birds. The journey traverses diverse landscapes of farmland, heather moorland, sandstone crags and sublime coastline. A particular charm of this route, because of the low visitor numbers and low-density population in Northumberland, is that despite this rich offering you will meet very few walkers compared with elsewhere in Britain- a fact that belies the route’s extreme beauty.

    Why am I doing it?
    Spending quality time with Jesus (in a stunningly beautiful place) is enough of a reason!

    It is a privilege to be able to do this, and even more of a privilege to be able to share it with others through this medium.

    For those of you who pray, I ask your prayers that God will lead me and challenge me to walk in His way as I travel with Him; and that He will use me to encourage others as I journey.

    I pray that God will bless you, as you follow me on this adventure.
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    Trip end
    June 27, 2026