Local pilgrimage walks

On this page we present the walks we have developed, often in collaboration with local residents and organisations. Pilgrimages are undertaken for a variety of reasons and can be either secular or religious in nature.

Engels & the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

We have been supporting the Engels in Eastbourne campaign to develop a new interactive map of Eastbourne that makes for a fascinating pilgrimage walk through the town's historical connections with Britain's radical political past. The map is accompanied by a pamphlet giving the complete historical background to the places on the walk. Click the button below to access the map.

Spring Water Walk

In collaboration with Plastic Free Eastbourne, we developed a Spring Water Walk along Eastbourne’s seafront that links the Beachy Head Story with Sovereign Harbour. This walk includes a stop at the famous spring at Holywell, a site of pilgrimage for many centuries and still regarded as sacred and special by many people today. The walk was first promoted at Eastbourne’s first ever Spring Water Festival that ran from 14th to 23rd May 2021. For a detailed map of the walk, click below:

Walking with our ancient downland ancestors

This walk, created by Eastbourne Heritage especially for the Eastbourne Walking Festival in 2020, is a deep dive into the ancestral past and sacred sites of our local downland landscape, from Neolithic times onwards. Click below for the video guides:

The Old Way Pilgrimage to the Holywell spring

The Old Way pilgrimage route from Southampton to Canterbury has a side branch along the eastern escarpment of the South Downs, going past numerous Neolithic sites, and ending at the spring at Holywell on Eastbourne's seafront, regarded both past and present as a sacred and special place for both religious and secular pilgrims.

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