The saints go marching on: taking a pilgrim’s trek across north-east England

On a four-day hike from Heavenfield to Durham, our writer takes in the scenery, sunshine and sourdough on one of six new – but ancient – pilgrimage routes

The morning sun shines through the tall windows of Hexham Abbey. It brightens the rich blue and green of Saint Cuthbert’s robes and the crimson of St Oswald’s tunic. St Wilfrid is depicted holding plans for the original abbey he built here in AD647, using recycled stone from a Roman fort.

Open again after closing in lockdown for the first time since the Black Death, the abbey is full of carved faces and painted medieval panels showing gilded saints and dancing skeletons. But I turn my back on its golden stone and an hour or two later I am walking among autumn woods and waterfalls, the town far behind me and the open moors ahead.