Bardsey Island and the North Wales Pilgrim’s Way
Following in the footsteps of the Celtic Saints
The North Wales Pilgrim’s Way, Taith Pererin Goglledd Cymru in the Welsh language is a one hundred and thirty-four mile, long-distance footpath. It runs East to West from Basingwerk Abbey and Saint Winifred’s Well in Holywell to the tip of the Llyn Peninsular and and across Bardsey Sound to Bardsey Island.
Bardsey Island is known locally as “Ynys Enlli” which translates into English as the Island of Currents. The two-mile distance across from the mainland is notorious for some of the most dangerous rip tides in Europe. We also know it as the Isle of Twenty Thousand Saints, as there are reputed to be that many Saintly Christians who have found their last resting place in this isolated place. There are legends that the island was a sacred place to the ancient druids and that it is the real Avalon of King Arthur’s fame. The earliest connection with Celtic Christianity goes back over fifteen hundred years to the sixth century when it is believed that Saint Cadfan began the monastery, which then existed for over one thousand years. By the twelfth century, Bardsey was an important centre of medieval pilgrimage, perhaps fuelled by the myth that anyone who died in this holy place would not then go to hell. They considered two pilgrimages to Bardsey to be as good as…
