This journal was written during our pilgrimage walk from Iona to Lindisfarne following parts of St Aidan’s Way and St Cuthbert’s Way across Scotland and northern England.

What began as a an idea of a pilgrimage walk slowly became something deeper. From an idea to an experience.

Over weeks of walking — through rain, wind, fatigue, silence, conversation, prayer and ordinary moments — the journey became less about reaching a destination and more about paying attention. Attention to God, to one another, to the landscape, and to what was happening within us.

These entries were handwritten each evening, in a small A7 notebook, usually at the end of long days on the trail. They are intentionally lightly edited. What appears here is not a polished spiritual recount, but an honest pilgrim journal — sometimes joyful, sometimes uncertain, sometimes boring, sometimes weary, sometimes full of clarity.

Along the way themes kept returning:
• small steps and long journeys
• surrender and control
• marriage and companionship
• resilience and limitation
• mountain tops and valleys
• burden and release
• the movement from striving toward grace

The walk began on the shore of Iona carrying a stone we each picked up from that shore, placed in our packs and ended on the shore of Lindisfarne, where we layed them down.

Some things changed during that journey.
Some things are still unfolding.

This journal is offered in the hope that it may encourage other pilgrims — whether walking ancient paths across landscapes or quieter paths within their own lives. Transcribing these notes for this website, is as much about a process of connection for me as it is about anything else.

“Small steps each day = a big journey over time.”