Pilgrimages
Our monthly and (mostly) silent pilgrimages continue in 2025 with our signature ‘sea to source’ pilgrimage River Dart Way with a special ‘tributary twist’! Starting with a low key launch on the afternoon of Saturday February 1st, we then meet on the first Sunday of each month, from April to November, to journey in stages as a small group, along the Dart and its Dartington tributary, Bidwell Brook. All are welcome to join us. To receive monthly reminders of upcoming pilgrimages, sign up for our monthly newsletter here.
This year we return to a single stream of consecutive walks, while taking a slightly different perspective on our ‘sea to source’ theme by following a Dart tributary towards its source. As we settle into our new Wild Monastery home base at Brooking Church, which is close to Bidwell Brook, we’ll use our pilgrim feet and hearts to make the connection between our ongoing home along the Dart and our new Brooking home. These walks continue with our ‘peace pilgrim’ interfaith emphasis this year, in collaboration with local sacred and secular guides. Most are on Sunday afternoons and are offered on a donation basis (We suggest £20 supported, £30 standard, £40 supporters). Dates & outline details are below.
We will continue our collaboration with the British Pilgrimage Trust (BPT) with two full day walks and as this year’s route begins with our ‘Salmon and Saltmarsh’ route, we continue to be inspired by the Bioregional Learning Centre as they move into the third phase of their Living Dart: The Saltmarsh Project. We are still finalising details of this year’s collaborations, and but dates and some basic details for the route are below. Check back in future for updates!
Saturday 1st February: 2-5pm – Brooking Church Brigid’s Birthday Tea & a low key launch. A chance for members of the Wild Church Crew and pilgrims to come together over a cuppa, on a drop in basis, from 2-3.30pm and arrive/stay at 3.30 for our launch & seasonal ceremony. More details here.
Sunday 6th April – Dartmouth & Kingswear – Peace Pilgrimage 1 – Salmon & Saltmarsh Route – guided by Sam in collaboration with the British Pilgrimage Trust.
Sunday 4th May – Kingswear to Dittisham – Peace Pilgrimage 2 – Salmon & Saltmarsh Route – Sam in collaboration with Dr Fiona Tilley, animist and environmental social scientist.
Saturday 10th May – extra ‘pop up’ Bidwell Blossom pilgrimage – Sam in collaboration with botanist, Richard Lewis, and natural dyer, Brian Bond, of BADGER CIC.
Sunday 1st June – Dittisham-Stoke Gabriel-Tuckenhay Canoe Peace Pilgrimage 3
Sunday 6th July – Cornworthy to Ashprington – Peace Pilgrimage 4 – Salmon & Saltmarsh Route
Sunday 3rd August – Ashprington to Totnes – Peace Pilgrimage 5 – Salmon & Saltmarsh Route, Lammas walk guided by Sam
Sunday 7th September – Totnes to Dartington – Peace Pilgrimage 6 – Bidwell Route
Sunday 5th October – Dartington to Brooking – Peace Pilgrimage 7 – Bidwell Route – Sam in collaboration with the British Pilgrimage Trust.
Sunday 2nd November – Brooking to Rattery – Peace Pilgrimage 8 – Bidwell Route + concluding celebration at the pub! – Sam in collaboration with Mothiur Rahman, Muslim eco lawyer and activist.
Since last year we are also working towards offering our River Dart Way as a self guided eco pilgrimage. You can find the first stage of this here.
This year we continue our love of collaboration! With current world crises, creating peaceful connections feels more important than ever and over the last year we have deepened our long term commitment to bringing together different sacred and secular perspectives through our Peace Pilgrimages and Retreats.
Over the years we have grown connections with local collaborators and now have a ‘Wild Church Crew’ of fourteen friends, plus lovely volunteers. In addition to working with guides from different faith backgrounds, we also hope to continue our collaboration with the British Pilgrimage Trust.
We also continue to celebrate and be inspired by the work of the Bioregional Learning Centre, as they enter the third phase of Living Dart: The Saltmarsh Project, which ‘aims to explore saltmarshes along the Dart Estuary, share river knowledge, and find paths to understanding and action for communities of interest’.
You can learn more about the River Dart saltmarshes from local experts in this fascinating talk organised by BLC. Visit our Saving Saltmarsh resource page for more links and to learn how to lend a helping hand to saltmarsh.
Sam and other Wild Church pilgrims are also members of Friends of the Dart and we recommend getting involved with their wonderful work.
‘You might be surprised to hear that outside the Tropics saltmarshes bury carbon at a greater rate and store more carbon per unit area below ground than their forest counterparts on land. They absorb tidal and wave energy and help prevent flooding. They regulate water quality by absorbing excess phosphates and nitrates in river water as well as salt from the incoming tides. They are important places for wading birds to breed, spend the winter and stop off during migration. Muddy, grey and brown, the Dart’s pockets of saltmarsh often go unnoticed. Best seen from a kayak, these fragile ecosystems found along the more sheltered sides of the estuary are not easy to visit, or care for’.
See our 2024 pilgrimage archive page for a glimpse of last year’s adventures & collaborators, all of whom hope to return this year. Click the ‘read more’ section at the base of this page for photos and stories from our Sacred Waters Way downstream pilgrimages in 2023 & 2021 or visit our journal.
In 2022 we paused our ‘River Dart Way – sea to source’ walk, to enjoy some shorter, meditative wanders around St Barnabas Church in Brooking, Dartington during our ‘wild monastics in residence’ year there. This included exploration of Bidwell Brook, one of the tributaries of the River Dart. We are delighted to be drawing on delights discovered for our 2025 Bidwell Route.
We also collaborated with the Devonshire Association Botany Section and local botanist Richard Lewis in two day long field meetings. Richard will join us again in 2025 for the return of our special ‘Loving the Overlooked’ (churchyard grasses) retreat – more details soon. The DA are a great resource of local knowledge about all things Devon, including botany, geology, entomology (insect life), history, architecture, arts, folklore and more…
Wild Church is completely independent, non denominational and welcomes people of any faith or none. We have no external funding & rely completely on your donations to survive. Most of our pilgrim guides are self employed, so please show your appreciation for their work by being generous in your donations. We suggest £20- £40 for each event.
Below is a taste of our 2023 & 2021 pilgrimages and there are more details & photos in the journal.
July 2nd 2023 – Canoe pilgrimage – Dartmouth to Dittisham in collaboration with Hugh of Canoe Adventures and wild food forager, Myrtle Cooper, of Wild & Curious who guided us in experiencing a taste of the saltmarsh. We also had Tyler Freeman Smith as a special guest, following his own recent ‘sea to source’ pilgrimage, inspired by the Dart Atlantic Salmon. You can listen to his podcast about this here.
Aug 6th 2023 – Dittisham to Cornworthy in collaboration with Isabel Carlisle, co-founder and director of the Bioregional Learning Centre. She wrote: ‘On this walk we veer inland in order to follow the river as closely as possible. Our feet will rest on mudflats, saltmarsh, green footpaths and country lanes as we wend our way from churchyard to churchyard’
Sept 3rd 2023 – Cornworthy to Ashprington in collaboration with environmental social scientist, Dr Fiona Tilley, drawing on her work with Exeter University and Schumacher College. Tilley brought an exploration of animism with its sense of the sacred nature of all life to this pilgrimage.
Oct 1st 2023 – Ashprington to Totnes in collaboration with eco therapist and ‘forest bathing’ guide, Clare Coyne of Immerse in Nature. Clare wrote: ‘I am interested in pilgrimage as an opportunity to quietly cultivate intimacy: with ourselves; with each other; with our more-than-human family. So for me, walking among the trees during our watery-inclined wander is – to paraphrase John Muir – an invitation to come home.
Nov 5th 2023 – Totnes to Dartington in collaboration with Fiona Gibbon & Sim Taylor, as we reflected on the journey so far and prepared to continue upstream towards Dartmoor in 2024. Both Sim & Fiona have long experience as librarians, with Sim currently developing the libraries for Schumacher College and other aspects of the Dartington Trust. So they drew us into the wild library of land and water on the Dartington Estate, and after our pilgrimage, Sim offered an optional private visit to the Elmhirst library, which is not usually open to the public.
SACRED WATERS WAY 2021 – LAUNCH EVENT – Saturday 17th April & pilgrimages every first Sunday from May 2nd until December 5th.
Deep thanks to all collaborators and guests for creating a wonderful LAUNCH EVENT together on Saturday 17th April 2021 at St. Mary’s Church, Dartington. Our Sacred Waters Way monthly pilgrimages continued on the first Sunday of each month in 2021 from May 2nd, travelling in stages along the River Dart from Dartington to the sea… We hope to head back to the source on Dartmoor in 2023.
The ‘Sacred Waters Way’ is a new pilgrimage route, which we hope to develop as a self guided journey for all to explore. On our journey along the river, we are carrying with us the River Dart Charter in collaboration with The Bioregional Learning Centre to raise awareness about resilience, caring for the environment and with the hope of inspiring other communities along the way to develop their own River Dart charters to help create a river long Charter.
Saturday 17th April 2021 – Wild Spring – Pilgrimage Launch
In and around the home church of Wild Church at St. Mary’s Dartington. Watch our live stream here on our River Dart Wild Church facebook community page.
We started our year of pilgrimages with a creative afternoon of community celebration featuring sacred music and meditation, storytelling, taster talks, stalls and activities from our collaborators, including River Tales from DWT storyteller and author, Lisa Schneidau, graveyard foraging with Myrtle Cooper of Wild & Curious, nature connection with Emma Capper of Creative Journeys in Nature, poetry from Fire in the Head, short talks from the Bioregional Learning Centre, Devon Pilgrim and Wild Church and local produce & plants from Badger Crafts and the Mother Tree Nursery.
Then on the first Sunday of each month in 2021, as we followed the River Dart from Dartington to the sea.
1.Sunday 2nd May 2021 – Wild Maytide
The journey began with an afternoon pilgrimage to connect with the sacred centres of both the church and the River Dart on the Dartington Estate. Walking from St. Mary’s Dartington to the old St Mary’s Tower at the heart of the Esate. This event was offered in collaboration with local forager, Myrtle Cooper, of Wild & Curious who introduced us to some edible, wild delights and hidden waters along the way.
2.Sunday 6 June 2021 – Wild Elements
An afternoon pilgrimage, along the river from the ancient yew and old St Mary’s Tower at the sacred heart of the Dartington Estate, towards St. Mary’s Totnes with Sam (Founder of Wild Church) and Fr Jim (Totnes Team Rector) including elemental meditative practices along the way. Our afternoon ended with the option to join in the ancient service of Vespers to mark the setting of the sun, including sacred chant.
3.Sunday 4 July 2021 – Wild Summer
The journey continued as we wandered from the ancient Leechwell within sight of St. Mary’s, Totnes and then on along the river to St. David’s, Ashprington. This afternoon pilgrimage was offered in collaboration with ‘forest bathing’ guide, Emma Capper, of Creative Journeys in Nature. Emma introduced us to the nature connection ‘invitations’ of forest bathing along the shore and within the woods of the Sharpham Trust Estate.
4.Sunday 1st August 2021 – Wild Lammas
We celebrated Lammas and high summer on a special canoe pilgrimage with Canoe Adventures across the River Dart from Tuckenhay to the ancient yew and church of St Mary and St Gabriel at Stoke Gabriel. This full day event included both silence and shared reflection, with a ‘bring and share’ campfire picnic on the riverbank.
5.Sunday 5 September 2021 – Wild Autumn
‘Filling in the gaps’ on foot following our canoe pilgrimage, this half day walk took us from St David’s at Ashprington, to Bow Creek, through Tuckenhay and along the river to St. Peter’s at Cornworthy, and was guided by Isabel Carlisle. Isabel is co-founder of the Bioregional Learning Centre that is working for climate resilience in South Devon, initiated the Charter for the River Dart that gives the river moral rights, and is working with a team of climate and river scientists, artists and communities in the Dart valley on a water-saving project called Voices of the Dart.
6.Sunday 3rd October 2021 – Wild Harvest
A half day wander continuing the journey from Cornworthy to St. George’s at Dittisham. This pilgrimage was offered in collaboration with environmental social scientist, Dr Fiona Tilley, who guided us along the way and with the water, drawing inspiration from her experience of facilitating courses in contemporary indigenous ways at Schumacher College.
7.Sunday 7th November 2021 – Wild Saints
We planned to reflect on Remembrance, including Saints and All Souls with a special afternoon pilgrimage from Dittisham to St Thomas, Kingswear, in the company of local storyteller and artist, Helen Sands. Helen & Sam made a planning pilgrimage but sadly the public event had to be cancelled due to health issues.
8.Sunday 5 December – Wild Advent
The final stage of our journey to Dartmouth, bringing us to the sea and including a visit to St. Petrox Church which stands beside Dartmouth Castle, right on the river by the mouth of the Dart.