a short long-distance walk

Route Picture

St Bega's Way is a 36 mile (58 km) walk through delightful, rural West Cumbria and the magnificent scenery of the English Lake District. The walk takes you from the Norman Priory Church of St Mary and St Bega at St Bees, on the Irish Sea coast, to the pre-Norman Church of St Bega by the shores of Bassenthwaite Lake.

If you can't spare the time for two weeks on Alfred Wainwright's Coast to Coast, or three weeks for the Pennine Way, then this three-day walk is for you.

a guide book

Guide Book cover

Ros Downing planned and researched the route of St Bega's Way with the objective of writing a book to sell in support of the St Bega's Church Credo Appeal. She was joined in the production of the book by noted local artist Alistair Brewis, and the result is a beautiful, 36 page, illustrated guide. However, the Credo Appeal has already met its financial objectives, and so the proceeds of sale of the book will go to the churches of St Bega and St John, Bassenthwaite.

The book is available from local agents (see Stockists) and by post (see Mail Order).

a holiday

Contours Walking Holidays include St Bega's Way in the Lake District Short Breaks section of their website. They will book B&B accommodation for you and organise luggage transfer. The walk is self-guided.

Bassenfell Manor Christian Centre occasionally include St Bega's Way in their annual programme.

a pilgrimage

As the start and finish of the expedition are both locations in which Christian worship has taken place for over a thousand years, you may feel it is appropriate to make the walk as a pilgrimage.

a website

In the course of writing a book, indeed while researching anything significant, it's easy to amass a lot of information that just will not fit into the book itself, but which others might find useful or interesting. We thought that this website would be a useful place to publish some of that extra information.

The route of the walk passes through working countryside, so it's inevitable that sometimes diversions need to be made. For example to protect you while tree felling takes place. If we hear of anything like that we will use this website to tell you.