A Llandough day route in the British Pilgrimage Trust directory

Harvested 2026-11-01 ~02:15Z (skills harvest). Before this run the index had 0 mentions of "pilgrim", "pilgrimage", "National Churches Trust" or "ExploreChurches". This is a heritage-walk distribution channel the tour presale and waitlist files do not cover. It also fits the documentary's "early Christian Llandough" scenes.

Why it matters (numbers, with how far each was checked)

• The British Pilgrimage Trust (BPT), a charity founded in 2014, runs a free route network of 250+ routes and 700+ places across England, Wales and Scotland (homepage, read 2026-11-01).
• Its 2025 "most popular routes" release (6 Jan 2026, read) states its resources are used by "tens of thousands of pilgrims every month". It also ranks routes by downloads each January, so a route can earn press. Interest is rising: the King's 2025 Christmas speech focused on pilgrimage, and BPT reports growing demand. Short routes (St Michael's Way, for example) sit high on the list.
• Every route page carries a GPX download (help page, snippet), and BPT routes can be planned in OS Maps (OS guide, snippet, not checked). That puts the route inside two walking apps that heritage walkers already use.
• Wales already has big pilgrim brands: the North Wales Pilgrims Way (about 135 miles, Cadw teacher resource, snippet) and the Llŷn and Anglesey routes. The Visit Wales trade sheet mentions pilgrims walking to St Teilo's shrine at Llandaff Cathedral (snippet, not checked). There is no South-East Wales day route around Llandough among the top routes seen.

The submission route (BPT "Create your own route", read in full)

1. Destination: a cathedral, abbey, priory, or any holy place: a parish church, holy well, ancient tree or hilltop.
2. Start point: another holy or ancient place, ideally near a train station. For a day route, draw a 6–8 mile diameter circle around the destination (3–4 miles for a half day).
3. Route on public rights of way. Collect Commons-licensed photos (Wikipedia images often qualify).
4. Test-walk it. The template states to do this before submitting.
5. Submit by email. BPT uploads it to the directory. If you cannot make a GPX, send OS or OpenStreetMap sheets with the route drawn on in pencil, and BPT will make the Google map, waypoints, text for each waypoint, and photos.
6. Once it is listed, BPT routes can be walked as sponsored walks (Givestar, read on the homepage). Community events can also be listed on its "Join a Community Event" page (not checked).

Playbook

• Write the route as a story with waypoints: one short, sourced paragraph per stop. Writing that does well in the BPT directory reads like a guidebook, not an advert.
• Choose an "intention" theme that fits the Trust's "bring your own beliefs" stance. Heritage and remembrance count as well as faith.
• After listing, put the route page link and the GPX on your own site's walk page. Share it once on your channels, and send it to local walking groups through the existing outreach files (draft only).
• Each January, check the BPT most-popular list and any download count BPT will share.

How we apply it to Cedwyn

• Candidate route (to test, not checked): a half-day or day walk between Llandaff Cathedral (St Teilo) and St Dochdwy's church, Llandough, the site of a major early-medieval monastery. A train-station start point is to be found. Use public rights of way only. The route must not pass, name or point to any family holding or private address, and must not route onto Great House Farm land. The Roman villa site is described only as "south of today's church, a separate site", in the wording already on the site.
• Waypoint text comes only from Cedwyn catalogue entries (MR-/PX-/CH- IDs held privately for checking) and follows the editorial rules: no banned words, no insignia, no assertions about named people. Welsh place names come first, and a cy version is produced to go with the submission.
• Ties in: the documentary's early-Christian Llandough door can link to the route ("walk the ground"). The tour presale or waitlist page can offer the BPT route as a free self-guided taste before any paid guided walk.
• Status: GATED. It needs the owner's GO and a physical test walk by a person, because BPT requires one. Emailing BPT is an outward contact, so draft it as a HubSpot task only. Nothing is sent from this run.
• Measure: GPX downloads, if BPT reports them, plus referrals to the Cedwyn walk page tagged utm_source=britishpilgrimage.

Sources

• britishpilgrimage.org (read: 250+ routes, 700+ places, Givestar)
• britishpilgrimage.org (read in full)
• britishpilgrimage.org (read, 6 Jan 2026)
• britishpilgrimage.org (snippet: GPX on every route)
• osmaps.com (snippet)
• traveltrade.visitwales.com (snippet: St Teilo, Llandaff)
• cadw.gov.wales (snippet)

Raw Markdown: british-pilgrimage-trust-route-submission-holy-places-day-walk.md · version and changes: changelog · machine index: agents.json