The Knitted Camino - Turlough

Knitted - The Camino of the

Knitted Way Markers

Turlough O'Donnell

The Celtic Camino

The revival of the Camino de Santiago in Spain was an inspiration to many Irish people and of course to others across the world. But the initiative taken by the Cathedral in Santiago and the City of A Coruña to allow a 25k pilgrim walk in one’s own county to be added to the almost 75k walk from A Coruña and thereby qualify for the Compostela, lit a very bright spark in Ireland.

We call this combined walk, of almost 100k , the Celtic Camino. We, the Irish and Spanish, share the history/myth that the Irish are descended from the Milesians of Spain who were the descendants of the sons of Breogán.

There is speculation that the flora and fauna of Ireland came from the Iberian Peninsula and not the larger island close to us. There is also speculation that the people who founded Newgrange (about which more later) also came from the Iberian Peninsula. But this is a different story and must await further academic research I think.

Let it suffice to say that Ireland and the peoples of Spain have always been close and nowhere more so than in Galicia; long may this continue.

As a direct result of the Cathedral/A Coruña initiative there are now quite a few 25k (or more) routes in Ireland connected to the Celtic Camino. Some of these are old pilgrim ways and some newly established.

The old pilgrim routes are associated with legendary Irish saints including: St Patrick the Patron saint of Ireland, St Kevin (the anchorite who it is said, was so still in meditation, that a blackbird nested in his outstretched hand), St Declan, St Finbarr and others. And it is a true delight to me that a walking pilgrimage to Lough Derg, St Patrick’s Purgatory, (a place of ancient pilgrimage to which my father took me) is developing. Here again another piece of the jigsaw falls into place: for it was to St Patrick’s purgatory, in the Autumn of 1397 that the Catalan Knight, Viscount Ramon de Perellós travelled from the papal palace in Avignon.

The newer routes include the Coalisland Camino, the Bray to St James’s Camino and one that I want to write about here: the Boyne Valley Camino – the Camino of the knitted way markers.

Details of these Caminos can be found on the Camino Society Ireland clg website: www.caminosociety.ie

The Boyne Valley Camino

The Boyne is one of Ireland’s major rivers and joins the sea just east of the medieval town of Drogheda from where pilgrims in the Middle Ages once sailed for Santiago.

This Camino takes you from the church of St Peter’s in West Street, where the skull of St Oliver Plunkett is preserved, on a 25km looped walk, through green lanes and countryside through the beautiful Boyne Valley and at times directly alongside the river herself; in fact, it takes you on a walk through Irish History. It was at Mellifont Abbey, for example, which is a stamping point on the Boyne Camino, that the first Cistercian abbey in Ireland was founded on the instructions of Bernard of Clairvaux in 1142. And it was here, in 1690, at the Battle of the Boyne was fought.

Further along the Boyne, 5km past the Camino is Newgrange, a monument which predates Stonehenge and the great pyramids of Giza. At the winter solstice a beam of light illuminates the Chamber. The excellent website for Newgrange (www.newgrange.com) has an article by Mairead Stokes from the Irish Times in 1984 where she says this speaking about Newgrange and the other neolithic settlements in the Boyne Valley:

“It has been suggested in the past that this Boyne culture evolved from a sophisticated semi-urban civilisation which developed in the Iberian peninsula before 3,000 B.C. They buried their dead in collective chamber tombs.

It is accepted by many that this passage grave civilisation spread from Iberia to and then to the Boyne, Scotland and possibly Denmark.” (Quote from article of Mairead Stokes)

As you walk the Boyne Valley Camino you walk through ancient and beautiful land.

A recent event marked the installation of a Mouteira (traditional waymarker) at the Boyne near to where the ships would have departed for Spain in the old days. The Mouteira is a gift to Drogheda by the Xunta of Galicia. The Mayor of Drogheda, Declan Power, was there, a reminder that in 1473, John Fowling then Mayor of Drogheda, made the Pilgrimage to Santiago and that in 1562, even after the Reformation era, one of his successors was licenced to go to Santiago.

Manuel Mirás Franqueira, Honorary President of the Asociación de Concellos do Camiño Inglés attended. He, the outstanding supporter of the Celtic Camino and the Asociación de Concellos have done so much for the Celtic Camino. For example , the Stelar Network, a network exclusive to the Celtic Camino/Camino Inglés, that highlights establishments along the routes that provide high quality service to pilgrims, has permitted entry to two establishments along the Boyne Valley Camino, the Morning Star bar in Tullyallen, entered in 2024, and The Marcy Hotel in Drogheda in 2026.

Antonio Leira Piñeiro, Provincial Deputy, A Coruña Provincial Council, Galicia another strong supporter of the Celtic Camino was there, as was Marcos Gómez Román, Comisario del Xacobeo, Xunta de Galicia.

to pilgrims, has permitted entry to two establishments along the Boyne Valley Camino, the Morning Star bar in Tullyallen, entered in 2024, and The Marcy Hotel in Drogheda in 2026.

Ancient links were re-made that day.

How the Boyne Valley Camino all started.

A group of friends in Drogheda, Dusty Flanagan, Áine Walsh, Terry Collins, Pat Coffey, Caoimhe Mulroy and David Gough all got together to build a Camino of 25k – looping along the Boyne and back to Drogheda, inspired in Dusty’s case by some walking on the Camino in Spain and all encouraged by the Cathedral/ A Coruna initiative.

There was a lot of good will in the early days but certainly no signage and of course people were getting lost. One of the group, Pat Coffey (“Pat Nav”) did up some wooden posts but more signs were needed and how not to harm the trees by putting nails into them? They came up with the idea of knitted way markers. Áine Walsh knitted most with help from Caoimhe Mulroy and in all around 200 were made and then gently wrapped around the trees not harming them in any way.

From these simple origins, The Boyne Valley Camino started to flourish. People came to walk. New signs were made, as investment was put in. All the time, the idea was to involve the local community. Caoimhe Mulroy designed the map, trailhead and many of the stamps. Local T-shirt makers were given rights to print the stamps on their shirts. Adrian Gogarty, a local Stonemason, made benches out of local limestone. Local businesses and OPW sites provided hospitality and stamping facilities. Funding was secured and local contractors made and installed more robust signage, and the Camino grew and grew to what it is today - one of Ireland’s best known Celtic Caminos.

Much the same thing , in short, is happening as happened in that little parish in O Cebreiro to which Don Elías Valina Sampedro was assigned or at San Juan de Ortega where Don José María Alonzo Marroquí came to clear the way and provide his famous garlic soup to pilgrims.

Progress in our world, is not ever made, by the people who, when an idea is mentioned, immediately give you a thousand reasons why it won’t work or who say useless, boring and dispiriting things like: “good idea, the government or someone should do something about it” or “where will the money come from?”

Progress is made by those spirited people, like Don Elías, who just get up and paint the yellow arrows, or who stick a pot of garlic soup on the stove to give pilgrims, as Don José María did, or who place a collection box in the Refugio at Grañon with a note saying: “give what you can/ take what you need”, or those who don’t have the money for waymarks and just go and knit about 200 of them.

Something happened , not yet fully understood , I think , when Don Elías just stuck those cans of yellow paint in the boot of his little car and went off about his business.

A wave of energy was released; it started as a trickle and it flows and flows and gathers strength across the world.

They find the path or energy stream, these heroes, so that others can find it, flow with it and thus find themselves.

Their contribution to all of us is immeasurable and flows and flows and gives and gives.

TO’D

18.10.2026