The route to spirituality

Tóchar — Walking Ireland’s Ancient Pilgrim Paths

Ireland has some of the most interesting sites of Christian pilgrimage in Europe, from the three-day barefoot ordeal that is St Patrick’s Purgatory on Station Island, to the awe-inspiring heights of rocky Skellig Michael, the wooded splendour of St Kevin’s Glendalough, and the dark waters of Gougane Barra.

Darach MacDonald, a former editor of the Omagh-based Ulster Herald, lives in Castlederg, Co Fermanagh, just across the border from Lough Derg in Donegal. It is here that he starts his year of hard walks and prayer, in which he will exchange jaded cynicism for inner peace.