“Rehabilitating” Pilgrimage in Scotland: Heritage, Protestant Pilgrimage, and Caledonian Caminos

Marion Bowman

doi:10.1163/15685276-12341598

Abstract

Abstract Caminoization and the heritagization of religion are significant factors in the development of “new” pilgrimage in Scotland this century, helping to produce pragmatic and distinctive reworkings of pilgrimage in what was, traditionally, a predominantly Protestant milieu. Here I review the pre- and post-Reformation context of Scottish pilgrimage, outline significant influences and agents in “new” Scottish pilgrimage ideas and praxis (including the Scottish Pilgrim Routes Forum), and give a detailed account of the development of the Fife Pilgrim Way (officially launched in July 2019) as an example par excellence of how pilgrimage currently is being operationalized and reframed, influenced by both Caminoization and heritagization. This analysis shows that Scotland’s contemporary “rehabilitation” of pilgrimage is driven by multiple agents and agendas (religious, civic, economic, and societal), and that its roots lie inter alia in Scotland’s complex identity politics, Celticism, sectarianism, pro-European sentiments, and a pragmatic reassessment of and reengagement with Scotland’s fragmented pilgrimage past.

Highlights

In this article I examine current trends in the Caminoization and the heritagization of religion in relation to the growth of “new” pilgrimage in Scotland
The Church of Scotland and various Protestant churches, along with other ecumenically inclined Christians, are finding in pilgrimage new ways to engage with each other, the past, the environment, and broader society, and to reinforce Scotland’s self-identity as a culturally distinct nation with strong European affinities
Pilgrimage in Scotland can be seen in relation to the broader contemporary movement in some areas of previously Protestant Northern Europe, where people in countries and denominational traditions that firmly rejected the theological underpinnings, material culture, and praxis of pilgrimage in the past, appear to “believe in” pilgrimage as a meta-religious phenomenon

Summary

Introduction

In this article I examine current trends in the Caminoization and the heritagization of religion in relation to the growth of “new” pilgrimage in Scotland. Among those involved in the Forum are people who “found their feet” and developed an interest in “rediscovering Scotland’s lost pilgrimage heritage” on the Camino and other pilgrim paths.13 As indicated by Cooke (2012), pragmatic drivers for the promotion and operation of new routes and sharing best practice among members include the desire to revive rural or postindustrial economies, to facilitate social, economic, and community regeneration and wellbeing, to increase environmental awareness and sustainability, and to find new purposes for church buildings and dwindling congregations.

Results

Conclusion