Pilgrimage will mark tenth anniversary of farms crisis

Hundreds of walkers are set to follow in the footsteps of a group of 12th century Cistercian monks in an annual Boxing Day Pilgrimage which this year will mark the 10th anniversary of the foot-and-mouth crisis.

The walk from Ripon Cathedral to Fountains Abbey will commemorate the reopening of the four-mile route after it was closed for almost year following the countryside epidemic in 2001. Almost 2,000 walkers took part in the event a decade ago in celebration.

This year’s pilgrimage will be led, as it was in 2001, by the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, John Packer.

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He said: ”Ten years ago there was a real sense of celebration among the nearly 2,000 walkers that the countryside was open once again, after months when it felt that things might never return to normal. I remember a great sense of thanksgiving as we also prayed in the walls of Fountains Abbey for the farming community which had suffered so much loss.”

The route will follow the River Skell, through the Studley Royal Deer Park before arriving at Fountains Abbey, where there will be carols and a short service.

The walk traces the route of the monks who set off from Ripon Cathedral on December 26, 1132, to found Fountains Abbey.

It was first staged in 1982, when fewer than 100 people took part.

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