Young pilgrims

Different trails in Norway are stretching toward the city of Trondheim, directing pilgrims since the Middle Ages to the Nidaros Cathedral, where the earthly remains of Saint Olav can be found. Just one year after Olav, the first “real” king of Norway, died in 1030 he was already made a saint - and for the next five hundred years his tomb became one of the most popular pilgrimage destinations across northern Europe. When the reformation reached the country, in 1537 the pilgrimage was banned and during the next few hundred years the memory of the trails were almost completely forgotten. Now the St. Olav Ways are the largest Northern European project to bring pilgrimage back to life as a cultural heritage asset.

Seven main pilgrimage routes to Nidaros have evolved over the centuries - probably one of the most scenic of them is the Kystpilegrimsleia, the coastal pilgrimage path. The more than 1000 kilometer long journey starts at the Egersund Church and runs along the west coast of Norway, through mountains, fjords, islands and reefs. This is not a continuous marked hike, so most people combine different means of transport (boat, bicycle, and even bus) to get to a new key location. However the very first part of the road is a 7 kilometer long continuous gravel path.

This trail follows (not surprisingly) an old railroad track with impressive stone walls, rock cuts, a tunnel and an old, pretty station building. It took many years of planning and preparation for the municipality to make the whole 7 kilometers suitable for walking, biking - and for starting a long pilgrimage. But there is no need to be a pilgrim to walk along this beautiful trail. Every year hundreds of school kids are exercising their leg muscles here - and their brains too. Using an educational app, they stop at certain points of the road to listen to interesting stories or answer questions. They can imagine, for example, what it could look like when the royal fleet of King Knut The Great arrived to Egersund, with hundreds of ships flooding the harbour, as it was described in different ancient stories. They can hear about geological curiosities too: about 930 million years old crystallized magma or about crescent shaped marks on rocks, which indicate, like arrows, which way the ice has moved some thousands of years ago. If you think about it, every journey to gain knowledge is also a kind of pilgrimage, whether you do it alone or together with your school friends.

the more than 1000 kilome3 ter long journey starts at the Egersund Church and runs along the west coast of Norway

A bell stone at Skåra, Egersund