New book released by Greyfriars minister

Rev Dr Richard Frazer, minister at Greyfriars Kirk, has written a book about travelling the pilgrimage route of Santiago de Compostela a few years ago, and it will be released this week.

He held this as a long-time dream and completed it as one of over 300,000 people who walk the 500 miles from near Biarritz to Santiago in Spain each year. He marked the 25th year of being a minister that year and was gifted money by his congregation along with a guidebook.

Richard believes pilgrimage is an important spiritual pathway to Christianity, and he has been influential in reviving the tradition, which fell out favour in Scotland after the Reformation.

He said: “I would urge everyone to get outdoors and into nature.

“While walking, it’s almost as if the landscape starts to read you, and you become part of the landscape.”

For those looking to embark on their pilgrimage journey, Richard says you don’t need to start with faith.

“It’s very accessible,” he said. “It’s a physical experience which becomes spiritual.

As for the future of pilgrimage in Scotland, Richard describes it as a “very promising” time.

“A number of routes now operate, from Orkney to Lindisfarne and places in between.”

Travels With a Stick is published by Birlinn Books on 11 April 2019 and will be available from Blackwells and other bookshops. Richard will also be speaking at the Christian Aid Book Festival on Sunday 12 May and the Heart and Soul Festival on Sunday 19 May.