12 Jul 2021 Written By Matthew Eastley

From the Pennines to Istanbul (and back again)

In his own words, Phil McCarthy (St Mary’s 1970 to 1977) shares news of his new book which recounts an epic solo journey and how he and a group of St Mary’s friends from his year will be reprising a walk they took 46 years ago.

“The night after our final O-Level exam, four friends from St Mary’s set off to walk the Pennine Way: Andrew Carmichael, Peter Linnett, Tony Damer and me. We caught the night coach to Newcastle and another on into the Cheviots. It was the hot, dry summer of 1975 and it was a tough walk, but the trek confirmed in me a love of long-distance hiking and journeys with a clear destination and purpose.

“In 2008 I needed a break from my work as a GP in Bristol and decided to walk the 1,200 miles from Canterbury to Rome alone over three months. I followed the Via Francigena, the ancient route that English pilgrims took to Rome until the Reformation. The way took me to Dover, across the war scarred fields of Northern France (where I visited the grave of my great uncle, killed during the Somme campaign), through the Champagne country, over the Jura Mountains to Lausanne, round Lake Geneva, over the snowbound Great St Bernard Pass through the Alps, across the Po valley and through the Apennines to the Mediterranean. Finally, the route passes through the medieval cities of Tuscany to Rome. I saw much beauty, met some fascinating people, stayed in a palace and slept on floors, and was astonished by the kindness of strangers.

“I wrote about my walk in a book I called Rome Alone. The book is record of the journey and a reflection on the possibilities and meaning of pilgrimage in a secular age of doubt and confusion.  

“In 2015, a friend suggested that a group of us spend Easter at the Greek Orthodox monastic enclave of Mount Athos. The idea came to me of walking from Rome to Thessaloniki, joining the others for Easter on the Holy Mountain of Athos and then carrying on to Istanbul. Once again Roman roads guided me. In Italy I followed the Via Appia and then the Via Traiana to Bari. I crossed the Adriatic by ferry and from Durrës in Albania the Via Egnatia took me across that country, Northern Macedonia and Greece to Thessaloniki and onwards to Istanbul. It was the centenary of the Gallipoli landings and my great uncle Daniel Canty fought at Suvla Bay, so I made a detour by bike from the direct path to visit the battlegrounds.  

“Following this journey I wrote another book: The Dusty Roads of History. It is a record of my travels and an exploration of the potential for modern travel to be a pilgrimage into one’s personal and family history as well as the wider world events that shaped them.   

“This September the same four Old St Marians will set off to walk the Pennine Way again.  We will be collectively 184 years older than last time, so we will stay in more comfortable accommodation and use a courier to carry our luggage. Otherwise the essentials of long-distance walking are unchanged. We will keep In Omnibus Labora informed of developments!”

More details of Phil’s walks and his books can be found at www.romealone.org.uk

Proceeds from sales of the books will support the work of

St Joseph’s Hospice in Hackney, East London.