Pair finish two-year English cathedrals pilgrimage

Dorothy Gray (left) and Clare Slator (right) visited 44 places of worship on their tour of England

Two women have finished a "nutty" two-year pilgrimage to every cathedral in England, which started and ended in their home county of North Yorkshire.

Clare Slator, 65, and Dorothy Gray, 72, started their pilgrimage in 2023 with a visit to York Minster and concluded it on Tuesday at Ripon Cathedral.

Along the way, the pair, who used the pilgrimage to raise awareness of a scholarship fund for Palestinian students, attended services and met members of cathedral staff and congregations.

Ms Slator, from Kirby Hill, near Boroughbridge, said: "It's just a bit unreal because it's taken two years and it's been an absolutely incredible experience."

Ms Slator estimated she and Ms Gray, from Ripon, had raised about £2,000 for young people living in a West Bank orphanage, allowing them to go to university.

Ms Slator said Coventry Cathedral (pictured) was one of the most memorable they had visited

Ms Slator said the idea of the tour came when Ms Gray gave her "a little book on pilgrimages to cathedrals".

"I said, why don't we do all of them and publicise the Jeel Scholarship Fund, not realising how nutty this was because there are cathedrals from Truro to Carlisle", she said.

Altogether, the pair visited 44 places of worship, which included all 42 Anglican cathedrals in England as well as Westminster Abbey and Peel Cathedral on the Isle of Man.

Ms Slator said: "It started off quite easy because Dorothy and I would go and do a northern cathedral as a day trip," Ms Slator said.

"Then, we suddenly thought, oh crumbs, how are we going to do the others?"

The women took a caravan to the South East to complete six visits, before spending a few holidays in the South West and North West in an effort to tick more off their list.

"It was quite a logistical nightmare, but I must say I saw parts of England I've never seen before and didn't even know where they were before we went," Ms Slator explained.

The pair started their pilgrimage at York Minster in 2023 and ended it at Ripon Cathedral earlier this week

Despite their loyalty to North Yorkshire, the women said they were most impressed by the cathedrals in Ely and Coventry.

"Ely was just absolutely beautiful. We went to morning prayer there," Ms Slator said.

"It was empty with no lights on, but the sunlight just shone through onto the nave and it was just ethereal."

Although walking for many of the visits, Ms Gray had a fall on The Howgills, between the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales, requiring aid from mountain rescue, before their final pilgrimage.

However, Ms Gray did not let that stop her seeing the last cathedral, in her home city of Ripon, making that trip in her wheelchair.

"It was really lovely because the whole of the Jeel Scholarship Fund committee came with us and met us at the cathedral," Ms Slator said.

"The Dean greeted us and then we went for a lovely service and then we went and had a cuppa in one of the cafes in Ripon afterwards."

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