Liam Ó Muirthile walked the Camino Française, a total of 770 km, across the Pyrenees from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Santiago de Compostela in autumn 2015. He journeyed alone, carried a backpack and stayed in the pilgrim hostels along the route.

‘I am a believer in pilgrimage in a medieval sense. It functions to ground us in some way. We have unsettled souls; we are human beings, bound for mortality, wondering about eternity. There is a consolation in doing something that is a ritual — there have been many before us, many will come after us, and we are part of something greater than ourselves, if only for a moment.’

He shares with us his thoughts on the landscape and the people whom he met on his pen pilgrimage and personal journey. He recalls the work of other poets and the long-established links between Ireland and Spain.