Additional Reading

A Pilgrim's Guide To The Camino de Santiago St. Jean - Roncesvalles
Santiago
John Brierley

www.caminoguides


This is in my opinion the best guidebook on the Camino presently available. The maps are excellent and very clear, there is abundant information on the location of Albergues and other accommodation. There is good background information on the Camino and even a reflection section for each day where you can write notes on your experiences. I wouldn't personally subscribe to some of the author's views on spirituality, but overall I have found it an indispensable guide to walking the Camino Frances and it has the added benefit of being a nearly ideal size for conveniently carrying in your pocket

A Practical Guide For Pilgrims

- The Road to Santiago

Millan Bravo Lozano
Editorial Everest S.A.


I feel this guidebook has the disadvantage of being too big and heavy to carry on the Camino. I also find the maps are unclear and lack the necessary detail. However for history geeks like me it is indispensable as it provides excellent in-depth historical notes on each heritage site along the Camino to a satisfying level of detail that I have not found with other guidebooks! I personally photocopy the relevant pages for sections I will be walking and keep them for reference rather than taking the book to reduce weight. It also provides useful information on the route from Somport which joins the main Camino Frances route at Puente la Reina.

The Pilgrim's Way To Santiago In Navarre

Gobierno de Navarra

www.turismo.navarra.es

This is an excellent tourist booklet in English and other languages produced by the Government of Navarre with maps and information on the Camino routes that pass through Navarre. It also has an excellent illustration of a pilgrim and the recommended equipment they should take which is a very effective way of providing this information in an accessible form.

37 Jacobean Monuments To Visit

oit.pamplona@navarra.es

A small but useful tourist leaflet providing basic information on the 37 most important heritage sites that are worth visiting along the Camino routes in Navarre.

Buen Camino!

 

Natasha & Peter Murtagh

 

www.gillmacmillan.ie

 

This book recounts the story of Peter Murtagh, Managing Editor of the Irish Times and his 18 year old daughter Natasha, who walked the Camino Frances from St Jean to Finisterre in 2010.  Before setting out however, they climbed Croagh Patrick in Co. Mayo on Reek Sunday; a famous pilgrimage in Ireland.

 

Initially I found Natasha's story hard to warm to and vaguely irritating - especially when she gets locked out of an Albergue in San Domingo for staying up too late drinking! Eventually though, I came to warm to them both and really enjoyed their story. Peter in particular, has a very attractive writing style and a typically Irish poetic turn of phrase and I found his descriptions of his late Mum and Dad very moving. I could relate to much of what was written because like Peter I am also from a non-Catholic Irish background and walked the Camino shortly after the death of my own Dad.

Celebration of Discipline - The Path To Spiritual Growth

Richard Foster
 

www.hodderfaith.com

This book has nothing to do with the Camino itself but is featured because I recommend it as background reading for any Christian who wants to use the Camino to hear more clearly from God. It provided for me with clarity in my mind around the reasons that I should walk the Camino and the biblical basis for classic Christian disciplines such as Christian Meditation, the practice of such things as solitude and service. Definitely the most important book I read in 2014!

Cosan na Naomh - Walking The Saint's Road

Michael Kenning & Eric Kruschke

This is a book I co-authored. Again, it has nothing to do with the Camino, but is a personal guide to an ancient Irish pilgrim path that I walked in 2009. For anyone interested in early Irish Christianity and the development of pilgrimage in Europe it makes interesting further reading. Copies can be obtained for €20.00 plus p&p by contacting myself.

Sandiegotosantiago.com

This blog is written by an American I met at Larrasoana called Bob who is from San Diego in California and was walking the Camino Frances with his friend Clint. I highly recommend Bob's blog as it is well written, sensitive and insightful, and gives a very good impression of what it is like to walk the Camino. I wish my blog was as good as this!