It was once the most popular walk in Scotland, writes Gillian Harris. The 200-mile trek from the holy island of Iona on the west coast to St Andrews in the east was made by scores of early Christians, who spread the faith as they went.

These days, the pilgrimage route between Scotland’s two ancient religious centres is virtually forgotten. You can catch a bus from Iona to St Andrews, but it runs only from May until October. Many of the stopping-off points for St Columba’s 6th-century monks still exist, but in modern Scotland, the only cross-country journey anyone talks about is from Glasgow to Edinburgh.

This Christmas, however, there are plans to change that. Roseanna Cunningham, the SNP MSP for Perth and Kinross, is launching a campaign to retrace the footsteps of the early Christians with a “pilgrim way” linking Iona and St Andrews for the first time in centuries.

Cunningham, a former deputy leader of the SNP, wants Scots to be able to walk the same route as the Celtic saints whose names adorn churches and villages throughout Stirlingshire, Perth and Kinross and Fife. She hopes that reviving the pathway as part of Scotland’s extensive network of official walks will help people to explore their religious history.

She has set up a group on Facebook, the social networking site, called Campaign for a Pilgrim Way (Scotland), and 111 users have already signed up to the project. Among her supporters are members of the church, a fellow MSP, expat Scots and the Forestry Commission.

• Full story at the Sunday Times.

• Filed under Highlands + Islands, Scottish Christian News Monitor, Tayside, Fife + Central.