London, England, Aug 12, 2025 /
13:52 pm
A bishop in the United Kingdom has expressed concern about a proposal to build a huge solar farm on the English stretch of the Camino de Santiago in the south of England.
The English leg of the highly popular and historic pilgrimage runs 68 miles from the city of Reading to the port of Southampton, which falls within the Diocese of Portsmouth and has been frequented by pilgrims for more than a thousand years.
The Camino de Santiago is made up of many different ancient routes across Europe that all lead to the tomb of St. James in Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain.
English pilgrims would traditionally take a boat from Portsmouth and sail to Spain before continuing their pilgrimage.
In an email exchange with CNA, Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth expressed his worries about the proposal.
“The proposal to build a large solar farm seems unfortunate and I can understand any villager, farmer, or lover of the South Downs feeling saddened at the loss of land and the potential blight on the landscape, even if there are several other areas of the South Downs given over to solar farms.”
The South Downs is a highly popular national park through which the historic route runs.
“Since I became bishop of Portsmouth in 2012, I have been very aware of this venerable Camino route from Reading to Southampton,” he said. “Our parish in Reading, dedicated to St. James and standing in the ruins of the pre-Reformation abbey, is the official starting point of the Camino.”
“Indeed, only last year, I went out to greet four American bishops hiking the trail and who were staying in a farmhouse near Alton, Hampshire,” he continued. “Much of the central part of the route through Hampshire is idyllic; it is very rural, and you feel far away from the hectivity of modern life. As you walk along, it is easy to feel part of a spiritual exercise that goes back to medieval times.”
Egan said he hoped the ancient route would still be marked out in some way, adding: “I wonder too if they might install paneling and other measures to hide the solar cells and safeguard the most attractive views?”
According to a report in the Daily Telegraph, the proposed Stokes Lane Solar Farm will supply energy to 9,390 homes every year for 40 years.
A spokesperson for Solar2, the renewable energy company driving the proposal, said the plans were “necessary and urgent” in the context of the “the climate emergency, energy security, environmental degradation, and growing risks to U.K. food production,” the Telegraph reported.
But Professor Joseph Shaw, head of the U.K. Latin Mass Society — which organizes an annual pilgrimage to the Marian shrine of Walsingham, England — said: “Solar farms already encroach on many areas of our countryside, including areas near where I walk regularly in Oxfordshire. It is no exaggeration to say that they have the power to turn an ancient pathway to a holy place into a track through an alien industrial wasteland. I hope that planners are mindful of this site’s status as a World Heritage Site and preserve it for future generations.”
The U.K. stretch of the Camino became the first pilgrimage route to be awarded UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 1993.
The area also boasts other gems of historic interest including the Grade-I-listed, 12th-century building of All Saints Church, located about a half a mile away. George Austen, brother to the author Jane Austen, is also buried there, adding further historic weight.
The proposal has proved so controversial that the consultation period hosted by the local council has been extended by 20 days and will now close on Aug. 25.
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Madeleine is the former associate editor of the Catholic Herald. She has contributed to Sky News, BBC News, Woman’s Hour, Beyond Belief and many other programmes. She is also a regular Pause For Thought contributor on BBC Radio 2.
