An adventurous couple in their 80s have embarked on a new 150-mile pilgrimage walk in honour of the founder and patron saint of Glasgow.

Bill and Christine Jack have mapped out an off-road route that St Kentigern, also known as St Mungo, would have likely travelled between Dumfries and Galloway and the city in the 6th century.

They set off on the inaugural journey from Annan, close to the missionary’s seat at Hoddom, last Friday and hope to complete the route by October 19.

The final destination of the Kentigern Way is Glasgow Cathedral where the missionary’s burial crypt is located and a special dedication service will be led by Rev Mark Johnston.

It took the couple of Bothwell in South Lanarkshire, who are 82 and 81 respectively and have seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren, about four years to create the route which has been plotted with marker posts, adorned with the Kentigern Way logo which is a salmon.

Walkers will pass by the towns of Moffat, Peebles, Biggar, Lanark and Bothwell to reach Glasgow.

Dr Jack said: “The idea for the walk originated about four years ago from a chance remark by Rev Jim Gibson who was our minister at Bothwell Parish Church at the time.

“He had returned from a holiday with parishioners, walking part of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain and he suggested it would be possible to create a pilgrim route along the Clyde Valley to Glasgow Cathedral.

“This fired our imagination and we started researching the life of Kentigern/Mungo and established the connection with Hoddom.

“For many people, the daily rhythm of long-distance walking provides an opportunity for them to take time out from cluttered lives and make space for reflection and spiritual refreshment.”

Mungo lived in the second half of the 6th century about 150 years after the departure of the Romans and was contemporary with St Columba.

Much of his life story is based upon a collection of myths and miracles, commemorated in the Glasgow coat of arms – the bird, the bell, the tree and the ring.

The son of Princess Teneu (Enoch), daughter of LLanddeu king of the powerful Gododdin tribe in Lothian, he was raised in the care of monks of St Serf at Culross who named him ‘Mun Go’ which means “dear boy”.

As a young adult he embarked on his own evangelising path, heading west to establish a monastic cell on the banks of the Molendinar Burn where Glasgow Cathedral, a place of worship for 800 years, is now sited.

Dr Jack added: “The Kentigern Way traverses a wide variety of landscapes and encompasses superb scenery.”