Reaching 'Land's End': new social practices in the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

Since the 1980s, there has been a steady recovery of the Jacobean pilgrimage involving thousands of people travelling on foot along the routes followed by medieval pilgrims who made the journey to Santiago de Compostela. The aim of this article is to explore the global and local variables that intervene in this revival, as well as the range of social groups and actors that provide the institutional framework for the ritual practices of the pilgrims. This article analyses the 'secular' transformation of the Jacobean pilgrimage paying particular attention to the extension of the Pilgrim's Way to Cape Finisterre, where the transformation reaches its maximum expression and pilgrims ritualise the achievement of their goal in the contemplation of the sun setting over the Atlantic Ocean at 'Land's End'.