Slipper Chapel

The Slipper Chapel stands one mile east of Walsingham in Norfolk. Built around 1340 as the Chapel of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, it once marked the last stop on the pilgrim route to the Priory of Our Lady of Walsingham. After the Reformation it served as a poorhouse, forge, cowshed and barn before Charlotte Pearson Boyd bought and restored it in 1896. The chapel became the Catholic National Shrine in 1934 when the venerated image of Our Lady of Walsingham was moved here from King’s Lynn. In 1954 Pope Pius XII granted the image a canonical coronation attended by 15,000 pilgrims. The site was raised to a Minor Basilica by Pope Francis in 2015. The chapel’s name recalls the tradition that pilgrims removed their shoes to walk the final holy mile barefoot. The wooden image of Our Lady, carved in Oberammergau and blessed by Pope Leo XIII, remains enshrined inside. Each year on the Sunday nearest 8 September the statue is carried in the Dowry of Mary Pilgrimage from the Slipper Chapel. The surrounding complex includes the 1982 Chapel of Our Lady of Reconciliation, which can hold up to 400 people and open to the pilgrimage area for larger ceremonies. A Grade II listed presbytery built in 1904 by Thomas Garner also stands on the site. Visitors find a quiet country setting with the Slipper Chapel at its heart. Inside, the venerated image occupies a place of honour beneath the canopy of the chapel’s restored interior. Outside, paths lead through the grounds past a picnic area, gift shop and tea room. The holy mile still marks the route taken by pilgrims centuries ago, ending where the Slipper Chapel now stands. The complex offers space for prayer, reflection and simple refreshment.