The Archdiocese of Madrid has launched a crowd-funding campaign to create the world’s largest geo-location map along a walking trail based on The Lord of the Rings novels.
It is urging donors to sponsor 20,000 geo-location points along the 79-mile “Ring Trail”, in the Sierra Norte hills outside Madrid.
El Camino del Anillo begins in “the Shire”, later venturing to other locations inspired by the settings in J R R Tolkien’s trilogy. Walkers can stay with villagers offering a B&B-style “Ring and Breakfast” service.
“The Ring trail is an experience of nature, hospitality and beauty,” said Pablo Martínez de Anguita, director of the Laudato Si’ Foundation, part of Madrid Archdiocese.
“The geo-map is a crowd-funding campaign so we can develop the trail further,” said Martínez. “We aim to share the teachings of Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’s encyclical on care for our Common Home, through the vision of Tolkien.”
For €10, individual donors can sponsor a point on the geo-map, bearing their name and a quote, of their choosing to inspire fellow-walkers. Each is invited to approach the Ring Trail as “an inner adventure”.
“The inner camino is very Tolkien-esque,” said Pedro de la Herrán, the trail manager. “Frodo Baggins was comfortable at home and didn’t want any hassle. But he was called to an adventure, to face an evil that would ultimately affect everyone.”
Since the trail’s launch in 2020, around 1,000 walkers have completed one of its eight stages. Seminary vice-rectors, Spanish families and English holiday-makers have roamed through beauty spots resembling New Zealand, where Peter Jackson filmed The Lord of the Rings movies.
The Camino del Anillo website says the seven-day trail is “a unique journey to help you destroy your ring”. Each walker is given a glow-in-the dark ring at the start of their trail, symbolising personal sin or suffering.
“Christians often speak of encountering God on the trail and non-believers of finding healing” says Martínez, who was introduced to Tolkien in 2010 by the writer Stratford Caldicott while a visiting professor at the School of Geography at Oxford University.
He’s inviting readers of The Tablet to experience the trail, recommended in 2021 by National Geographic.