SALTY spray whips off wind-harassed Bardsey Sound as a dozen of us clamber from motor launch to rubber landing craft. First ashore as we grate into the shingle is a tall man with an elongated grey beard clasping a wooden staff.

Prostrating himself to kiss the Bardsey beach, he is followed by a woman in a voluminous black habit. Spot-the-pilgrim is proving an easier sport than I was expecting.

“There is quiet revival in pilgrimage going on, if by that we mean making a journey to search for something beyond the material,” says the poet Christine Evans, who is writing a book about Bardsey Island (or Ynys Enlli, meaning “island in the current” in Welsh).

Evans is one of a handful of residents on this far-flung scrap of green off the tip of North Wales's Llyn peninsula. “Bardsey satisfies a hunger for nature and simplicity... for somewhere to unwind, where only a thin tissue separates the material from the spiritual,” she says.

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On Bardsey you not only unwind, but also rewind through the ages. In the 5th century, hermits of the early Celtic church in search of wild and remote refuges from the temptations of the world settled here. Over the next thousand years, the island became one of the holiest places in the British Isles.

A large monastery grew up, and throughout the Middle Ages untold numbers of pilgrims made the tortuous journey, sometimes several weeks long, across the Welsh mountains. Meanwhile, the Pope raised Bardsey's spiritual stock by pronouncing that three journeys to Bardsey were worth one to Rome.

Nowadays, the equation seems to have reversed: even on easyJet, reaching Rome is at least three times quicker and more comfortable than reaching Bardsey from many parts of Britain. An expedition from London to the end of the Llyn peninsula takes all day by car or train and bus. Then there is the crossing, which may be only 15 minutes, but is always dependent on the weather, with times changing according to the currents, winds and sluicing tides.

The boatman Tony Bruce says: “Casual day-trippers are deterred by the inaccessibility, and the fact that the return crossings can never be guaranteed - you never know when you might be stranded ... Bardsey is probably more remote now than it was a millennium ago.”

Llyn's last stop is the village of Aberdaron where St Hywyn's church stands right on the beach facing the elements, and has been offering sanctuary and holy services for pilgrims since ancient times. However, it is my good fortune to overnight next door at the Ship Hotel, where the history is served with saddle of Welsh lamb and a comfortable bed.

On Bardsey we wander towards the ruins of St Mary's Abbey, where a group is reciting prayers around the stone altar in a roofless chapel. Sheep graze lazily amid the crumbling walls and tower, at the foot of Mynydd Enlli, known as “the mountain”. This rises 167m (548ft) out of the sea, dividing the island into heather-strewn highlands and flat, low-lying pasture fenced and walled into neat shapes.

From my vantage point I follow tiny figures roaming the Bardsey byways, and reflect on the spiritual pull that has drawn us here. The calming, shoulder-relaxing aura of the island is undeniable. Still, it is not hard to imagine high jinks among the hairshirts. Pilgrimages were the first form of mass tourism, and Chaucer let the medieval cat out of the bag with his tales of a holy journey to Canterbury on which everyday folk got away from life's routine, met new people and had rollicking fun - much the same spirit in which people go on holidays nowadays.

As they waited for their boats at the end of the land journey, pilgrims would kneel at a seaweed-filled rock pool and slake their thirsts on running water miraculously turned pure and sweet. Sceptics should do as I did, and scramble down over rocks worn smooth by innumerable pilgrim feet into a salty, spume-flecked cleft in the forbidding grey headland facing Bardsey and drink a draught of fresh water from this pool, known as St Mary's Well. I was astonished, almost bewitched.

Freshwater springs below the high-tide mark are a rare, if not unheard-of phenomenon. However, this was a moment that felt truly blessed by miracle. And worth at least a weekend away in Rome.

Need to know

Getting there The Bardsey Island Ferry (0845 8113655, www.enllicharter.co.uk) runs day trips, £30 from Porth Meudwy; £35 from Pwllheli.

Where to stay Self-catering cottages without electricity on Bardsey can be rented from the Bardsey Island Trust (08458 112233, www.enlli.org) between mid-April and mid-October from £185 a week for two, including gas. In Aberdaron, the Ship Hotel (01758 760204, www.theshiphotel aberdaron.co.uk) has B&B doubles from £55. Hikers can walk a 47-mile (75km) pilgrim route, organised by the Edge of Wales (01758 760652, www.edgeofwale walk.co.uk), from £48pp a day, including B&B and transfers.

Further information Visit Wales (0800 9156567, www.visitwales.com)

Keep the faith: 5 other UK pilgrimages

Lindisfarne

The island that was home to St Aidan in the 7th century is isolated from the coast twice daily as a mile-long causeway sinks under the tide. Aidan and Cuthbert, a later bishop of Lindisfarne, are two of the most revered Celtic saints. Following the sacking of their monastery by Vikings, the island became a place of pilgrimage. At Easter Christian pilgrims converge here on foot, carrying crosses, from across northern England and Scotland. Details: 01289 389004, www.lindisfarne.org.uk

Walsingham

In 1061 the Virgin Mary appeared to the Lady of the Manor at Little Walsingham in Norfolk, showed her a vision of the House of the Annunciation in Nazareth, and ordered her to construct its replica. The resulting Holy House became one of the greatest shrines of medieval England, and a focal point for pilgrims from all over Europe. Henry VIII put an end to it all at the reformation, but Walsingham was revived as a pilgrimage destination early last century by Catholics. These days, a new shrine to Mary by the ruined priory church is also visited by coachloads of Anglican faithful. Details: 01328 820255, www.walsinghamanglican.org.uk

Kagyu Samye Ling Buddhist temple

Probably Britain's fastest-growing pilgrimage destination. The gleaming oriental roof of the gaily-painted Tibetan temple appears unexpectedly around a bend on the B709, near the village of Eskdalemuir in the Scottish borders. “Guests in Quest”, as visitors are described, travel here in increasing numbers - 30,000 last year - some for a day, others staying on retreat or meditation courses. Details: 013873 73232, www.samyeling.org

Shri Swaminarayan Mandir

This highly decorated Hindu temple in Neasden, North London, has been attracting hundreds of visitors daily since its completion in 1995. Many are Hindu worshippers from around Britain; others are tourists lured by tales of the exotic at the largest Hindu temple outside India. Details: 020-8965 2651, www.mandir.org

Highgate Cemetery

Karl Marx's irreligion contributes secular overtones to his tomb and black, bearded bust in Highgate Cemetery, North London. Since the philosopher's death in 1883, his soulmates have been making intellectual pilgrimages to commune with him at the site inscribed with the epitaphs: “Workers of All Lands Unite”, and the less familiar: “Philosophers have only interpreted the world in different ways; the point, however,is to change it.” Details: 020-8340 1834, www.highgate-cemetery.org

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