The Pilgrims' Way (also Pilgrim's Way or Pilgrims Way) is the historic route supposed to have been taken by pilgrims from Winchester in Hampshire, England, to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury in Kent. This name, of comparatively recent coinage, is somewhat misleading as the route follows closely a pre-existing ancient trackway dated by archaeological finds to 500–450 BC, but probably in existence since the stone age. The prehistoric route followed the "natural causeway" east to west on the southern slopes of the North Downs.
The course was dictated by the natural geography: it took advantage of the contours, avoided the sticky clay of the land below but also the thinner, overlying "clay with flints" of the summits. In places a coexisting ridgeway and terrace way can be identified; the route followed would have varied with the season, but it would not drop below the upper line of cultivation. The trackway ran the entire length of the North Downs, leading to and from Folkestone: the pilgrims would have had to turn away from it, north along the valley of the Great Stour near Chilham, to reach Canterbury.