Trekkers beat a path to Ireland

Donal Hickey on the walking trails around the country

DESPITE all the talk about people not taking enough exercise, walking is becoming increasingly popular with a recent survey showing it to be the preferred outdoor activity of 47% of Irish people.

Walking tourism brought 500,000 overseas visitors here last year, with a further 110,000 coming on cycling holidays, and Fáilte Ireland is continuing to invest in the development of treks and trails of all descriptions.

There’s no doubt Ireland is ideally suited for walking which, when people are suitably shod and clothed, is also a weather-independent activity. Even at the height of the rain and floods in recent weeks, people could be seen out walking, regardless of the elements.

In recent years, hundreds of new walks have been developed around the country, with Coillte, the forestry authority, being a prime mover.

The first National Trails Day will be held on Sunday, September 28, and everyone is being encouraged to get out and enjoy the huge range of trails available across the country.

The choice extends from multi-access trails for all users to more challenging trails for the serious hill walker, or mountain biker. From walking to mountain biking, a casual stroll to a vigorous hike, events are being organised to suit all ages, abilities and interests.

National Trails Day events will cover all trail activities — guided nature walks, mountain biking for beginners, trails maintenance days, Leave No Trace awareness walks and treks and walks of different lengths in some of the county’s most scenic areas.

Fáilte Ireland, with support from the Department of Rural, Community and Gaeltacht Affairs, is investing heavily in developing and upgrading trails, including national looped walks, waymarked ways, trails on Coillte-owned sites and the development of new cycling routes and hubs. Eighty looped walks have been developed throughout the country over the last two years. The walks come under the themes of heritage, nature, mountain and coastal.

Research has shown most walking visitors are occasional walkers, broadly defined as a person with variable fitness levels, limited navigation skills and unlikely to have researched walks prior to arrival.

Visitors are now seeking quality looped walks in areas of outstanding beauty, off-road and of an hour-and-a-half to three hour’s duration.

One of the benefits of walking tourism is that it diverts people away from the main urban destinations and enables a better regional spread of visitors.

According to Fáilte Ireland marketing director Paul Keeley, the aim is to take advantage of the increasing interest in walking holidays from both Ireland and abroad. More than 93% of walkers visit areas outside of Dublin and they also tend to stay longer than the average tourist, he says.

Coillte is currently involved in a major forest recreation programme, delivering 250km of walking, hiking and biking trails at 34 sites, including upgrading of existing trails and construction of new ones. New signs at these sites will also increase public awareness of the access to the countryside that Coillte lands provide.

Coillte has 11 forest parks and more than 150 recreation sites throughout the country while it also manages more than 52% of all off-road national trails. More than 18 million visitors per year visit Coillte recreational areas.

Wicklow is one of the most popular walking areas and, in a survey carried out there in 2008, 80% of people expressed an interest in walking. Another finding in the survey mirrored national trends and found that 47% of Irish people said walking was their preferred recreational activity.

Many community groups are now developing trails in their areas and a guide produced by Wicklow Sustainable Trails Network (WSTN) is helpful.

Scores of walking festivals are now organised around the country, including in Killarney which, with its splendid National Park, lakes and mountains, is truly a walker’s paradise.

The Walk Killarney and Kerry Programme focuses on bank holidays throughout the year and offers different options for participants — from lake-level walks exploring the beauty, heritage and history of Killarney to trekking across the highest peaks in Ireland with breathtaking views of Kerry.

The walks are graded, with the toughest being category A — a strenuous effort strictly for the experienced mountain trekker, accustomed to high mountains and with a high level of fitness.

Category A takes in peaks in the 3,000ft range and those who successfully get to the summit of these peaks qualify for an accreditation known as the K3K badge.

More laid-back strollers can take part in a category C walk along a lakeshore path through the flora and fauna-rich landscape and the Arthur Young Trail and the Mossy Woods, in the Muckross area of the National Park.