Plans in place for 58th annual international walking festival in Mayo
by Tom Gillespie
THE stage is set for the 58th annual Four Day Castlebar International Walking Festival which kicks off next week.
Festival director, Rowena Gillespie, has made a special plea to the youth of Castlebar and the surrounding districts to come along and step it out with the hundreds of international visitors who will be arriving in the county town in the coming days.
The open flag parade will take place on Wednesday, July 2, at 6.30 p.m. from the Ivy Tower Hotel, on Newantrim Street. It will proceed through the town to the Mall where there will be a tree planting ceremony to celebrate Castlebar’s twinning with Höchstadt an der Aisch in Germany 25 years ago.
Following that the paraders will march to Collector’s Lane where the official opening will be perfomed by Councillor Al McDonnel, cathaoirleach, Castlebar Municipal District.
This will be followed by music in Bridge Street where the visiting and local walkers will be briefed on the four days of walking and rambling.
The walks themselves take place from Thursday, July 3 to Sunday, July 6.
On Thursday there will be a 10k road walk, a 20k road walk and the cross-country ramble which will be on the Slí Grainne Mhaol in Derreens, Achill.
This is a most scenic ramble and on a clear day the participants will see Clare Island and the Achill sea cliffs. All the ramblers will be bussed to the various ramble routes.
The road walkers on Thursday will be bussed to the Achill Greenway. The 20k walkers will go from Achill Sound to Nevin’s at Newfield, while the 10k walkers will be bussed to just outside Mulranny from where they will proceed to Nevin’s.
On Friday there will be a 10k, a 20k and the ramble. The 10k walkers will be dropped at Turlough House and they will proceed along the Greenway into Castlebar.
The 20k group will be using some of that route. They will start at the Ivy Tower Hotel and proceed out the Windy Gap road and back in the Greenway.
The Friday ramble will be to Keenagh which is a lovely walk. All the rambles are between 13k and 15k.
On Saturday the 10k and 20k are local and are around 10 minutes drive from the festival headquarters at the Ivy Tower Hotel.
The 20k walkers will be take on a route to Graffymore where they will be able to see out to Clare Island and across to Croagh Patrick.
The ramble on Saturdays is a new route on Mount Eagle in the Wild National Park.
On Sunday again there will be the 10k and 20k road walk, all quite local, but in different routes, and the ramble will take place at the back of Mulranny. This is a very nice tail, again offering magnificent scenery.
On the Saturday afternoon the finishing point will be Collector’s Lane where Mayo County Council have organised music and entertainment and a street market. Locals and walkers alike are most welcome to attend.
Later on Sunday the presentation of the awards - international, gold and silver - and the closing ceremony will take pace in the Ivy Tower Hotel and the proceedings will end with a Blister Buffet and Ball.
Walkers will flock to Castlebar from all parts of Ireland and from the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Australia, Sweden, Norway, America, Canada, England, Finland and Lithuania.
Castlebar Chamber of Commerce are sponsoring a prize for the best window display, the winner of which will be announced on Saturday with the €250 prize being presented at the closing ceremony.
Ms. Anne Conlon, president of Castlebar Chamber of Commerce, said: “We encourage all businesses to get creative - think walking and trekking gear, international themes, and vibrant displays to welcome our visitors from near and far.”
The windows should be ‘dressed’ from Monday next, June 30, to Sunday, July 6.
For the opening parade Rowena issued an appeal to sports clubs and organisations in the town to join in the parade and show off their colours and flags. The festival can be contacted through their socials or online.
She added: “Come alone and welcome our walkers as we used to do in the past. If you meet the walkers give them a wave or say hello. In the rural areas where the walkers will be trekking I would appeal to householders to put out their colours as a message of welcome to our visitors.
“We are most grateful to those who help out and in particular Turlough Nurseries who put out a stall of freshly boiled eggs and drinks. In Achill the GAA club provide toilets for the walkers. We are so lucky that so many help us out along the way.”
Mayo County Council are erecting welcome signs along the five main roads into Castlebar, on the two main roundabouts and some on the Mall.
Rowena continued: “It is lovely to see that the locals are getting back involved and we would like to see more locals registering, particularly the youth of the area.
“It was always said to me that the walks in Castlebar were a right of passage when you finished school. That is what everyone remembers.
“We want the youth to come back and enjoy the walks. It its good for them to meet new people. it is good for their mental health, and good for exercise. ‘May walking bring us together’ is the motto of the International Marching Leagued and we try to live up to that.”
The new festival flag (pictured) designed by Mick Baynes will be flown all over town and six of them will fly from poles on Newantrim Street, where the festival HQ is located.
Rowena, an employee of Penneys in Castlebar, has put her personal stamp on the walks, since taking over the role as director.
Rowena, who is a Sergeant in the Reserve Defence Forces, 6th Battalion, and an Emergency Medical technician (EMT) with the Irish Red Cross, said: “I have been associated with they walks for nearly four decades. The unique ramble/cross-country walks are the jewel in our crown as no other international festival provided such an attraction - one which shows up the vast rugged beauty of the west of Ireland.”
Rowena, who has been associated with the festival for 39 years took over the mantle of festival director from Elaine Devereaux who has been in the hot seat for up on 30 years.
In 1967 Castlebar Chamber of Commerce backed the launching of the festival and the then president, Mr. Michael Joe Egan, who came up with the festival idea, explained that a four-day walking festival was initiated in Nijmegen, Holland, in 1909.
In the first year a little over 80 people competed, but the Nijmegen festival has been held every year since, except during the war years, now attracting thousands of international walkers.
In 1967 Mr. Joseph Egan, Mayo county engineer undertook the task of laying out scenic walks around Castlebar. Today, however, the walk routes are spread all around the county.
Rowena Gillespie added: “The ramble is a unique feature of the Castlebar walks and holds a special place in the hearts of our international walkers.
“In the early days, when the ramble was first introduced with only 12 walkers it was clear that this was going to become a feature of the our walks.
“In the very beginning it was the 40km road walk that attracted the overseas visitors and the ramble was the preserve of a small group of dedicated local walkers.
"Thanks to the perseverance of this first group of ramblers this part of the festival has evolved and now, in many ways, is the very heart of the Castlebar Four Days Walks.”