Achill Island Walking Festival kicks off this Friday

ACHILL Island is one of those places which put a spell on people. Maybe you went there as a child on a family holiday, staying in a rented cottage right beside the sea, or perhaps you were sent off to learn Irish one summer and fell in love for the first time. Then again it might have been that surfing weekend, when you were in college that started the magic.

Everyone has their Achill stories, which is why you just might want to revisit old haunts, or even get to know what it is, that makes people return to the island year after year.

Like just about everywhere else in Ireland, Achill has its own walking festival and like all of the others, the scenery will be fabulous. Isn’t that what Ireland is famous for after all. So why choose Achill Island?

Well, for starters the opening night will be on Friday next, June 23, St. John’s Night or Bonfire Night, as many people call it. This is the time of the summer solstice, when the days are at their longest and Achill - at the very western edge of Europe - is a perfect place to see it.

The first walk of the weekend starts at 8 p.m. and is nice and easy - just five kilometres along the recently extended greenway. As the sun does not set until 10.15 p.m. on the 23rd, there will still be time to head over to The Golden Strand, to watch as the sun slowly sinks into the ocean, in a blaze of orange light. When eventually the long twilight fades into darkness, fires will begin to appear along the hilltops, following a tradition going back to Celtic times.

Over the following two days, walks will take place on three very different parts of the island.

The emphasis during this walking festival will be on history, folklore, biodiversity and nature, with the guides providing the information in both Irish and English. The longest walk is 14 km, but it does not require climbing either of the two mountains on the island, so is within the abilities of most reasonably fit walkers.

For over 150 years Achill Island has been famous for its magnificent landscapes, attracting both painters and, of course, film makers. The most recent films to be made on the island - The Banshees of Inisherin and My Sailor, My Love - have once again brought the island to the attention of the world. This walking festival will be an opportunity to see some of the locations where these films were shot.

On the Saturday evening, a social event has been organised at Patten’s pub in Dereens on the south side of the island. Local food and live music are on offer. No doubt this will be traditional Irish music, so anyone with any energy left might get a chance to try out those ceilidh steps, that they learned on the famous trip to the Gaeltacht.

While the festival is a weekend event, if you have the time it would be well worth extending your trip and taking in the higher mountains. Guides are available for those whose navigation skills might not be up to scratch.

Full details of the festival can be found at https://achilltourism.com/experience-achill/achill-midsummer-walks-festival/.