57th Castlebar International Four Days Walks has been officially launched
CASTLEBAR is a blaze of colour as the county town welcomes visitors for the 57th annual Castlebar International Four Day Walking Festival.
Flags and bunting flutter in the breeze above all the streets and colourful window displays are visible everywhere.
The event was officially opened this evening by Councillor Donna Sheridan, cathaoirleach of the Castlebar Municipal District, at the Mall.
She extended to warm welcome to the 350 walkers who travelled to Mayo from 20 countries to take part in the event.
The event is recovering well from the setback of the Covid years and is on course to retaining its former glory when over 1,000 walkers visited the town on an annual basis.
Festival director, Rowena Gillespie, has encouraging as many locals as possible to join in the road walks and scenic cross-country rambles.
She said: “We have up on 350 visitors travelling from all parts of the world, from as far away as Australia and Japan, to participate in the festival.
"This, of course, is well down on the figures for earlier years, solely because of the grave lack of accommodation in the area.
“However we have walkers travelling from Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, Japan, UK, Czech Republic and the many of the International Protection people in Castlebar have been invited to take part in all of the events.”
She continued: “Each day we will have a 10k and 20k walk and a guided cross-county ramble.
“Tomorrow (Thursday) the ramble will be on the Sli Grainne Uaile in Achill, which will take four to five hours. The 10k and 20k road walkers will be bussed to Achill.
"The 20k walkers will be dropped at Achill Sound and will walk the Greenway while the 10k walkers are dropped a couple of kilometres outside Mulranny and they will finish at Nevin’s of Tiernar.
“On Friday the ramblers will tackle the trail at the back of the Mulranny Park Hotel while the road walkers will be on the Turlough Greenway (10k) while the 20k will go from HQ to Turlough, Ross, Crimlin and back into Castlebar on the Windy Gap road.
“The Saturday ramble is to Keenagh and the road walks depart from HQ around various local routes around Castlebar.
“On Sunday the ramble is on the Letterkeen Loop at Newport while the road walks are around Lough Lannagh with the 20k going to Snugboro.”
Some sound advice for those on the rambles is to bring wet gear and have proper footwear.
All of the road walks are road marked and there will be guides on junction to direct the walkers.
Registration for the various walks closed on June 30, to allow the organisers arrange transport for the walker.
The Redmond Academy of Irish Dancing will be in hand in the Ivy Tower Hotel each day to give the visitors some lessons in Irish dancing which hopefully they will be able to display at the closing Blister Ball on Sunday night.
Rowena, an employee of Penneys in Castlebar, has put her personal stamp on the walks, which this year takes place from July 4 to 7.
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 well over three 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 38 years, took over the mantle of festival director last year 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 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 west of 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.”
The festival ends on Sunday night, June 7, with a Blister Ball in the Ivy Tower Hotel, Castlebar, after gold, silver and bronze medals are presented to the walkers.