Antrim: A gem of a walk...

We walked a great circular route in Antrim today. From the fantastic new gardens at Clotworthy House, we walked along the Six Mile Water following the Mill Race Walk to Muckamore. Magic wildlife can be found here, and as well as a Dipper and a couple of Herons, we spotted our first Kingfisher, a glowing blue blur dashing low over the river. That really made the day that did.

Backtracking a bit, we took to Kirby’s Lane which winds through a scene of bucolic loveliness and despite the fact that it is a public road it had not a car on it.

We passed across the Dublin Road and onto the path going down to Rea’s Wood, hugging the Lough Neagh shoreline.  The path took us back to the Lough Shore car park where we met the Six Mile Water again. A short ramble took us back to Clotworthy House. In short, a really nice lowland walk, along a beautiful river and with lots of great woodlands. And because of this, very atypical for Northern Ireland.

Congrats and kudos to Antrim Council for having the vision to develop this walk. It forms a great blueprint for what can be accomplished to improve countryside access, and is one that other councils would do well to study and follow. Despite the poor weather, the walk was being well used by families and dog walkers.

One final note: there was relatively little litter along the length of this walk but there was some, left by the type of people I can only classify as idiots. The council obviously work hard to keep on top of this, but if you are ever out on a walk either here or anywhere else, you can help things enormously by lifting some of the litter you might see.

Welcome To My Blog

Hi All. Welcome to what I hope will be a fun and informative blog mainly relating to walking in the Northern Ireland countryside. As a keen walker based in Northern Ireland I have long thought that our countryside access situation was poor in comparison with the rest of the UK or indeed the rest of Europe. With the establishment of a new parliament at Stormont, hope was high that this issue would be addressed for the benefit of all its people. Unfortunately, we are still waiting.

In an economic environment which is badly struggling, where politicians claim that no stone will be unturned to create jobs, and where there is a great push to maximise Northern Ireland’s tourism industry, I am amazed that countryside access is not further up the agenda. Our natural heritage is our greatest asset, yet unlocking the potential of that asset, by enhancing access, does not seem on the agenda.

Writing letters to politicians doesn’t seem to be working, so I decided to set up this blog to raise awareness of the need for a new deal in countryside access legislation in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom whose citizens are not, by law, guaranteed access to the countryside, whether over mountain or moor, coast or lowland countryside. That means Northern Ireland’s citizens are disadvantaged in relation to their compatriots on the UK mainland; second class citizens. This has got to change.

There is some actually quite powerful legislation on the statute books in the shape of the Access to the Countryside Northern Ireland Order, which came into being in 1983. It gives local councils quite sweeping powers to map, establish and maintain Public Rights of Way (PRoW), yet, apart from a few notable exceptions, it has proven quite ineffective in improving the access landscape in the North. I'll explore why this might be so, and what can be done to change this situation.

But I want to keep things positive for the most part, so to that end I’ll be highlighting great examples of where access to the countryside has been enhanced either by local councils or community groups. I’ll also post some walking routes of walks I have completed, because despite the limitations we face in comparison to UK mainland, there is still some great walking to be had.

I shall also be commenting on other related issues, such as environmental protection, heritage, anything that takes my fancy really. I hope that you can contribute too to all of this and makes this blog a force for real positive change.