This year’s walkislay takes place from Saturday 14th - Friday 20th April with walks available to everyone of all abilities. The fifth Walkislay is the first walking festival on the calendar for 2007 in the whole of Scotland. We have had visitors, from Sweden, Gemany, Australia, Canada and the USA as well as folk from mainland Scotland, England and Wales and our own locals from here on Islay and Jura. We have not had the pleasure of anyone from Ireland yet - maybe this will be the year.
The first walk, on Saturday 14th will be led by Donald James MacPhee starting from The Kennels at Ballygrant. Lindy Maclellan and Bryony MacFarlane will be taking the Sunday walk out from Bunnahabhain when well behaved, sociable dogs along with their owners will be welcome. The walks continue through the week, with some days having options of a longer or a shorter walk to choose from. Walkaboutabit will start from the Service Point in Jamieson Street at 1.30pm as usual.
On Wednesday, James How will be taking a group over to Colonsay again, for a walk back from Garvald past their new airport returning to Scalascaig. James and Mary MacAulay will be taking one of their ever popular walks also on the Wednesday afternoon, for those who do not wish to go to Colonsay. Gordon Muir’s walk on Jura on Thursday will be limited to 20 walkers for a route around the base of Corra Bheinn. This is quite a challenging walk, so we request that you please inform Ian Brooke on 01496 850 382 as soon as possible if you wish to go to Jura.
The final walk on the Friday evening will be through Bridgend woods, up to the Woollen Mill returning to Bridgend Hotel for soup and sandwiches. There are other walks also on through the week, and details can be found on the Walkislay website. Further updates will be availble from there, with further articles in The Ileach nearer the time giving exact starting venues and times.
Story published with kind permission from The Ileach
Armin Grewe joined several, or all?, editions of Walkislay and has some interesting travelogues on his website:
Islay Weblog
http://blog.islayinfo.com/article.php/walk_islay_2007