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Tuesday group at Maughold Church
Snowdrops at Braddan Church
NEWS AND EVENTS
News
Please note that all Walking Group forms are now accessible from the "Forms" link at the bottom of each page.
A special Thank You to all those members who help maintain our footpaths throughout year and report defects. Some members have ‘adopted’ a particular path, maybe near to home, and regularly take their secateurs with them to tackle the brambles etc. and Ian (Sunday/Thursday group) carries roundel way markers and his trusty screwdriver with him to replace lost or damaged ones. Many thanks guys, your efforts are very much appreciated.
PRIVACY POLICY
Our privacy policy can be viewed by clicking on the link at the bottom of each page
The following MAJOR footpaths have been temporarily closed
Thank you DoI for the long awaited bridge map ref: SC 262822 on the PRoW from Abbey House on the Heritage Trail to the Patrick Road. This neat little bridge crosses a small, but difficult, stream. Thanks again.
Great news! After a prolonged closure the Tholt y Will Glen is now OPEN and has brand spanking new bridges and steps. WOW!
PROW 360 Heritage Trail will be closed between St Johns and Peel from 08:00am Wednesday 23rd January until 4th March 2019 or until works are completed if this should be earlier. Access will remain from Peel to the Raggatt footbridge and from St Johns to PROW124 which exits opposite Corletts Quarry. The Heritage Trail will open at the weekends from 16:30 each Friday and close again at 08:00 the following Monday. This PRoW will be closed in phases, please contact DoI for current closures.
Temporary closures are currently in place for each of the following three tracks/paths. However, a more prolonged 6 month closure has been applied for on each of them. This is due to the extensive amount of damage that they have suffered. There is currently no date set for when works will be carried out. The closures will be published on Roadwatch.
The byway known as 'The Dowse' (map ref: 304828 to 285824)
PRoW 405 Lynague, German is now open after a prolonged closure
PRoW632 - Riverbank Road, Ramsey
For further details the contact number for DoI is 850000.
Ramblers Association Holidays
Did you know?...That the MFCG is affiliated to the Ramblers Association. When you book a walking holiday through the Ramblers Association and you say that you belong to an affiliated walking club they will pass on a small sum of money to the club. It costs you nothing extra and it benefits YOUR club.
A couple of tips for members:
We have found a couple of very useful free apps for your smart phone. Firstly, OS Locate will give you map co-ordinates which will help the emergency services to find you should you find yourself in trouble. It also has a compass. The second one is Maps.me which can help you find your way home in the event of you becoming lost (or maybe in thick mist). It shows you where you are on the map and has already proved itself useful to us a couple of times. Neither require mobile data to work away from home. Of course, there are many more apps. of this type on the market, I’m sure you’ll find one to suit you. Lesley
First Aid Kits
The St.John Ambulance instructor was very impressed with the First Aid Kits we have bought for the club. Several members have expressed interest in owning their own. If you would like to buy one for yourself please click on the following link https://www.mistrymedical.com/search.php The ref is RL1233 and the price is £12.17
Subscriptions
Subscriptions are due 1st January each year payable to the Manx Footpaths Conservation Group and will remain at £6 for this year. Please post cheques to Maree Harper at 14, Derby Square, Douglas IM1 3LS. You can click on the following bold links to download the Membership Application Form & Standing Order Form.
Isle of Man Hills Walks Book - Important Addendum
Walk No 9 - Pages 24 and 25
Please note that this walk crosses private land. If you would like to walk this route, please contact the landowner, Mr Corlett (Tel No: 812160 / Mobile: 480338) for permission beforehand.
Footpaths
Should any member/visitor to the Isle of Man encounter problems with any public footpath, i.e. overgrown, broken gate/stile etc, please could you e-mail David Leiserach, Foothpaths Officer at David@manxfootpaths.org. It would be most helpful if you could also include a photograph and any details that will help identify the public footpath and/or position of the gate/stile etc.
Photographs
We would like to update the website photographs on a regular basis and would be pleased to receive photographs from members. If you are happy for your photograph to be used by MFCG on our website, please email it to Lesley@manxfootpaths.org (Tel:437978), including the place and date of the photograph. Thanks go to members for providing photographs from our walks. They are always greatly appreciated.
MFCG Badge
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Newsletters are distributed in Spring and Autumn each year to all fully paid up members, together with the Walks Programmes for Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays with the addition of Wednesday evenings in the summer period. Subscriptions are £6 per annum, payable before 1st January each year. Membership Application forms can be downloaded from the Forms page or contact our membership secretary Maree@manxfootpaths.org or tel: 671740.
Walks Programmes
All paid up members should now have received their exiting new Winter Walks Programme, so time to wax those boots and get walking! Our sincere thanks to Bob Garrett, Gill Percival, Tony Archibald, Peter Gunn and Pat Mudie for all their hard work in compiling the walks lists. The subtle art of persuasion is evident when they are looking for people to lead walks. Once again, we have no shortage of volunteers and we are extremely grateful to all of them (too numerous to mention individually) and without whose knowledge and experience the walks could not happen. A huge thanks also to those who send in photographs for the website. Please keep them coming, they are very much appreciated.
All walks are open to all walkers but please choose walks that will suit you. Please bring Bus or Railway Passes, Travel Cards or Cash for walks which start with a train, tram or bus journey. Also please bring a packed lunch and a drink for all day walks. Leaders who are unavailable please arrange a replacement.
EVENTS
Dates for your Diary
Winter Talks Programme
After two very successful events in our Winter Talks Programme we are now looking forward to our third and final event in this series.
Wednesday 6th February 2019 ‘The Old Ways are the Best’ with Andrew Johnson. Andrew is one of the Island’s leading Archaeologists, author, and Curator of Field Archaeology at Manx National Heritage. He also took part in the popular TV programme Time Team in 2006 when they uncovered some very important finds at Mount Murray.
Saturday 9th March 2019 - Annual Club Walk
Hopefully this will be just the first of many Club walks designed to let members who walk on different days get to know each other better. There will be two walks of different lengths, both leaving from St. John’s Old Railway Station car park. The first walk will start at 10:30am when Bob will lead an 8 mile circular walk. The second, starting at 1:30pm will be a 3 mile circular walk, led by David and will also start from St. John’s. Both groups will then come together at Mylchreest Court in Peel for a ‘bring & share’ tea.
Wednesday 20th March 2019 - MFCG ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 7.00pm
Our AGM will take place this year at the Douglas Golf Club. We would love you to join us as your input is important and there will be time after the meeting to catch up with old friends whilst enjoying a supper of sandwiches and cake (and tea/coffee).
‘Walk the Isle of Man – 2019 Event – UPDATE…
Sally Helwich and Andrew Foxon are pleased to announce that there has been considerable interest in the “Walk the Isle of Man” event running from Monday 30th September – Friday 4th October 2019 and are very happy to confirm the event. Several members of the MFCG have offered their services as walk leaders and if you would be willing to help with this as well, please contact Andrew Foxon direct on afoxon@iom.com or via 480129. Andrew will be contacting and arranging to meet with walk leaders during 2019 and providing support, risk assessments, training and emergency backup. Walk leaders will be insured for the event. If there are walks that you would particularly like to lead and offer to visitors and residents, please let Andrew know! To sign up more generally for information about the event please use https://www.facebook.com/WalktheIsleofMan/ or contact Sally Helwich at sally@iomevents.com direct.”
Sunday 13th January at 12.30pm – Saturday/Tuesday groups post-Christmas Lunch
40 members of the Saturday/Tuesday group and their guests enjoyed a delicious Sunday lunch at the Best Western Hotel. Everyone had a good time (although some of us struggled with the ‘Dingbat’ quiz…thanks for that Ken) Thanks to Ken for also organizing the lunch, a great success.
A new challenge?...
The Hills Skills Course and the Navigation Course have both created lots of interest and are both now fully subscribed. We’ll let you know how we get on and hopefully we can run these courses again in the future for those who missed out this time. Many thanks to Andrew Foxon for doing this for us.