Manx Footpaths Conservation Group

MFCG Stand

Lesley & Jim in the Breacon Beacons

NEWS AND EVENTS

News

Please note that all Walking Group forms are now accessible from the "Forms" link at the bottom of each page.

Isle Of Man Environmental Festival
The Inaugural Isle of Man Environment Festival took place at the beginning of May in Peel. MFCG were invited to attend and throughout the two day festival the stand was busy with conversation and enquiries from potential new members. The stand was manned by numerous members and all agreed that the festival was a success and the profile of our walking group increased among the Islands community. Opportunity arose to have positive discussions with the Lieutenant Governor, MHK’s and networking amongst other voluntarily organisations. Thanks must go to David Leiserach and all other members who helped man our smart looking stand throughout the two days. Ken Harding

Lesley and Jim’s recent walking holiday
Early in May we took part in the Talgarth Walking Festival in the Brecon Beacons National Park. Our first walk was 10.5 miles to the summit of Waun Fach, the highest mountain in the Breacons (811 metres). It was quite a strenuous walk but the views from the top were breathtaking. From there we walked over moorland and down into a very secluded valley to the Grwyne Fawf reservoir before returning to Talgarth. Our second walk was lower level over different areas of common land, equally beautiful and not so strenuous. On the final day our walk took us through fields, woodland and along rivers and finished with a delicious cream tea. All of our guides were excellent and very knowledgeable and we were made to feel very welcome.

During our second week we joined the relatively new Kendal Walking Festival. Our first ten mile walk, starting at Staveley, once again taking us through beautiful hillside woodland to reach Potter’s Fell and Brunt Knot and passing several tarns on the way. Our second walk started at Crooklands, outside Kendal and we walked back along the Lancaster Canal, now sadly mostly filled in and ploughed over. Although flat, it was a really pretty walk through farmland and it was quite strange to see all the lovely old canal bridges in the middle of fields with no water flowing under them!

On our final day in Kendal we drove out to Malham Cove…WOW! what a spectacular place, a must see if you are in the area.
Jim and Les

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.

The following MAJOR footpaths have been temporarily closed

PRoW 632 Riverbank Road Ramsey is closed until at least 31 October due to a landslide

PRoW 253 from Port Erin to the Sound as reopened following work to make the steps safe

PRoW 423 Ballasalla to Grenaby through Scout Glen, north of the Athol Bridge, remains closed (currently no date for reopening)

Heritage Trail temporary closure. This PRoW (the former railway line) will be closed from Old Church Road to Peel Power Station on a rolling closure basis (as indicated by signage) from 6am on 30th April 2019 to 6pm on 30th November 2019 or until the work is completed, whichever is the earlier. For up to date details please contact DoI.

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 like to update the website photographs on a regular basis and are delighted to receive photographs from members. If you are happy for your photograph to be used by MFCG on our website, please email it to Fiona@manxfootpaths.org including the place and date of the photograph. Thanks go to members for providing photographs from our walks. They are always greatly appreciated but please make sure you have permission from everyone in the photo to put it on the website.

MFCG Badge

MFCG has created its own badge which is free to current MFCG Members.
Badges are also available to buy for £1.00 each.
Please contact a Committee Member for further information.

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

Hopefully everybody has been able to access the Summer Walks Programme which includes a wide range of walks across the island. A big thank you to all those who have offered to lead and helped compile the programme.

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

Agneash Public Access Defibrillator
MFCG recently gave a donation towards a defibrillator at the request of Agneash village in conjunction with Craig’s Heartstrong Foundation. Following a successful quiz night, sufficient funds were raised to purchase this important piece of equipment (a device which gives a high energy electrical shock to the heart of someone who is in cardiac arrest) and the defibrillator will be located outside Agneash chapel on the wall. Hopefully we won’t need to use it….!

‘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.”

Forms