Ulster Way relaunches
The Ulster Way has been relaunched – but with walkers recommended to tackle over a third of it by public transport. First conceived in 1946 by countryside campaigner Wilfrid Capper, the original 1,070km/665-mile circular route linked all six of Northern Ireland’s counties, with short sections straying over the border into the Republic, when it was finally created in the 1970s. But with the province lacking good legal provision for rights of way and countryside access, there were always problems, including long road sections and places where informal access had been withdrawn. By 2000 the route was badly neglected and the Countryside Access and Activities Network for Northern Ireland decided to stop promoting it.
Now, the full-length Ulster Way has been relaunched on a revised and slightly shorter route of 1,000km/625 miles, but with only selected ‘quality sections’ fully waymarked and promoted as ideal for walking, mainly following existing Waymarked Ways through the province’s numerous Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The remaining 342km/214 miles are unsigned and predominantly on-road ‘link sections’ where walkers are advised to catch buses and trains, though the really determined can walk them using online maps.
For more about the route, visit www.ulsterway.co.uk.
A guide to the recently launched 88km/55-mile Annandale Way in Dumfries & Galloway is available as a free download from www.sulwathconnections.org
Image by Wikipedia Common user ‘Ardfern’
