A walking festival initially designed to attract tourists to West Cork during the last weekend in September is now recognised as one of the best-organised and highly social weekends in the calendar year.

Locals are now taking part in the six walks organised by Skibbereen and District Chamber of Commerce which range from easy to moderate to strenuous.

Each outing begins and ends at the Heritage Centre in Skibbereen and people are taken by bus to the starting point of these interesting and inventive walks. For a small fee, everything is laid on.

They are inventive insofar as the organisers have either obtained special permission to walk on private lands to a secluded spot, or engaged local guides to provide fascinating insights into the places they will be visiting.

After a series of beautiful walks with the kind of vistas that only West Cork can provide there’s the social side of things with teas, coffees and lots of baked goods, including one special visit to the stunningly situated ‘Coffee Cup’ at Reen.

There’s no limit to the number of people that can sign up. There are, however, two walks that are restricted to 35 people because they either begin or end with a beautiful boat trip.

The first 8km walk starts at 5pm on Friday September 26th.  The second 9km walk passes through Myross Wood to Brade and Cooldurragha, The League, and Reen Pier before taking a cruise from Castlehaven along the coast.

Baltimore is the starting point for the third walk, with a boat cruise to Reen and an 8km walk to Ceim Hill, Rineen Killahangal and Gortbrack, where the walkers will meet Sally Barnes at Woodcock Smokery for a demonstration and tasting session.

A historical 8km walk around Lough Hyne starts at 2pm and will give people an insight into 4,000 years of archaeology and folklore. And, as always, the walkers will have special permission to walk on private land to the rapids.

On Sunday the penultimate 10km Yew Tree Hill walk offers a full circle view over the whole of West Cork, as far as Mullaghanish and the Paps in Kerry.

A moderate 13km road walk will take in St Comghall’s Church in Lisheen as well as Kilkilleen beach, which has beautiful views of Roaring Water Bay and Kilcoe Castle.

On behalf of Skibbereen and District Chamber of Commerce, Helen Dempsey thanked their sponsors: Cork County Council; Access Credit union; Pure Cork; Fáilte Ireland; Skibbereen Walking Group, as well as all of the walk groups and organisers.

‘We find people are signing up from all over West Cork because it is a wonderfully social weekend,’ said Helen.

‘And, since it started nine years ago, we find people coming back each and every year from Dublin, Tipperary, Kilkenny and Limerick.’

Booking through Skibbereen.ie