Walking Festival to attract hikers to Sligo mountains
THE hills will come alive to the sound of happy hikers for the second annual Sligo Walking Festival this January.
Local tour operators Northwest Adventure Tours hope to attract hundreds of walkers to the region for the festival.
It will run from Friday 26 th to Sunday 28th January and will feature several hikes of varying degrees of difficulty and length.
“We’d expect to welcome over 200 people to Sligo over the course of the weekend,” said organiser William Britton.
The Festival kicks off with a night hike on the Friday evening at 6.30pm through a section of the Sligo Way, which runs from Slish Wood to Union Wood, for- merly part of the Cooper estate.
Expert tour guides with torches will light the way for what’s hoped will be a starlit night’s hike.
It will be followed by a ‘meet and greet’ reception for all festival-goers at the Riverside Hotel at 9pm.
A highlight of the Festival will be a ‘Royal Peaks’ hike for seasoned hikers.
A bus will depart the Riverside at 8.30am for the 6-7 hour hike over approximately 12kms.
They will traverse the most spectacular mountains in the Dartry Mountain range, namely Kings Mountain, Benbulben and Benwiskin.
The route is “challenging but well worth it to claim bragging rights to some of Sligo’s most breath-taking summits” with views of Sligo bay, Glencar Valley and the Gleniff Horseshoe.
Separate hikes of Benbulben and Gleniff Horseshoe also take place on Saturday morning.
On the final day of the Festival, hikers have a choice of three walks: Keelogyboy mountain on the border of Sligo Leitrim (toughest), The Sligo Way around Lough Gill or Queen Maeve’s Trail up Knocknarea, with a guided tour along the coast by Auriel from Sea Trails.
More information can be found at northwestadventuretours.ie/sligowalkingfestival/ for the pre-registration form.