Fancy a walk with a cuppa?
Spittalfield activity hub
Karen Todd in the WalkIn Cafe A Perthshire woman is hoping to encourage more people to take up walking and cycling with her new cafe.
Karen Todd (51) opened the WalkIn Cafe last year on The Green in Spittalfield, and has since made it a hub for walkers and cyclists across Perth and Kinross.
Situated in the middle of a number of core path networks, a number of walks ranging from three miles to 10 miles start and stop at the village cafe. As a result, the cafe hub is full of useful maps and guides for those visiting the area.
Karen explained: “We opened in August last year. It was a post office and a rundown shop for a few years, so I have turned it into a community cafe.
“I really want to encourage cyclists and walkers to come to our local community.
“At the cafe we have highlighted various routes around the village from three to ten miles and put them on the wall.
“Those who are interested can come in and see all the different walks, which encourages people to become more physically active.”
As well as the numerous maps at the cafe, Karen has spent the past few months collecting stories from the community about the history of the village and the building her cafe now sits in, which have also gone on display inside the WalkIn Cafe.
Getting more people in the area out and about and on their bikes has been a passion for Karen for a number of years.
She continued: “I do Nordic walking every morning around the village, it has become a hobby now. My background is in sport and I used to be a fitness instructor.
“Getting people into sport is a passion of mine, so I wanted to do something that tries to encourage people to get out in their local community and do physical activity.”
Having been born and brought up in Spittalfield, Karen now wants to form a group of like-minded locals to work on the core path network around the village.
She said: “I have been speaking recently to the new ranger here and I am looking to hopefully get a group together to look after the core paths. A lot of communities are doing that nowadays.
“Along with the ranger the group would get together in the summer to cut the grass and stop the paths from getting too muddy.
“I also want to look at getting funding to put up signs and information boards as well.
“If anyone in the community is interested in going out to look after the core paths, please get in touch and come and see me in the cafe.”
The cafe is open Monday to Saturday from 10am until 4pm, and from 11am until 3.30pm on Sundays. The WalkIn Cafe in Spittalfield