Northern Ireland Outdoors Forum - Hiking, camping and more
Information => Outdoor Companies, Organisations and Links => Topic started by: eventadmin on May 05, 2009
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The Wee Binnian Walkers are a Newry based hill walking group started in 1987 as a direct result of the Northern Ireland “Change of Heart” coronary prevention programme.
Founded by Veronica McCann, a lifestyle tutor with the programme, the group which began with 11 women and evolved in a very gradual way over the early years. Veronica plans her routeHaving it’s origins within this community health promotion programme proved to be a major factor in the successful development of the club, as in the early days there was no source of income.
The founder was able to legitimise this as a project within her professional remit, which not only gave it status but allowed her to give it the necessary dedicated time and access to resources. Development was within a project framework and the only other person involved at that stage was a paid walks leader. This was a very loose arrangement with a fee of £1 per head being charged to cover this expense. However as a result of publicity from various initiatives and a pro-active recruiting strategy the attendance never went below the initial 11 and eventually by 1994 had grown to 60 plus.
By then new members with hill walking leadership skills had joined the ranks and were acting as co-leaders but it was becoming increasingly evident with an ever increasing membership that for reasons of risk management the group needed to be formalised.
In 1994 as part of the Newry 850 celebrations the first Wee Binnian Walking Festival took place and the success of this event established the club firmly on the national hill walking circuit .They were the very first group to host a walking festival in Northern Ireland and still are the only independent club to do so.
Contact:
Tel: 028 906 69718
http://www.weebinnians.com/