Northern Ireland Outdoors Forum - Hiking, camping and more
General => Meets, places, trips and reviews => Topic started by: andymcinroy on May 14, 2014
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I was over on Rathlin Island last weekend. Having the family in tow meant civilised accommodation in the Manor House rather than a bivi in the heather.
I've been over several times before and have walked the whole of the northern clifftop. Unfortunately, walking access is still a problem over there with numerous barbed wire and electric fences to negotiate along the route. I hope one day to see a designated route from the east light to the west light with stiles along the way to help walkers. The new shorter loops that have recently been established are a great start (e.g the Roonavoolin walk) but a long clifftop route could potentially be a walking jewel for the island.
I managed to take this new photograph of the cliffs on my visit. Taken at sunset from the old coastguard lookout at Ballyconagan. This view shows approx 1/3 of the route between the east and west lighthouses.
(http://www.andymcinroy.com/images/ir509.jpg)
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A stunning pic. ;D A case of right place at the right time..
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Looks beautiful Andy. As you say, a walk along there with good access would be a real asset to the island.
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Great photo there, and yet another perfect example of why those folks on the hill need to get the rights to roam lark sorted sooner rather than later. Tired of not being able to walk in areas because of either the tweed brigade or farmers panicking they will be sued if some eegit falls over a cow pat.
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Totally agree with you Rich. On Rathlin, indemnity seems to be a big concern. I have been looking hard online to find just one example in Northern Ireland or in the Republic where a landowner has been successfully sued by a walker. I think this is an urban myth perpetuated by farmers. Anyone come across any news stories?
I'm actually giving a talk today at my local college on biodiversity and access. I'm going to state my case that if you don't allow public access to biodiverse sites then the public will become disconnected with nature and they will therefore develop apathy for it. An education board on entering a particularly sensitive site is maybe all that is required (e.g to be aware of ground nesting birds etc). Scotland seems to have this balance right. I hope such an approach is eventually adopted here.
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As far as I have seen there have been zero cases of landowners being sued for stupidity on the part of walkers etc. However it is always one of the arguments put forward to restrict a right to roam in NI (along with the usual things like littering, damage to property, & loose rabid dogs).
You could try to contact the Ulster Federation of Ramblers http://www.ufrc-online.co.uk/ (http://www.ufrc-online.co.uk/) their site has some past documents that detail the arguments put forward to prevent rights to roam, along with some interesting studies on how it effects things.
If you need examples of public apathy then just take along some photos of places like Analog wood or spots that are restricted where the lack of free roaming folks has allowed stealth camp boozers to dump vast amount of rubbish.
I cannot think of any other way to describe things here without sounding somewhat pompus, but the lack of a right to roam in NI is just another nail in the coffin of the stereotype "backwards Irish". A bunch of prehistoric tweed chums just want to prevent any access that doesn't involve game shooting or anything that directly lines the pockets of said land owners. It is of no wonder that half the Mournes are full of rubbish when it is almost the only place anyone in NI can go to enjoy hills & mountains.
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I got a load of campaign bunff through the door today. Didn't see any anything about "Right to roam". Admittedly, my Irish and Ulster Scots isn't all that good though...........
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You have to emphasize with the farmers. In lambing season Sheep do not cope well with strangers and this does have a detrimental affect. People taking shortcuts and damaging fences etc. The leaving of litter and lighting of fires etc. All this does the Good hiker no good.
If you land on Rathlin with a rucksack they already know from the time you got on the ferry..........
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You have to emphasize with the farmers. In lambing season Sheep do not cope well with strangers and this does have a detrimental affect. People taking shortcuts and damaging fences etc. The leaving of litter and lighting of fires etc. All this does the Good hiker no good.
If you land on Rathlin with a rucksack they already know from the time you got on the ferry..........
I fully agree to an extent, however I feel that most farmers generally fall into one of three groups.
1. The ones who welcome walkers and such, these folks put up styles and some even have areas of a field clearly set to walk round to not disturb the livestock.
2. The ones who think everyone is out to get them and live in morbid fear of being sued or accused of some mistreatment by city folks, they tend to not have any method of access, this just means folks end up doing it anyway and eventually someone does cause some damage through total accident. These are the folks who need to be educated that it will cost them more in the long run by sitting on the proverbial fence.
3. The sterotype old miserable sods who wave shotguns about with cries of "geroff my land". The buggers are beyond redemption and all anyone can do is wait for the farm to pass on into more enlightend ownership.
While there are some bad litterbug walkers out there I would wager that most damaged fences were a total accident on the part of a good walker. I've been forced to climb more than a few fences in my time and no matter how careful I am there is always a chance of damage. A farmer thinking with their pocket would realise the price of some cheap timber and a quick style far outweighs replacing fences and potential livestock loss.
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The Causeway Coast Way is a good example of cooperation between farmers and the Walkers.Something Rathlin wants to look at.
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The Causeway Coast Way is a good example of cooperation between farmers and the Walkers.Something Rathlin wants to look at.
I had completely forgotten about that route and thinking about ti now you are 100% right, it's a great route for walkers and there is a good network for getting through farmers land provided too. Oddly enough other than the Mournes I think this area is also one of the places with the highest number of accidents you see reported and yet I have never heard of anyone trying to blame a farmer in court for anything. Makes me wonder if all this "but we'll get sued" talk is a bluff from folks to miserable to let others enjoy the outdoors.