The Mourne International Walking Festival will be taking place over the weekend of the 25-27 June 2010 and will be based in the Mourne Golf Club, Newcastle Co Down.

Set within the spectacular scenery of the Mourne Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, there are walks to suit all levels of fitness and ability with routes between 10km and 40km at both high and low level.

The festival alternates each year between Newcastle and Warrenpoint in Co Down allowing walkers a chance to sample walking in each area.

Newcastle, situated on the shores of the Irish Sea where the Mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea’, is a lively seaside resort and friendly town ideally suited to host the event, located only 30 miles to the south of Belfast and approximately 2.5 hours from Dublin.

Warrenpoint is situated on the shores of Carlingford Lough, a pretty seaside resort; a relaxed and friendly town with quaint shops, bars and restaurants with plenty for the visitor to see and do, located only 50miles to the south of Belfast and approximately 1 1/2 hours from Dublin.

On each of the three days of the festival there are lowland walks ranging between 10km to 40 km, these walks are self-guided (i.e. there are no leaders on these routes) with the route well waymarked and so should be very easy to follow, even for beginners. Checkpoints along the route are there to ensure that you are safe. There will also be limited refreshments available at each checkpoint.

On both Saturday and Sunday we also offer a mountain hike and a mountain ramble. The mountain hike is a very strenuous walk requiring a high level of fitness and experience of walking within a mountain environment. The scaling of more than one mountain will be required, subject to the weather conditions on the day.

Experienced members of a local walking club, the Wee Binnian Walkers, provide volunteer leaders.

A slightly less strenuous alternative is the Mountain Ramble. These routes will involve contouring around summits rather than scaling them and so is slightly less strenuous. However you still need to have a good level of fitness to undertake these routes. Again leaders on these routes will be provided by the Wee Binnian Walkers.

Please see our section on walking and safety information

The festival not only offers excellent walking but also entertainment (excluding Friday). Bar facilities will be available throughout the weekend. On both Saturday and Sunday there will be traditional music in the festival office between 2pm and 6pm with the highlight of the weekend being the Blister Ball on Saturday evening. This is a casual event with a hot supper and dancing into the small hours. See ‘festival packages’ page for prices