The 2018 Year of Our Island Project has continued its celebration of the great outdoors this week with the new ’Our Island Trail’ guide.

The booklet, which is comprised of 12 short walks, has been designed to encourage residents to explore more of our Island this year.

The team behind it hope that the trail will build on the success of their Guided Walk series, which concluded last week with the Triskelion Way taster hosted by Phil Craine, which saw a group of walkers wander along part of the lengthy route, the full walk of which begins at Rushen Abbey and takes in many of the island’s ancient keeill sites across the island along its 36-mile length, before finishing at Maughold church, in the north.

Whilst the Our Island project will be organising more events throughout 2018 the team hopes that the trail guide will give locals an opportunity to explore more the Island and possibly discover something new about a place which they may go past every day.

Policy and Reform Minister Chris Thomas praised the guide, and said that it could help unlock hidden areas of the island for people exploring them for the first time. ’One aspect of this year is the celebration of our relationship with our environment and the Our Island Trail is designed to do just that,’ said Mr Thomas.

’There are many fascinating spots across the Isle of Man that some people don’t know about and we think that the trail might lead people to them for this first time,’ he continued.

’We’ve tried to make sure that the routes work for as many people as possible, their lengths range from one to four miles and we have packed loads of activities and interesting facts into the guide which we think that younger explorers will really enjoy.’

Year of Our Island project manager Anna Goldsmith expressed her hope that this guide will make it easier for people to discover something new in 2018. ’

’We know that it’s often hard to find the time to take part in something like a guided walk and that’s why we have created this guide booklet,’ said Anna.

’We want to encourage people to explore the Isle of Man in their own time, whether they have half an hour or a full weekend.’

Booklets will be available throughout the year, and copies of the trail guide can be found at the Welcome Centre in the Sea Terminal and online at www.ourisland.im

by Nick Hawke

www.ourisland.im