The club was established in June 2021 and initially I was looking to join a group but I found that there were no times that suited me so I made a decision to begin my own club. During the COVID-19 pandemic I became very isolated and would take myself and my dog companion Pablo with me to Cavehill Country Park here in North Belfast. I began to see that there were other members of the public also going up on their own and it made me think about loneliness in our community. Therefore, I began inviting members of the public to a walk at a specific place and time. This was advertised using the Social Media platform Nextdoor. Nextdoor is a Social Media network that connects you to your nextdoor neighbours. You can find more information about nextdoor here

I wanted to keep the concept of the walking club simple by having the club meet at the same time and place every week.

We began with three myself, Pablo the Dog and Kris the human, Today, we have an average of 40 people who slip in and out of the walks for as long or as little as they want.

I then branched advertising out to my Social Media channels. You can follow our Instagram page here and our Facebook page here.

If you are interested in joining us for a walk the club meets on Wednesdays at 6:30pm and Sundays at 11am from the Upper Cavehill Road Entrance.