How did I get here!! Back in April I saw a post on Social media by the Booth Centre in Manchester encouraging supporters to pay £5, walk 5K and nominate 5 friends to do the same in May. I thought to myself I could do that and duly signed up, paid my fiver, did my walk and nominated my friends! Then my husband said “are you not supposed to be doing it everyday?”
I’m sticking with my original interpretation that it was a one off but it got me thinking! I’d broken a bone in my left foot back at the beginning of December and I was starting to walk a lot better and further – what if I pledged to do a 5k walk everyday in May and donate £5 per day to some of our favourite charities… and so the challenge was born! Would also help gDO rid of the extra pounds I had put on when housebound!
And so it began – I set up a donation page to put in my pledges and nominated four charities – I probably should have kept with the “5” theme but I wasn’t really thinking! As the Booth Centre was my inspiration they were first on my list – they are a homeless charity based in the centre of Manchester where our friend Amy is the Business Development Manager. Second on list was the Rob George Foundation. The RGF assists young people with life threatening or terminal illnesses or who have aspirations in sport or the performing arts. It was set up by our dear friends Pip and Lorraine in memory of their son, Rob. At this same time, May 2015, Paul and I did a sponsored cycle from John O’Groats to Lands End with the RGF.
The third charity I choose was Guide Dogs for the Blind. We have a beautiful friend Pearl who adopts guide dogs when they have been retired from service and gives them a home for as long as they need one – what a gift! Always knowing they might not be around for long.
The fourth charity I choose was RNLI. Only recently I learnt that the RNLI covers both the UK and the island of Ireland. We have a few friends who done or do sail and during our early “courtship” days we enjoyed many adventures crewing for friends at Carrickfergus Sailing Club and even had the privledge of going to Scotland and Cork for races.
I promised a blog on this challenge to some friends who don’t have a social media profile. I contemplated a post each week, but that time passed quickly! Then a part one and part two – and if I don’t get a move on I won’t make that deadline either! So lets just see where I get to with this part and you never know – i might make it a four parter!
5k is 3.10686 miles! The average walker will do it 45-60 minutes. I’m pretty average! I have been using my Garmin watch and the Map my Ride app to record my journeys. I have to say the app is much more accurate than the watch! The watch pauses, buzzes and hardly keeps up at all!
Needless to say most of my walks so far have been around home. Within half a mile in any direction I can be in the countryside or go that extra half mile and I have a canal path – and you all know how much I love canals!
What do I do? I walk and record my journey in pictures – usually with my phone sometimes with my camera. My daughter has done quite a few with me, my hubby has been dragged along and I’m open to anyone else joining personally or virtually. If I don’t have company I talk to myself – this blog has had many incarnations during my meandering but not until now have I written anything down! I asked friends what they do when walking – listening to music or audio books were the main responses – I’m technically challenged when it comes to doing either of these.
I started my journey around Moira on Saturday 1st May. There is a loop out the Old Kilmore Road and in the Backwood Road that is exactly 5k – if I don’t cut the corners – which has become a traditional route! Leaving the developments behind I am quickly in the countryside. There is a mixture of farming with crops and cattle but the rapeseed fields are most glorious with acres of the yellow crop spreading across the countryside – but did you know that rapeseed is dangerous for dogs – it contains gluosinolates and is highly toxic for them.
Moira sits on the high ground a mile from the western bank of the river Lagan. The name Moira is an Anglicisation of the Celtic Magth Rath or Moirath, meaning the plain of the fort. In 637 AD the battle of Moira was fought between Donal the High King of Ireland and Congal Claen, a powerful Ulster King, Donal was the victor and Congal was slain. A crannog in the townland of Drumbane and numerous raths or forts surrounding the village indicate mans early presence in the area – two good examples of these are Pretty Mary’s fort and Rough Fort on the Old Kilmore Road.
Another route I have explored has been Moira Demesne. It is only a mile and becomes monotonous for this kind of challenge but is such a wonderful space. I’ve walked the park many a time reciting stories for promotion boards and Aninka and I did it one damp evening for this challenge and will probably do it again!
The Demesne comprises of over 40 acres of parkland and paths, a children’s playpark, football pitches and basketball area. There is a wide variety of trees within the park and wildlife areas have been developed over the last couple of years. At this time of year there is wild garlic in abundance and the smell reminds us often of the highways and byeways of our Jogle. The grounds were laid out by Sir Arthur Rawdon MP with trees and exotic plants from Jamica. He also built the first hot house in Ireland here. Once you start to research the history of this area there are so many rabbit holes to fall down – I’ll leave a link or two for you to follow….
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moira,_County_Down
I’m thinking I’ve five routes around Moira – the Backwood Road, the Demesne, the canal, the Hillsborough Rd and the Clarehill/Lurgan Rd…. So I’ll add the Hillsborough Rd to this blog and come back to the canal!
Another circular route around the village brought me through the grounds of St John’s Church of Ireland. When I was preparing for Jogle and joined an early morning bootcamp we ran the hill to the Church as our warm-up!
St John’s was founded in 1721 on a plot of land opposite Moira Castle, given by the Hill family from Hillsborough for the building of the Church. The Rawdon Family contributed much of the expense in the building of the Church, although Sir John Rawdon himself died the same year the Church was built.
Out the Hillsborough Road we have Berwick Hall. This is the earliest building in Moira and is still occupied. It is a two-storey “Planters” thatched house. According to the present owner, the building dates back to 1697 and is Category A listed. It was owned by the Berwick family who lived in the area since the Battle of the Boyne. The house is an extremely fine example of a yeoman’s home. Members of the Berwick family lived live there until the 1860s. George Wilson bought it in 1861 and his descendents still reside there.
A little cottage along the road has these old farm implements hanging on the wall… beautifully maintained they remind me of a simpler way of life.
There is rapeseed planted out the Hillsborough Road this year too. The UK produces around 1 million tonnes of oilseed rape each year, which is worth £595 million to the UK economy. There are 400,000 hectares of oilseed rape here in the UK, and the average yield per hectare is 3.4 tonnes. Rapeseed makes a variety of products, including edible vegetable oils for cooking, animal feed and even biodiesel.
Also out the Hillsborough Road and at just about my turning point it the Irish Baptist College. The college moved to this site on 10 May 2003. It had been founded in Dublin in October 1892 and moved to Belfast in 1964 before relocating to this purpose built campus.
The Hillsborough Road traverses the M1 motorway – that is for another blog!
I think it is time to publish these musings. Thanks for taking the time to read them and thank you so much to those who have donated to my walk. I am totally humbled by your support. Thanks also to the following authors/webpages for the information contained in my blog – not a proper biblography but the best I can do! placenamesni.org; Moirahistory.uk; Lisburn.com; Craigavonhistoricalsociety.org.uk
H&P Adventures 
You are an inspiration to us all!! Well done, keep it up and never forget, we are proud of you 🙂
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