Montgomery Trails set for launch

Months of hard work will come to fruition on Saturday, May 5 when the ancient former Welsh county border town of Montgomery launches its first 11 trails.

The Montgomery Trails include two family-friendly Quiz Trails for younger and older children, four Walking Trails devised by the local Walkers are Welcome Group, four Cycling Trails and a Heritage Town Trail.

The aim of the Montgomery ‘Healthy Life Town’ Trails project is to develop a network of accessible trails to promote health and wellbeing for everyone, while introducing walkers and cyclists to the town’s history and surrounding countryside.

The development of the first 11 trails has been possible thanks to an award of £5,000 from Big Lottery ‘Awards for All’.

Walkers are Welcome Montgomery, the Vale of Montgomery Rural Cluster of Councils and Powys Countryside Services have jointly created a volunteer group to improve the local footpath network.

Because walks don’t stop at boundaries between councils, the volunteers are collaborating with other groups, such as Walking Newtown, to extend accessible walks in the future.

The trails will be launched at the Town Hall at 11am on May 5 where activities will include a Destination Montgomery Information Point stocked with trail guides and What’s On in Montgomery 2018 leaflets – free to visitors and residents.

Visitors and local residents alike are invited to join a Civic Society guide-led Heritage Town Trail which will start at 12 noon from the Town Hall.

Walkers keen to tackle the Walking Trails will have the opportunity to join with others at regular times throughout the day to walk a self-guided trail, starting from the Tan y Mur car park.

Cyclists wishing to ride the Cycling Trails can bring their own bikes or hire adult bicycles from the Dragon Hotel. For bike hire, early booking is recommended by contacting Tel: 01686 668359 or reception@dragonhotel.com.

The two family-friendly Quiz Trails are pushchair friendly. Follow the Town of Little Cars Trail to find the names of 14 little cars hidden around the town. Or, test your detective and observation skills to solve the clues on the Historic Town Quiz Trail.

Quizzers can hand in their entries at local businesses in the town to check their answers and enter a special prize draw which will be drawn on Sunday, May 6. Both family-friendly Quiz Trails will be for sale at Cloverlands Model Car Museum from 11.15am at the special launch day price of 50p.

Trails guides are available to download from www.montgomery-trails.co.uk.

PICTURE: The new trail guides