The Ashbourne hill-walking club on a sunny day in Glendalough.

If you are torn between a day in the great outdoors and a day of socialising, Ashbourne's hill-walking club may be just what you need. This informal club was set up about two years ago when a lone walker put a notice up in the town.

While not an official club, the group come up with suggestions and schedule a walk every Sunday designed to suit walkers of all fitness levels.

So far they have been to Wicklow, Glendalough, Carlingford,the mountains of Mourne and have walked the Slane - Stackallen route, to name but a few outings. There can be anything from three or four to twelve or fourteen people on any given walk and last Easter a group of eight went to Scotland for a week. They walked from Glasgow to Fortwilliam, stopping off in a different village each night.

The walks are organised bearing the various members of the group in mind and no plans are set in stone. A walk to the mountains of Mourne can be swapped, on a particularly cloudy day, for a walk in Glendalough. Fiona Woods is a member of this group and stresses how the key to the activity is enjoyment, "We don't have a membership fee, we don't ask for subscriptions. It's just a group of people who like walking getting together to enjoy a day out. We send an email out to the group once a week with the planned walk."

A schedule is currently being put together to arrange a provisional programme of walks from mid-August to October. To get in touch send an email to hillwalkashbourne@gmail.com.