What we’re about
The Phoenix One World Traipsers is a walking group based in Dublin. The group began as the Irish Traipsers in 1990 and continued to 2002 when the group disbanded. In 2004 some of the old members re-grouped and began the Phoenix One World Traipsers.
The principal activity of the group is following the Irish long-distance way-marked trails. Since 1990 we have walked the Royal and Grand Canal Towpaths from Dublin to the Shannon, The Wicklow Way, The Ulster Way and the Slieve Bloom Way, twice. The Wicklow Way led on to the South Leinster Way and that to the East Munster Way which brought us to the Kerry Way and finally the Dingle Way. By connecting these routes, we have walked from Dublin to Castlegregory in Co. Kerry. As the Phoenix One World Traipsers, we have walked from City Hall, Dublin, along the coast to City Hall, Belfast and we are currently doing the Grand Canal Towpath walk as part of the Sea to Shining Sea walk.
We make a plan for each season which is announced in September. We usually plan to have approximately 7 or 8 events in the period October to June; these comprise two-day weekend walks or one-day Sunday outings. We usually have two routes on the go at the same time - one near Dublin for the Sunday trips and the other located further from Dublin.
In addition to walking we also arrange a skiing trip each year. While in the past we have been able to go to some exotic destinations such as Japan, California, Norway as well as those located closer to Ireland, Italy, Switzerland, Spain and Slovakia, we have not had sufficent numbers to pursue this aspect of our activities in recent years. One final thing which we do is to visit islands off the Irish coast; so far we have been to Dalkey Island just off Dublin, the Saltee Islands off the Wexford Coast and Rathlin Island in Northern Ireland.
Our group is very small, about 15 members, with 3 to 8 participating in any particular walk. We have joined meetup as we would like to welcome some new people to the group. The Phoenix One World Traipsers is suitable for casual walkers who want to see different nooks and crannies of Ireland. While exceptionally we sometimes cover up to 20k in a day, more usually we walk about 15K.
We will launch our progrmme for the new season in September each year - we usually do this with a Sunday afternoon walk in the Phoenix Park. Current active members of the group are from Ireland, France, Belgium, Spain, Italy and Japan. The group does not have an entry fee, those participating in the walks are responsible for their own safety etc.
