Kirkcaldy Walking and Movement Festival hailed a success

The nine-day event drew to a close on Sunday evening having offered a busy programme aimed at getting people out and about.

A total of 15 different walks were provided by a range of organisations over the festival period, covering varying distances with many of them themed.

These included a mindful walk at Ravenscraig Park, a quizzical walk with Greener Kirkcaldy; and a murder mystery walk in Beveridge Park. There were also walks through the towns three parks and along the Fife Coastal Path to Burntisland.

The events were also led by different organisations and community groups, including Kirkcaldy Civic Society, Andys Man Club and Greener Kirkcaldy.

More than 50 people also took part in the Kirkcaldy Strong Community Walk during the festival, bringing the community together to support local charities and organisations.

Amby Stanyer-Hunter, who coordinated this year’s festival, said: “This year’s festival was amazing. It was probably the most successful walking festival we’ve had so far. There was a more diverse collection of walks than there’s been in the past. We had some good turn outs for a lot of the events and we’ve had some really good feedback from people to help us going forward. I would like to take this opportunity to thank every single person that made it possible, from the walk leaders, the walk attendees and the people who put posters in their shops to the people who shared our social media posts.”

The festival began seven years ago by Greener Kirkcaldy as Kirkcaldy Walking Festival. However, due to funding limits, it has been run under Amby’s careful supervision for the last two years and is run completely by volunteers. Amby was hoping to be able to encourage people to appreciate their surroundings by taking part in the walks and building on the boom during the pandemic which saw people reconnecting with their area on their daily exercise.

Although the festival itself may be over for another year, Amby is now looking ahead and planning Hallowe’en themed events as well as ways to encourage people to continue walking throughout the year including sharing details of other groups and organisations’ walks on the festival’s Facebook page.