Ramblers Go After Youth Market

The Ramblers Association is making efforts to shed its slightly fuddy image with its assault on younger walkers spear-headed by a growing number of what they call 'Younger People's Walking Groups'.

There are now around 30 of the groups around the UK aimed primarily at walkers in their 20s and 30s rather than the more typical older ramblers, who form the core of the RA's membership. Tellingly, most of the groups don't use the word 'Ramblers' in their names preferring 'Walking Group' or 'Under 40s' instead.

There are more 'Walking Groups' in the pipeline too, with launches planned in Sheffield, East Yorkshire and Leeds and Bradford. Typically the groups run programmes of day walks including mountain outings along with social events and weekends away.

A recent article in Country Walking magazine highlights another aspect of the groups as a hotbed of outdoors romance - RA apparently stands for 'Romance Assured' and YHA, 'Your Husband Assured' - so I guess you could say that things are changing.

There's also a major annual gathering for the Younger People's Walking Groups at Castleton on the weekend of 20-22 September complete with, erm, a disco, though of course you need to be a member to go along.

It's easy to be cynical about the Ramblers, and of course we usually are, but if you're tired of climbing clubs who claim to cater for walkers as well, but turn out to be a collection of ageing beards with a nasty line in climbing epic stories, then the Younger People's Walking Groups might be worth checking out.

You can find out more about the groups on the RA web site which includes contact listings.