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Orienteering hits the Airwaves

As we were planning our series of Summer of Sport family friendly taster sessions we were delighted when the adverts caught the eye of Rachel Bell, a presenter on BBC Radio Scotland’s Out of Doors program. Out of Doors is broadcast weekly covering features on Scotland’s countryside, nature, wildlife and outdoor activities.

Rachel Bell signed up to bring her family along to Hazlehead Park in Aberdeen to join in the fun and find out more about orienteering. Listen in to hear more about their adventures (the feature on orienteering starts 10 minutes in).

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21st October, 2026 Read more...

Scottish Success at the CompassSport Cup!

Forth Valley Orienteers and Interlopers travelled down to West Sussex to compete in the inter-club championship finals. The Interlopers team narrowly missed out on defending their 2025 CompassSport Trophy title as Borderliners scored just 11 points more to win. However, FVO were victorious in the Cup competition as they beat rival team South Yorkshire for the first time in five years.

Both FVO and Interlopers fielded strong teams for the competition despite the long journey south. Some athletes chose to make it a full weekend of orienteering and took part in a middle race on the Saturday. Others were ambitious in organising transport for an epic one day journey.

The CompassSport Cup finals were held at Pippingford Park which also used for the same event in 2019. The area consisted of open heathland and wooded areas that ensured the courses were fast and competitive. FVO dominated the courses with Hannah Inman, Lucas Baikie, Sarah Rollins, Marcus Pinker, and Alison Cunningham leading their results, and in the open men’s class FVO took up four of the top five positions. Interlopers also had some strong results with Ben Hartman, Claire Ward, and Inis Cheplin winning their classes, and Fiona Eades, Mairi Eades, and Louise Adams all within the top 5 on women’s open.

Ultimately, Forth Valley Orienteers were the most successful club of the day as they scored 2385 points to beat SYO’s 2366. This win comes after five years of patience as FVO have consistently been runners up to their Yorkshire rivals. It also comes seven years after FVO last lifted the trophy which was also at Pippingford Park in 2019.

Interlopers scored 1241 points which secured them second place out of 15 teams competing in the CompassSport Trophy.

Congratulations to all of the Scottish orienteers who travelled south to represent their clubs. Even the cancelled flights home were worth it as FVO and INT were so successful across both competitions.

Full results can be found here. Thank you to Mole Valley Orienteering Club for organising the event.

20th October, 2026 Read more...

SEDS Update & Calendar

After a brief hiatus, the Scottish Elite and Development Squad (SEDS) is returning. The group has an important role in delivering TD5 training for elite and performance athletes. However, we have sourced funding from sportscotland to deliver TD3-4 training to provide an opportunity for all Scotland based 18-39 year-olds to stay in the sport after graduating from junior and adult newcomer pathways.

Having not managed to recruit someone to deliver the administration for SEDS, an agreement was made with Edinburgh University Orienteering Club who have now taken on the SEDS weekend administration. In exchange they have received a grant which allows them to continue to deliver their performance coaching support programme and open it out to performance athletes at other settings of further education. Some of the grant funding will also be used to support students from other settings of further education in attending SEDS weekends. This is an exciting approach to developing student orienteering in Scotland as there is now representation at nine universities across the country.

EUOC will determine dates and types of training involved in the programme through discussions with a newly established SEDS Athlete Panel made up of Mairi Eades, Andy Kitchen, Niamh Hunter, and James Ackland. 

The calendar includes six training weekends between October 2026 and September 2027:

Andy Kitchen and Matthew Clarke have expressed interest in the coaching of TD3-5 levels. We also hope that young coaches can get involved in delivering TD3-4 training to allow them to build their experience and confidence whilst being supported by more experienced coaches.

Accommodation will be organised for each weekend to increase the accessibility of SEDS and reinforce the group’s social environment. This will likely be in village halls, but anyone may join the training whilst using other local accommodation if they prefer.

All SEDS communication will take place through the existing WhatsApp community (link to join sent upon request). Welfare and safeguarding are a priority within the group to ensure it is a safe and fun environment. Informative final details will be released ahead of the weekends so that participants know exactly what to expect, and all participants will be required to sign the SEDS code of conduct before attending any group activities. The SEDS code of conduct and communication pathways will be monitored by the SEDS Athlete Panel and a representative from the SOA. 

The SOA are also launching SEDS social media channels to share what the group gets up to! Be sure to follow SEDS on Facebook and Instagram. More information can be found on the SEDS page of our website.

16th October, 2026 Read more...

Scotland sneak the win at the Senior Home Internationals

The beginning of October saw the Scottish Senior Home International (SHI) team travel to Northern Ireland to take on England, Wales and Ireland – and win! – after three tiebreaks!

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16th October, 2026 Read more...

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