Orienteering meets Parkrun: Do Club Takeovers Boost Visibility and Engagement?

By Louise Adams – SOA Development Officer

In recent years, orienteering clubs across Scotland have been exploring creative ways to raise awareness of the sport, attract new members, and connect with wider communities. One initiative that’s gaining some traction is the parkrun takeover — where orienteering clubs volunteer to fill key roles at a local parkrun event and host an orienteering taster activity alongside the classic 5k run.

These takeovers offer a unique opportunity to introduce orienteering to an audience that already shares a love for running and the outdoors. By engaging directly with local runners in a friendly, accessible environment, clubs can demystify orienteering and highlight how well it complements existing fitness and adventure interests.

Why parkrun?

With over 60 parkrun locations in Scotland and thousands of regular participants, the parkrun community is a natural audience for orienteering outreach. Participants already enjoy running in varied terrains, are often looking for new challenges, and may not yet have considered orienteering as an option.

A club-organised parkrun takeover not only supports the parkrun event itself — through volunteering and community spirit — but also creates a platform for clubs to:

• Chat informally with runners and explain what orienteering involves
• Hand out leaflets or display maps to spark curiosity
• Offer incentives for newcomers to try a local event (such as free entry or beginner sessions)
• Share personal stories and enthusiasm from existing orienteers

Real-World Impact: Voices from the Clubs

Two clubs that recently organised parkrun takeovers have seen encouraging outcomes. Here’s what they had to say about their experiences:

GRAMP (Hazlehead Parkrun) – Overall, a positive experience. We definitely had people attend at least one event after hearing about it at the Parkrun. I think it was very helpful having events within a week of the Parkrun at the location of the Parkrun as this meant people were comfortable and familiar with the surroundings. While Hazlehead doesn’t actually do takeovers these days, we got members of the club to run and to volunteer to help on a specific day and ensured they were all wearing the club colours. One thing that we did which worked very well in generating conversation afterwards, was having a refreshment table with water for the runners after they finished (it was a very hot day!). QR codes on the leaflets worked well too – I saw numerous people scanning them. We would consider doing it again as it did attract some new faces, but think we could organise the follow-up event better by offering a Red course. (massive thanks to David Esson and Fiona McDonald for their comments)

Interlopers (Holyrood, Vogrie and Oriam Parkruns) – Over the past year, Interlopers Orienteering Club has been running in a club development project, aiming particularly to raise awareness of orienteering with active adults as well as families in Edinburgh, and encourage them to participate in local events.  Part of the strategy was to engage with Parkrunners around Edinburgh through offering free taster sessions at various venues.

INT has now done three Parkrun taster sessions (as part of their takeovers), at Holyrood (October 2024), Vogrie (December 2024), and Oriam (May 2025). (Reports on all 3 can be found on their website here). The latter two were joint initiatives with other local clubs (ELO and ESOC) respectively. Each taster session featured short introductory courses to try out as a fun and different warm-down. We put out orienteering kites for each session, and used SI timing for some if not all controls, to give a flavour of what an actual event would be like and encourage some friendly competition – always worth doing!  We also made sure we had good signage to the taster session, A-boards with more information for passers-by to browse, flyers for future events, and free cake always helps! We collected email addresses for follow-up too. The Oriam takeover was planned so as to be a couple of weeks in advance of a local event being held there so as to encourage people to come back.

The tasters went down very well, with good levels of interest and participants reporting back that they’d enjoyed the experience and would certainly consider doing more. We have seen a few of them since, although with many other competing activities in Edinburgh it may be a slow burn to convert awareness and interest into regular participation. However, these tasters felt like a good start for building awareness of orienteering and encouraging new interest and so well worth doing.  For Oriam in particular, we also had a large number of runners doing Parkrun in their Interlopers club tops, and alongside volunteers in club jackets cheering on runners, that should have been very effective PR for the dynamic and friendly club we are!  Many of the club are regular Parkrunners themselves, so it’s also nice to give back by contributing some volunteer time. (huge thanks to Katherine Ivory for her words of wisdom!)

Best Practice Tips

If your club is considering a parkrun takeover, here are a few tips to maximise its impact:

• Plan ahead: Work with the parkrun event director to secure a suitable date and ensure your volunteers are well briefed.
• Be visible: Wear club kit, bring flags or banners, and set up a stall with A-boards, photos, maps and flyers.
• Engage gently: Use friendly conversation and storytelling rather than hard sells.
• Promote follow-up events: Have a beginner-friendly orienteering session ready to promote, ideally within a week or two of the takeover, and ideally with a Red course for adult beginners.
• Track your impact: Ask newcomers how they heard about your event — it helps to know what worked.

A Win-Win for Clubs and Communities

At its heart, orienteering is about exploring, navigating, and enjoying the outdoors — values shared by many in the parkrun world. A well-organised takeover doesn’t just benefit clubs by boosting visibility and membership, it also supports parkrun events by providing enthusiastic volunteers and building a sense of shared purpose.

For orienteering clubs looking to grow and diversify their reach, the parkrun takeover is a low-cost, high-impact strategy that fosters goodwill, community connection, and new pathways into the sport.