2025 has provided some exciting opportunities for our juniors at all levels. With Edinburgh Southern Orienteering Club having just hosted the successful 2025 British School Orienteering Championships it seemed like an appropriate time to reflect on the junior year and the opportunities available to our Scottish juniors at all levels in 2026.
The focus can often be on performance as that is easy to measure but when we asked two of our successful juniors to reflect on their year you will see it is not just the competitive elements of our sport which they highlighted.
Congratulations to the following juniors who have been selected to be part of the Scottish Junior Orienteering Squad (ScotJOS) for 2025/26.
The ScotJOS team are looking forward to working with the new squad members to support their orienteering development and we hope to have a lot of fun along the way as well as plenty of hard work.
On Sunday 16 November, in the stunning grounds of Hopetoun House near Edinburgh, Edinburgh Southern Orienteering Club hosted the British Schools Orienteering Championships for the first time in Scotland since 2011. Around 340 pupils competed, with approximately 220 from Scottish schools, making it a fantastic showcase of pupils from across the country. The weather couldn’t have been better, with blue sky for miles and not a cloud in sight, providing perfect conditions for competitors, spectators and volunteers alike.
Eight adult beginners braved some very wet and wild conditions at Hazlehead Park, Aberdeen, on 25th October for a Scottish Orienteering adult coaching day designed to build confidence and skills for newcomers to the sport.
The session was organised by the SOA, planned and led by Katja Neumann (MAROC) and assisted on the day by Fiona McDonald (GRAMP).Among the eight participants were two AUOC (Aberdeen University Orienteering Club) members, who were fully funded to attend as part of ongoing efforts to support student engagement in orienteering.
We are pleased to announce the latest round of funding awards made through the SOA Development Fund. This fund is designed to provide financial support to projects that contribute to the development of the sport and fit within the remit of the SportScotland agreed development objectives for the sport. Specifically at this point we asked clubs to come to us with projects that focus on the recruitment and development of young adults aged 18-40 year olds, supporting and developing young adults to contribute to all aspects of the sport and supporting the opportunities for lifelong learning
Congratulations to the clubs that have received awards: BASOC, CLYDE, ESOC, MOR and the West Area. These clubs all provided project proposals that satisfy the above conditions and have committed themselves to helping develop our sport.
Look out your headtorch as night orienteering season is upon us! As the nights draw in, many of us orienteers are embracing the dark to do some night orienteering. Night orienteering is a great way to improve your navigation skills and get out of the house on a mid-week evening.
The student orienteering community came together with great spirit on the weekend of 8-9 November for the Scottish Student Champs 2025 (run alongside the ESOA Champs), hosted by Edinburgh University Orienteering Club at the tricky Loch Katrine on Saturday and the lovely woods at Falls of Leny on Sunday.
In challenging conditions — as often is the case with orienteering in November — participants showed resilience and camaraderie. Whether you were a seasoned competitor or a newcomer experiencing your first student champs, it was fantastic to see such a wide range of students take on the challenge.
Competitors expressed that they got much enjoyment from the weekend, and were grateful for the overnight accommodation that was provided as this encouraged more social engagement between teams. The areas were physically demanding and technically difficult so proved a real challenge for everyone taking part.
Having received 4 glowing testaments to youngsters who have contributed a huge amount to the sport through their volunteering, we finally decided to award Young Orienteer of the Year to Finlay McLuckie of Moravian Orienteering Club (MOR). Here he is being presented with this very well deserved award at a Scottish Junior Orienteering Squad (ScotJOS) camp by Roger Goddard, the ScotJOS Lead Coach.
Having already published the full citation, it is sufficient to say that Finlay has impressed members of his club, the staff team and the sport as a whole with his contributions to coaching, welcoming newcomers, serving on the club committee and planning club events, all of which he has tackled with maturity and dedication. The icing on the cake was his contribution to the planning of Day 1 of the Scottish Six Days this year.
Every year at the SOA AGM, the President’s medal is awarded to an individual, group or club for their services to orienteering.
This year the President’s medal was awarded to Dave Kershaw who is a member of Edinburgh Southern Orienteering Club (ESOC).
Dave is standing down from the Scottish 6 Days Board after nearly 10 years as Chair and 3 years before that as Technical Director. The biennial 6 days is Scottish Orienteering’s blue riband event and the stewardship by Dave of this small board of directors has been critical to its success.
The 6 days is important to Scottish Orienteering in its own right but the board has taken on bigger challenges. In 2015 the 6 days was run in parallel with WOC where there were over 6000 competitors. In addition to being the Technical Director Dave also acted as technical coordinator.
As many of you will know the Scottish Inter Club Championship has taken many forms over the years from a one day event run along side the Scottish Individual Championships to the current format. The aim of the event is to help clubs foster a feeling of club comradery and contribution towards the success of a club within their membership. We want to improve its impact in 2026 and are looking for your help/ input to do so.
