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.

The Scottish Inter Club Championships which is held over twelve geographically distributed events over the course of the year allows clubs to compete against each other to see who can gain the most points from their club members performances at events. The Scottish Inter Club Championship consists of two sections, large and small clubs, based on the number of members a club has and these are then split into Senior and Junior sections so there are four awards at the end of the year with two Trophies on offer for the Senior sections and a variety of sweeter prizes for the Junior sections.

In 2025 there were events ranging from the Edinburgh University Orienteering Club (EUOC) Big Weekend in January through to the last event in November in Glasgow, The Tinto Twin Day Race hosted by St Andrew’s (Glasgow) Orienteering Club (STAG). Full details of all the events can be found on the Scottish Inter Club Championships Page.

Each year, as part of the Junior Inter Area Weekend, we hold a dedicated Junior Feedback Session, where our junior members have the opportunity to share their thoughts, ideas, and experiences. This session is an important part of the weekend and is part of why we encourage everyone to come together at the overnight accommodation.

Each year a Junior Inter Area event is held over one weekend, generally in October. The event consists of a relay event followed by an individual event with juniors from the three Scottish orienteering areas – East, North and West – coming together to compete as a team representing their area. The Saturday night offers the opportunity for juniors to all stay in a youth hostel or other accommodation, socialise, renew old acquaintances and meet new ones from outwith their own clubs/areas.

With each area taking turns to host the event, 2025 was the turn of the West area to organise and play host to Scottish juniors. And so the Scottish juniors descended on the Stirling area on the last weekend in October to see whose area would raise the Trophies and claim the sweet treats on offer as prizes!