The Scottish Schools Orienteering Festival is back for 2025 and this year will be held at Pittencrieff Park in Dunfermline. It will be on Thursday 5th June so make sure to save the date! A huge thanks are extended to Kingdom of Fife Orienteers for giving permission to use this area and for providing the organiser and planner for the event.
Read More…Make sure you don’t miss out on any selection opportunities this year. We have gathered them all together in one place.
Read More…In an effort to assist clubs and individuals to plan training to qualify volunteers and keep them up to date, we have gradually been moving towards a more predictable training programme that will run on an annual cycle. Obviously this will have to incorporate a degree of flexibility to accommodate the events calendar, school and university holidays but on the whole we will try and run the same courses at more or less the same time every year.
At the 2024 interarea weekend, we held a feedback session for our juniors to express their thoughts and opinions on orienteering for juniors in Scotland. They were given 4 topics to discuss: social opportunities, communication (juniors to SOA and SOA to juniors) and prizes. The overarching theme was that orienteering needs to be made more social for juniors by providing more opportunities for them to socialise outwith their clubs.
Juniors from all over Scotland headed north for this year’s junior interarea competition that took place on the weekend of 26/27th November. The North, East and West fielded their strongest teams and battled it out over a relay on the Saturday and the individual on the Sunday, with West hoping to retain their title from last year.
Our great sport always needs people to help introduce others to a fantastic new activity or support those already participating to be the best they can. These people are our coaches and we have a variety of courses to train you to join their ranks – it’s easier than you think.
Juniors – are you a keen orienteer who would like to start getting involved in volunteering? Club volunteer coordinators – do you ever struggle to find event officials? Coaches – do you want a pair of young legs to help you out?
SOA Young Leader courses are all designed to give juniors the knowledge & experience to get involved with volunteering in the club, easing the load whilst giving them new, transferable skills. Run by experts who have worked in the roles for many years, we have 3 areas of expertise – hopefully something to suit everyone:
Have you ever fancied helping out your club by organising an event or been asked to but it all seemed too complicated? Well, help is at hand. The outwardly daunting task of organising is broken down and explained in our organiser workshops. Run by experts who have organised many events, we have 3 options, hopefully something to suit everyone.
After long deliberations it was decided that the Young Orienteer of the Year award sponsored by Tulloch Homes for 2023 should be awarded jointly to Ruari Cottier of Loch Eck Orienteers (ECKO) and Peter Owen of Forth Valley Orienteers (FVO).
Both individuals have made huge efforts to promote the sport and both their efforts to support their clubs and promote orienteering within their schools should be celebrated. Therefore they were both presented with the prize at the Jamie Stevenson Trophy event. Well done to both Ruari and Peter!
Well there hasn’t been a damp Jamie Stevenson Trophy for a few years but a bit of rain did not diminish the chatter, shouts of encouragement and enthusiasm for the event.
The Jamie Stevenson Trophy is an annual inter-club competition for junior classes only, and traditionally held in central Scotland to encourage participation from all Scottish clubs. It was initiated as a fund-raising event for the Scottish Junior Orienteering Squad (ScotJOS) by Bill and Anne Stevenson in honour of their son, Jamie, who is a multiple World Championships medal winner ( winning gold at the World Orienteering Championships in the Sprint in 2003) and also one of our Patrons. It’s a chance for all juniors in a club to take part in a competitive event with a parade of athletes, commentary and prize-giving.
This year 11 clubs ventured to the Hermitage, just outside Dunkeld, to join to let their juniors enjoy a taste of a competition focussed on juniors with a celebratory atmosphere. Club tents line the run in, faces are adored with face paints and club mascots on are display. No club has yet challenged the Blue Peter skills of Inverness Orienteering Club who have created a cardboard eagle costume in the last few years. Will we get a Wallace Monument costume from Forth Valley Orienteers, a capercaillie from Mar Orienteering Club or a Burghead Bull from Moravian Orienteers to name but a few next year?
As is tradition the day started with a parade of all the juniors led by last year’s winning club Forth Valley Orienteers. It also helped this year to ensure the run in was suitably trampled to make their final run in easier!
