For longer than most of us can remember ELO have put on a fun orienteering event between Christmas and New Year. As well as finding the controls there has been a puzzle to add to the challenge. A mass start, a social gathering and a lively prize giving have made up for a great way to work off some of the Christmas excesses.
This year’s Festive Frolic is at Levenhall Links on Sunday 28th December and will continue our grand tradition.
Please arrive early if you wish to enter on the day.
We held our club championships at Butterdean Wood in November …
Medals were enjoyed by kids and big kids alike!
Event Report
Thanks to all the many helpers – especially those who confirmed in advance as that really makes organising so much easier.
And thanks to all those who contributed to a very warm atmosphere despite the chilly weather – especially Sheila for carrying out so many roles and for her marvellous ‘medals’ (see photo).
We are grateful to Alba Trees for permission to use their car park to access the wood.
Saartje
Planner’s Report
I hope you enjoyed your course today. It was a pleasure to plan in Butterdean at this time of year when the worst of the undergrowth has died back. It’s also good to see the former fields flourishing with young trees.
The map has been much tweaked over the years and perhaps is due for a major overhaul. That might standardise how big a ditch should be to be worthy of appearing on the map!
Hartside Hill is a new area for orienteering, near Soutra Pass, just off the A68. It is an extensive plantation woodland with deep cleughs, rides of varying widths and an extensive ditch network.
We are grateful to David Smith and Bidwells for permission to use the forest and to the Duns, who farm at Gilston, for parking. Parking is likely to be tight so we would encourage people to meet at Pathhead and car share where possible.
Orienteers of all abilities are welcome to join us for this Scottish Orienteering League event where there will be a range of courses to suit everyone.
It was mostly a pleasure to be out in a new forest planning how best to use the area. There were restrictions based on planned felling in the eastern section of the forest which meant that the courses had to start east of the powerlines and head up the hill.
The narrower rides and ditches were the fastest running followed by the white forest once broken into through the edges and so the courses were planned to try to encourage using those. It was easy to get drawn down the planting lines which tended to veer away from the direct routes to controls and a good bearing was required to hit some of the controls while minimising one’s aiming off.
Sorry about the additional ditch that some folks found as they headed towards the finish! Hopefully it didn’t detract from an area which isn’t like many others near to Edinburgh. With a bit of luck the plan to clear fell the area over the next 10 years will progress quite slowly.
Lochend is a flat wood mainly made up of conifers with patches of birch and ash. There is an extensive path network and some vehicle tracks where care is needed but it is an ideal area of juniors and newcomers.
Orienteers of all abilities are welcome to join us on the day when we will have a range of courses to suit everyone. The Light Green course crosses roads so is only suitable for those aged 16 and over or juniors who are being closely accompanied by an adult.
To avoid the football which is taking place at Hallhill we will be meeting at Yosemite Park instead.
Dunbar is the driest, sunniest town in Scotland, but we can’t guarantee the weather so please dress appropriately!
We were very lucky with the weather – a bright clear day on the Law. And lucky with the ponies – they didn’t nibble any controls this year.
Many thanks to all who came to compete and to our army of helpers. Special thanks to Jamie for planning popular courses and finding some new control sites even in such a small mapped area.
Thanks to everyone who supported this event – competitors and helpers. Special thanks to Ian for courses, to John Tullie for being our Controller, and to those who volunteeered to collect controls at the end of a long day carrying out other roles – Nigel, Jamie and Alex.
We are grateful to Smeaton Estate for allowing us use their car park and thus avoid roadside parking at Binning. We hope you enjoyed this innovation.
Planner’s Report
Thank you to everyone who turned out for a lovely day of orienteering at Binning Wood whether running, helping or both.
The weather was sunny and the woods were in full green mode making some courses more challenging than at other times of the year. Meeting people at the finish line I suspected it was more difficult than expected which was reflected in standard finishing times so apologies if that was an inconvenience for anyone. However after reflection, I hope there were many positives to your runs too.
Special thank you to John Tullie of Roxburgh Reivers whose advice and suggestions were helpful and ultimately of benefit to the courses I had chosen.
Sprintelopes are lightweight informal events featuring Urban style races around the streets of towns in East Lothian and other areas in and around Edinburgh on Wednesday evenings.
In 2025, ELO are contributing five races to the series – this is the fifth of them, around Tranent!
Orienteers of all abilities are welcome to join us on the day when we will have a range of courses to suit everyone.
Sprintelopes are lightweight informal events featuring Urban style races around the streets of towns in East Lothian and other areas in and around Edinburgh on Wednesday evenings.
In 2025, ELO are contributing five races to the series – this is the fourth of them, around Dunbar!
Orienteers of all abilities are welcome to join us on the day when we will have a range of courses to suit everyone including under 16s who have a course with no road crossings.
Many thanks to all those who came to today’s event – a very strong turnout including lots of new faces and many experienced orienteers. Godfrey’s courses took us to some unfamiliar parts of Whitekirk not reached by previous events or by the weekly parkrun course.
Junior training activities before the main event were well attended too and enthusiastically carried out.
Sprintelopes are lightweight informal events featuring Urban style races around the streets of towns in East Lothian and other areas in and around Edinburgh on Wednesday evenings.
In 2025, ELO are contributing five races to the series – this is the third of them, around Haddington!
Orienteers of all abilities are welcome to join us on the day when we will have a range of courses to suit everyone including under 16s who have a course with no road crossings.
Sprintelopes are lightweight informal events featuring Urban style races around the streets of towns in East Lothian and other areas in and around Edinburgh on Wednesday evenings.
In 2025, ELO are contributing five races to the series – this is the second of them, around Musselburgh!
Orienteers of all abilities are welcome to join us on the day when we will have a range of courses to suit everyone including under 16s who have a course with no road crossings.
Vogrie Country Park is a woodland estate managed by Midlothian Council. The Tyne Water runs through the park in a steep sided valley which can provide a physical challenge. Vogrie usually hosts a Saturday parkrun and has a popular playground but its varied terrain and 12 mile path network make this a popular venue for orienteering, particularly for those new to the sport. For the more experienced there are plenty of ways to navigate between controls both on paths and off them!
Registration, start and finish are near the main house and we look forward to seeing you there.
Loose control descriptions will be available for the orange, red and green courses.
Sprintelopes are lightweight informal events featuring Urban style races around the streets of towns in East Lothian and other areas in and around Edinburgh on Wednesday evenings.
In 2025, ELO are contributing five races to the series – this is the first of them, around North Berwick!
Orienteers of all abilities are welcome to join us on the day when we will have a range of courses to suit everyone including under 16s who have a course with no road crossings.
Although online entries are now closed you can enter on the night.
Please note that Control Descriptions are on the BACK of the maps for the Long and Short courses.
We will have tea/coffee/hot chocolate available after the event!
As usual we thank all the competitors who braved the chilly wind and our large team who stage the event – especially Neil and Trina for planning courses and organising the event. And this time we also have to thank the many people who grabbed hold when the registration tent tried to blow away!
East Lothian Orienteers were involved in the East Lothian Schools Orienteering Festival held at Levenhall on Wednesday 19th February in conjunction with East Lothian Outdoor Learning Service.
Although there were only bulk entries from two primary schools, six schools were represented and approximately 120 pupils took part. There was some hot competition, although we did hear of one boy saying he took a bit longer than he could to stay out of school as long as possible.
In addition to the main competition there were a number of fun, orienteering-based activities and challenges. From all the reports we heard, all the pupils had a great time and we look forward to a bigger entry when the event returns next year.
Many thanks to all who came to enjoy a run at JMCP with most courses venturing into the woods for the first time since the sad depletion by Storm Arwen in 2021.
Special thanks to Jonathan and Andrea for planning and organising the event and to Jamie and Vik for arranging junior coaching beforehand. Jonathan planned an extra Red course for those who wanted to stretch their legs without a serious navigation challenge, and it was particularly popular on the day.
The catering table raised £50 for Mary’s Meals plus any donations made online.
We should like to apologise to those early starters on course 4 who lost some time at #1 due to the incorrect number on the loose control descriptions. We have considered voiding the course or removing the first two legs but having looked at the splits, we think that, with two or three exceptions, there was no significant impact on the results because of any delay you may have experienced. With apologies to those affected, we have left the results as they were at download.
For longer than most of us can remember ELO have put on a fun orienteering event between Christmas and New Year. As well as finding the controls there has been a puzzle to add to the challenge. A mass start, a social gathering and a lively prize giving have made up for a great way to work off some of the Christmas excesses.
This year’s Festive Frolic at Vogrie on Saturday 28th December continued the tradition in grand style. The Score course was a fair test for all and the Rainbow bonus was an extra challenge for anyone with spare energy.
Huge thanks to Sheila and her family for all their work on devising, planning and presenting this special event.
What a lovely place Vogrie is! I hope you all enjoyed your visit. Many thanks to the Rangers for giving us permission to hold our event.
Vogrie was closed last Saturday because of high winds so I was greatly relieved that the weather for the event, and for putting out the controls the day before, was very pleasant.
Apologies to those who lost time searching for control 29/189 which was found somewhere near 28/188. It had been moved some time after being checked around 9:30. I can only think that someone from the stables did not like it close to the horse field and hopped over the fence and took it but at least had the decency to dump it where we would find it.
Many thanks to those who helped, including Murray for help in putting out controls; Pete and Jamie on set up and control collection; David and Hanne on control collection; Jonathan on dibber issue and Andrea and Tim on computing. It would not have happened without a huge input from Robin, with additional help in many ways from Kirsten. Santa Panda enjoyed his view of people running hither and thither from his viewpoint between controls 2 and 4.
Thank you to whoever picked up the dropped compass and handed it in at download. The owner is very grateful.
Robin has added the following note about the results:
“There are lies, damned lies and … Festive Frolics results. The version available now has changed from what some of you saw earlier. We have gone through the splits printouts. Some of you missed partial rainbows and some of you claimed rainbows that included a control you had already used in another rainbow (often control 5). Control 30 was missing from your totals (my mistake in programming it). We haven’t verified the songs titles, although whether black is one of the colours of the rainbow is open to debate.
Sorry about the queue to submit your bonus claims. We have already thought about how it could be streamlined for another time (if we ever do it again!!)”
