Fingal Orienteers is an Orienteering club based in North Dublin, with members also based in Co. Meath and Co. Louth. Membership is open to everyone. For further details of the club, see the Club Info page.
New MapRun courses are now available in Millemium park in Blanchardstown. Select a course, download and print the map here.
See instructions for using MapRun 6 on our MapRun page here.
<- The Fingal Winners of the J48 class, Liam and Eoin O'Donnell and Leire Holguin.
Fingal runners did very well in the 2023 Irish Championships in Wicklow. The highlight was the junior team of Liam, Eoin, and Leire winning the J48 class. Alan, Simone, and Ciaran came second in the H6 class and the H24 team of Eileen, Jean amd Val also came second.
<- The Fingal H6 team, Alan, Simone, and Ciaran.
In the individual races, Jean is Irish Champion in W75 in all three days in Sprint, Middle and Long distance.
Liam O'Donnell was 1st and Irish Champion in M14 Long Distance, and 2nd in the Sprint.
Kathleen O'Donnell was 3rd in W12 in the Sprint, Middle, and Long.
Simone De Gasperi was 2nd in the Middle distance.
Alan O'Donnell was 2nd and Irish Champion in the Middle distance, and 3rd in the Sprint.
Val is Irish Champion in Middle and Long distance.
Eileen is Irish Champion in Sprint and Middle distance.
<- The Fingal H24 team, Eileen, Val, and Jean.
Overall it was a very successful 4 days of orienteering organised by CNOC. The weather was dry for the most part. The Sprint on Friday unusually was in a forest in Glending near Blessinton. The Middle distance was in Stranahely, venue of the 2019 Leinster championships. The long distance was in Devils Glen on a new map. Devils Glen had not been used for about 30 years but is one one the most challenging areas in Leinster. There were some long times and most people made some mistakes.
The relays were in a new area, the Tottenham estate which is a private wood on the north side of the Devils Glen.
<- The Fingal H18 team, Gabrielle, Tommy, and Sarah.
<- Planner Sean with his brothers and Dad.
Thanks to all who came to our spring 2023 Leinster League event. The rain held off for the event, although we had a wet day on Saturday putting out the controls. Thanks especially to the students who came from several colleges around the country. The event was also being used for the Inter Varsities championship. It was great to see so many young and enthusiastic orienteers taking part. Thanks also to those who took part as part of the women in sport initiative.
There was great praise for the courses planned by Sean Kearns on his first time planning a League event. One runner on the Brown said "It was perfect". Thanks also to main organiser Kathryn Walley, assistant organiser Bernie Sharkey, controller Val Jones, and the other helpers, Per-Olov Elovsson, Nicola Garret, Ciaran and Eileen Young, Chris Slattery, Sarah Ní Ruairc, Ian Murphy, Jean O'Neill, and the rest of the Kearns family, Donal, Ciaran, Paul, and Sinead.
This may well be the last event in Fauna, or at least the last league event, as Coillte are gathering the machinery for what looks like extensive felling.
The next Fingal event is our Spring Leinster League event in Fauna Wood near Donard in west Wicklow. The usual 7 league courses will be available, to suit all levels of experience and fitness. The event will be sign posted from the N81, at the turn off for Donard, at the Olde Toll House. The forest is mostly runnable although there has been some recent felling.
Course details are as follows.
Course | Length | Climb | Controls |
Brown | 9.9 K | 285 M | 26 |
Blue | 7.1 K | 165 M | 18 |
Green | 4.5 K | 160 M | 18 |
Light Green | 3.4 K | 105 M | 12 |
Red | 4.7 K | 185 M | 9 |
Orange | 3.5 K | 95 M | 11 |
Yellow | 2.2 K | 60 M | 8 |
Control Descriptions are here.
Online entries are open on Orienteering Ireland web site
We would like to welcome newcomers who have entered through the Women in Sport initiative. Please talk to Bernie and Nicole at the reception if you need any information.
We also welcome the student orienteers from the college clubs who are having the College Championship at our event. Great to see student involvement again.
Eileen's Sprint training series continues on Saturdays. Everyone who attended has enjoyed it and hopefully learned something. The final session is in Castleknock next Saturday. Contact Eileen for details if interested.
Thanks to all who came to the night event in Sports Campus Ireland. Results are on Orienteering.ie website.
Apologies to anyone who downloaded the control descriptions from our website. There was a last minute change to the first control, but we forgot to update the descriptions on the website.
Thanks to all who helped, Ian, Bernie, Ciaran, Eileen, Per, and Sean.
The first Fingal event of 2023 is a Night Orienteering event. Unfortunately Fingal County Council have refused permission for Portmarnock. The reason was because participants would have to cross public roads. So the event will now be held in Sports Campus Ireland, Blanchardstown, where it was held last year, assuming we complete permissions in time. The assembly, start, and finish will be in the main car park outside the multi sports building by the hockey pitches. The courses will take in the full grounds of the sports campus. There will be 2 courses on offer, a long, about 6.9K and a short about 3.7K. Click here for control descriptions. SIAC will be enabled. The maps will be printed on A4 waterproof paper. The Long course will be split and printed on both sides of the page. Navigating at night is for the intrepid or experienced only. Any juniors under 16 must be accompanied - it's much more challenging than during the day. The bigger your headtorch the better. Runners can start at 6PM or soon after when it gets dark.
The first Fingal Leinster League event is in Fauna / Donard wood on March 12th. Sean Kearns is planning the courses and Val Jones is controller. Fauna is in west Wicklow south of Donard village, near the Glen of Imaal. It is a typical Wicklow forest and is similar to some of the forests where the Irish Championships will take place.
The Fingal Autumn Leinster League event will be in Cootehill / Dartry where we had the autumn event last year. Eileen Young has volunteered to plan it. It is scheduled for November 12th.
A Merry Christmas and a Happy orienteering New Year to all Fingal Orienteers and friends.
Thanks to all who came to our pre Christmas event in Tyrrelstown. Thanks to the Tyrrelstown Community center for allowing us to use the center for registration and for our AGM. The courses through the streets and park were very well planned by Tommy. Route choices were a little different to the normal, where the choice was where it was possible to run on grass given that the roads and pavements were icy and slippy where the sun didn't shine.
We had a productive AGM and then a very enjoyable Christmas dinner in the nearby Carlton Hotel. Some more photos are here.