The next Fingal event will be an urban event in Navan Town center on December 8th. There will be 3 courses available, Long 7.2 Km. Medium 4.7 Km and Short 2.5 Km. These are estimated shortest running distances, not straight line distances. Rigistration and start is at the Meath Enterprise Centre on the Trim Road, R161, Eircode C15FD35. Starts will be from 11.00 until 12.30. The event is open to everyone. The courses are regular timed start courses and controls must be taken in sequence. It is not a scatter event.

NOTE, courses will close at 2.00 PM

The long course will be restricted to over 16 years of age. Anyone under 16 on the medium course should be accompanied by a responsible adult. The Short will not cross any main roads but will use residential estates. The long course will visit the town centre, which will cross some busy roads, so care should be taken. There will be pedestrian crossing points marked on the map. These will not be compulsory, only suggestive. Navan can be a very busy town, so please take care and avoid any jaywalking. Please also respect other people who will be about, and especially traffic. Running is on streets and on some parkland.

Toilet facilities are available at The Circle K garage on the Trim road C15 DC8W and the Riverside Filling Station(Maxol) on the Dublin Road, C15TCK3. For those on the Long course, toilet facilities mid course can be found in Navan Shopping Centre. The location will be marked on the map. Finally, we are indebted to Meath Enterprise Centre for the use of their grounds. We would be grateful if everyone respects this and bring any rubbish they may have with them when they leave.

The event will be followed by our Christmas dinner in the Balreasc Arms. Club members attending the dinner will have a free run in the event. Contact Per to sign up for the dinner. The Balreasc Arms is about 2 Km from Navan center on the Trim road, Eircode C15T0CR.

<- Liam O'Donnell

Congratulations to the Fingal Leinster Championship prize winners at Glencree. The prizewinners were Liam O'Donnell, 1st M16, Kathleen O'Donnell, 1st W14, Alan O'Donnell, 1st M45, Jean O'Neill, 1st W75, Val Jones 1st M65, Per-Olov Elovsson, 3rd M65, and Sarah Ní Ruairc, 3rd and Leinster Champion W40.

The event was held in Crone and Ballyreagh Woods at the east end of the northern slopes of Maulin and Tonduff. The previous Leinster Championships in this location was further west in Ballyross woods. The going through the forest was tough with steep slopes and lots of logs and thinnings on the ground. The open section visited by the longer courses was also very tough with gorse and deep heather, making for some very long times for some and a good few DNFs. Nevertheless it was a good championships. Per thought it was real orienteering, like the forests in his native Sweden.

Some more prize giving photos

The student scatter event at DCU and Albert College / Hampstead Park was a good success. Attendance was over 90, with at least 25 students from DCU, DUO, UCDO, and Colaiste Dulaigh. The weather stayed dry and mild, and people had good runs around the park and the college campus. Hopefully the students enjoyed it and that it will encourage them to continue orienteering.

Thanks to Bernie for organising, and Frank for managing on the day. Thanks also to Val for planning, and the other helpers, Tommy, Per, Nicola, Gabrielle, Chris, Ian, Eileen, Sean, Alan, and Kathryn.

Results are available here.

Some more photos here.

Thanks to all who came to our League event in Carnawaddy. We were fortunate with the weather which stayed dry for most of Saturday while we were putting out controls, although there was a cold breeze. Sunday was really an ideal day for orienteering on an open mountain like this with a mild enough temperature and no wind. Thanks to Shane Lynch who had offered to plan the courses for us. Although a member of Cork O, Shane lives in Cooley. Everyone was very complimentary of the courses. Thanks to all the helpers, Organiser Tommy and Controller Val, as well as Ian, Sarah, Bernie, Roxanne, Per, and Gabrielle, and Josh O'Sullivan Hourihan who collected controls for us as a warm down after having a blistering run on the Brown course. Thanks also to all the LVO members who came as the numbers attending were impacted by many families away at the Junior Home International. Just over 60 entries is disappointing though for a league event. There were very few on the Light Green, Orange, and Yellow.

Results are available here.

Some more photos here.

Our next event is at DCU on November 10th. It is aimed at students, but will be open to all to take part. The format will be a scatter event

The 2024 Scatter league is finished with a great event at Malahide Castle demesne. Luckily the rain held off for the event and the league prizegiving, and only started when taking down the last tent and collecting the last few controls. Thanks to Jean for planning and Frank for organising. Thanks to the helpers, Nicola, Sarah, Bernie, Val, Alan, Roxanne, Eoin, Chris, Eileen, Marta, Per, and Nicola.

Results are available here.

The Final Scatter league table results are here.

Congratulations to all prize winners. We hope everyone enjoyed the series, and we'll see you again in 2025.

Some more photos here.

Our next event is on October 13th at Carnawaddy, Co. Louth. It is a Leinster league event on open mountain. Challenging courses have been planned by Ciarán Lynch of CorkO.

We are also having a scatter event at DCU on November 10th. It is aimed at students, but will be open to all to take part.

Thanks to all who came to the 3rd 2024 Scatter event in Ardgillan Castle demesne. Thanks to Gabrielle for planning and Tommy for organising and controlling. An extra challenge was thrown into the courses with the climb back up to the finish. Thanks to the helpers, Nicola, Sarah, Bernie, Frank, Alan, Liam, Eoin, Chris, Eileen, Marta, Per, and Nicola.

Results are available here.

The Scatter league table of results so far is here.

Remember it's the best 3 of 4 events to count. Only those who have done 2 events so far are included. The prize giving will be at the final event in Malahide Castle, at 1.30 or soon after, as soon as results are known.

Please let us know if you see any error in the table, especially if a junior is in the adult category, or an adult is in the junior category.

Some more photos here.

Thanks to all who came to our scatter event in St. Anne's Park, Raheny. Over 120 took part on a fine morning and everyone enjoyed the courses as planned by Per. While the morning started bright it got cooler but at least it stayed dry. Thanks to Per and Eileen for organizing, and the rest of the helpers, Nicola, Roxanne, Frank, Val, Ann, Treasa, Alan, Liam, Eoin, Kathleen, and Jack.

Results are available here.

Some more photos here.

The second scatter event of 2024 is at St. Anne's Park, Raheny.

Registration, Start, and Finish is on the main avenue of the park, at the junction of the path coming from the tennis courts and north of the rose garden. Latitude/Longitude is 53.371720, -6.182159.

Dublin City Council have asked people to use public transport if possible. You can take the Dart to Raheny or buses H1 or 130, also H2 and H3 go through Raheny. But if driving, park in the car park off Mt. Prospect Avenue rather than at the tennis courts. This is also near the Café in the Red Barn.

Enter online on Orienteering Ireland website. While we'd prefer if you enter online it will be possible to enter on the day. Registration will be open from 11.00.

There will be 3 courses, Long, Medium, and Short. The mass start will be at 12.00. The long course, find any 18 controls, the medium, find any 13, the short find any 8, in any order. All controls will be in the park

Thanks to all who came to our first scatter event of September 2024 in River Valley, Swords. We had a fine morning, 88 competitors, many who were new, and everyone was complimentary on the map and courses. There were minor problems with the lake actually being dry, some paths overgrown, and a fence no longer there. Apologies for that.

Results are here.

Some more photos here.

The Fingal Scatter series returns this year with 4 events in September.

The first event is next Sunday, September 1st, at River Valley in Swords.

Enter online on Orienteering Ireland website.. While we'd prefer if you enter online it will be possible to enter on the day. Registration will be in the new car park in the River Valley park just beside Loreto school, across the road from the shopping center and community center. Registration will be open from 11.00.

In the scatter series 3 out of 4 events will count for prizes. There will be 3 courses at each event, Long, Medium, and Short.
At each event there will be a mass start at 12.00.
Runners will need to visit a set number of controls. The controls can be visited in any order.
The long course requires you to find any 18 out of 20 controls in any order you like.
The medium course requires you to find 13 controls in any order.
The short course requires you to find 8 controls in any order.
Most controls will be in the park so only runners on the Long should need to go outside to controls in the housing estates.

The remaining events in the scatter series are as follows
Sunday September 8th, St Anne's Park, Raheny
Sunday September 22nd, Ardgillan Park, Balbriggan/Skerries
Sunday September 29th, Malahide Castle Demesne, Malahide.
On the 15th there is a Leinster League event in the Pine Forest south of Rathfarnham

Thanks to all who came to our event at the Sport Ireland Campus. We had a good turnout on the Long and Medium courses in particular. It was a lovely evening for a run around the campus, the only downside might have been the nettles and other summer vegetation in a few places.

Thanks to Marta for her first time planning an event. Thanks also to Bernie, the orgainser, and Val, the controller, and to all the helpers, Eileen, Tommy, Nicola, Per, Roxanne, Frank, Sean, Alan, Gabrielle, Donal, Jean, and Jack Hanafin, the new regional development officer.

Some photos are here

Our summer evening event is on next Tuesday evening, July 30th, at the Sport Ireland Campus in Blanchardstown. The Registration, Start and Finish is at Abbotstown House in the Campus.

This is the 5th event of the Orienteering Ireland Dublin Urban Summer series of events. All are welcome. There will be 3 courses available, Short ~2K, Medium ~4K, and Long ~6K. You can enter online at www.orienteering.ie/fixtures/sport-ireland-campus-3 Entry on the day will also be accepted. You can register and start anytime from 6 PM until 7.30. When you enter the Sport Ireland Campus, go left at the roundabaout, then right before the indoor arena, and continue on to Abbotstown house, where there is plenty of parking. You can also get there by buses 38, 38A, 38B, N4, 236, and 220.

There will also be a small amount of training provided for newcomers to encourage newcomers and people who are returning to the sport.

The next fingal event is an evening event at the Sports Ireland Campus in Blanchardstown, on Tuesday evening, 30th July. It is part of a series of summer evening events being organized by Orienteering Ireland in parks around Dublin to promote orienteering. There will be 3 courses available, Long, Medium, and Short, with something to suit all levels of fitness and experience. There will also be instructors to help people who are new to orienteering.

Irish Orienteering Championships 2024.

<- O'Donnell J48 team, Liam, Eoin, and Kathleen.

The Irish Orienteering Championship weekend of 2024 has just completed. As usual it was a very enjoyable weekend both for orienteering and sociability. The Sprint was in Maynooth University Campus on the Friday evening while the other events were just west of Lough Ree in Roscommon and east Galway. The north campus of Maynooth was a good area for fast running with plenty of direction changes around the buildings, walls, and fences. The Middle distance was in Aughrane Wood, Ballygar, in east Galway. The wood was mostly flat but quite technical with plenty of depressions, green forest, and other features. Running was quite tough in places with thinnings on the forest floor.

The long distance was on Slieve Bawn, Roscommon. There were great views from the parking area over the midlands with some of the mountains in the west being visible in the distance. Unfortunately a lot of what was white forest on the old map on the website had been clearfelled so there was a lot of running on paths between the remaining forest sections. Most courses had a 1K climb on a tarmac road for the final section. The relays were in the grounds of Strokestown house. It was a good area for relays with a nice changeover area in front of the house. Even though mostly farmland there were some forest areas and other features to keep runners alert.

Fingal prizewinners were Jean O'Neill, 1st W75 in Middle and Long, Val Jones 1st M65 Long, Kathleen O'Donnell 3rd W14 Long, Alan O'Donnell M45 3rd in Sprint, Kathryn Walley W60 3rd in Sprint, Tommy Burke M70 3rd in Sprint. Sean and Donal Kearns were 2nd and 3rd on the M21 Short course at Slieve Bawn. In the relays the J48 team of Liam, Eoin, and Kathleen was 3rd, while the Handicap 24 team of Val, Jean, and Per were 2nd.

Some more photos from Nicola here

Maprun this Sunday, 28 April, in DCU campus, Glasnevin. Meet outside the Helix, at 10.00 AM. Here are the links to the maps to download and print.

Long Course 3 K

Short Course 2 K

Thanks to all who came to our Maprun in River Valley and AGM afterwards in the River Valley community centre. Congratulations to our new chairman, Bernie Sharkey. Bernie is a founder member of Fingal and familiar to everyone from manning the registration at most of our events. Also thanks to Ian Murphy who is stepping down after very ably managing the role for the last 5 years.

It was a pity only 6 people did the Maprun, perhaps due to people having other commitments on Saturday

At the AGM Ian presented the Chairman's report on the last year's activities. Per presented the treasurer's report. The club finances are healthy. Most income comes from running events and we also get grant money for equipment from Fingal and the Sports councils. Tommy reported on registering events and grant applications. Alan gave a report on junior activities. He would very much like to hear from any families with juniors who would like to take part in junior training and other activities. Bernie reported on the recent Orienteering Ireland conference where discussions included membership, events including the Irish Championships, grants, and promoting the sport. We then had a general discussion on the club events and activities going forward. The reports will be available in Teamer.

Thanks to all who came to our spring Leinster League event in Castleblayney. Thanks to all who helped out, including Kieran Rocks of LVO who came early and put out some controls.

Thanks to all the club memebrs who helped, Planner Val Jones, Controller Kathryn Walley, Organiser Bernie Sharkey, SI Chris Slattery and Ian Murphy, Svetlana Gatova, Per Olov Elovsson, Nicola Garret, Roxanne White, Frank Flood, Gabrielle King, Jean O'Neill, Alan and Liam O'Donnell, Donal and Sean Kearns, and Eileen Young who created the initial map.

Some more photos here

The weather stayed dry and everyone seemed to enjoy the courses and the varied terrain. The only small complaint was on the stiffness of the maps, particularly for the courses that had A3 size paper.

While we had good numbers on the longer courses for an event in Ulster, the numbers on the Orange and Yellow courses were very low.

Results are here

Fingal's next event is in Lough Muckno Park, Castleblayney, on Sunday, February 25th, 2024.

Start times will be from 11.00 until 13.00. Registration and parking will be on the right inside the main entrance to the park from Castleblaney Town.

Enter online at orienteering.ie

There will also be some entry on the day available. There will be a variety of courses to suit all ages and levels of fitness and experience.

Provisional Course details as follows

Entry fees
Adults: €8, Children: €5, Student/OAP/Unwaged: €5. Family Discount: €15
SI card rental €2

Course maps will be preprinted on waterproof paper. Map scale 1:5000 with 5 meter contours. The map is drawn to the ISSprOM standard. The Brown, Blue, and Green will be A3 size, the others will be A4.

The terrain is typical of Monaghan Drumlin country. The Yellow, orange, and Light Green courses will be in the park area. The Red, Short Green, and Green courses will include the forest on Black Island. The Brown and Blue courses will also include the forest on Black Island and also some of castleblayney town streets.

Blayney Castle was originally built by Barron Blayney in the early 17th century. The Blayneys also owned Rossmore Castle near Monaghan town. We also use that demesne for orienteering. The castle was sold to Henry Thomas Hope in 1853. It was remodelled and renamed Hope Castle. It served a number of purposes in the 20th century, the most recent was as a hotel. It was badly damaged by fire in 2010.

Directions:
From Dublin take either the M1 or the N2. From the M1 take the N53 from Dundalk to Castleblaney. The event will be signposted from the roundabout where the N2 meets the N53.
From the North take the R181/B32 from Keady or the R182/A25 from Newtownhamilton. In Castleblaney at the east end of the main street take the road east from Market Square through the gates into Lough Muckno park.

Thanks to all who came to our Night event in River Valley, Swords. It was great to see the group of enthusiastic students from DUO. MET Eireann got it wrong and luckily the forecasted rain never came. Thanks to Alan and Liam for organizing and planning the event. It was planned in a sprint style on the updated 1:4000 map.

Well done to Valdas Tilunas winning the long in 37.46 minutes, and Maeve O'Grady, fastest W in 52.59. Also well done to Alfie Tyner, M14, fastest on the Short in 36.56. Our Eileen was fastest W on the short in 44.42. Apologies for the 2 controls with swapped codes. The results reflect the control being punched, and those who didn't punch have been given the control.

We are having a Night Orienteering event in River Valley in Swords on Saturday, 10 February.

Start times between 18:30 & 19:30. Two courses: Long 6.5km approx., Short 3.5km approx. Enter online at orienteering.ie

Maps will be pre-printed on waterproof paper and control descriptions will be available separately. SI air will be enabled. Courses will be a mix of urban residential and hilly parkland. The River Valley Parkland has grassy open spaces, some steps, is muddy in parts, with marsh and flooding in the western end. Also lots of wooded areas with small paths, and some dense undergrowth.

We will be using the new Fingal County Council Ward Rivervalley car park for parking and registration. Entrance is off the Hilltown Road on the bend across the road from River Valley Community centre, eircode K67FF20. Please note, Google maps does not currently show this car park. Usual O kite will be at the entrance.

Under 16s can enter and MUST be accompanied by an adult.

Closest public transport: 41C, 41B serving Swords with a 2 minute walk to registration. Check local Dublin bus schedules for details. The 102 also passes through River Valley.

The next Fingal event after that is our spring Leinster League event in Lough Muckno Park, Castleblaney, Co. Monaghan, on Sunday, the 25th February. There will be 8 colour coded courses available, including a Short Green. Further details will be available soon.

Merry Christmas and a Happy orienteering New Year to all Fingal members and friends.

We had a Maprun event in Clonshaugh on Sunday, followed by our Christmas dinner in the ALSAA building. Only a small group were at the Maprun as there was a league event in the Curragh in the morning. However about 25 members came to the dinner in ALSAA, and enjoyed the food, as well as a quiz and spot prizes. Thanks to Jean and Bernie for organizing the venue, meal, quiz, and spot prizes.

The next Fingal event is a Night Orienteering event in River Valley, Swords, on Saturday evening, 10th February. This will be followed by our spring Leinster League event in Castleblaney on Sunday 25th February.