The next Fingal event is a Leinster League event in Cahore sand dunes on April 27th. This replaces the cancelled Castleblayney event in March.

Course details

Brown 9.1K 28 controls
Blue 7.2K 27 controls
Green 4.8K 18 controls
Light Green 3.5K 13 controls
Red 4.6K 12 controls
Orange 3.9K 13 controls
Yellow 2.4K 11 controls

The small paths in the sand dunes have been removed from the Brown, to add an extra challenge.

Climb is minimal on most courses and is not stated because of the variety of routes over the dunes. There is no Short Green but hopefully the Light Green will provide enough technical challenge. There are extensive paths through the dunes and the less distinct ones are not mapped. But note that running on the soft sand on the more distinct paths is more tiring than running off the paths.

The Brown, Blue, and Green are on A3 paper.
The Red, Yellow, Orange, and Light Green are on A4.
The Brown, Blue, Red, and Orange scales are 1:7500.
The Green, Light Green and Yellow scales are 1:5000.

As requested by the Parks and Wildlife ranger some areas are marked with the out of bounds purple hatching, because of dune erosion and nesting terns near the river outflow. Please avoid these areas. They are not marked on the ground.

The areas closest to the sea are very sandy and are designated as Open rather than sandy ground. This is because of the pdf file size created by purple pen. The rest of the dunes are designated as rough open. The vegetation increases and is more varied the further inland you go in the dunes.

There will be a portaloo at assembly.

Courses close at 15.00. Starts between 11.00 and 13.00.

Enrty on the day will be accepted, provided maps are available.

Directions.

Take the M11 south. exit at Junction 23 signposted for Gorey, Courtown, and Ballycanew. Follow the signs for Ballycanew and follow the R741 to Ballycanew. At Ballycanew turn left on the L1031 signposted for Killenagh. Turn right on the R742 to Ballygarrett. Drive straight through Ballygarrett, don't take the turn signposted for Cahore. 2k after Ballygarret turn left, signposted for Old Bawn. Parking is 2K down this road. From the south it's probably best to take the same exit off the M11.

The 2025 Leinster Championships took place on an updated map of Clara Vale on February 23rd. The day was reasonably dry and the forest had escaped any serious storm damage. The courses planned by Paul Smyth were very technical and made good use of the southern section of the forest. Fingal prize winners were Jean O'Neill, 1st W75, Kathleen O'Donnell, 1st W14, and Val Jones, 1st M21L. Not many club members attended, and the overall numbers were low for a championship event.

The event was the last event hosted by Ajax, and they confirmed that they are winding up the club. It's sad to see the demise of a once very active club that concentrated on the elite level. They will be remembered for some great events including the 2011 and 1985 Irish Championships.

The club AGM took place on Saturday 8th February. Thanks to the River Valley Comunity Center for hosting us. And thanks to Bernie and Nicola for the tea, coffee, sandwiches, crisps, and and other goodies. It was well attended by 13 members.

<- Alan, Frank, Sean, Adria, Kathryn, Jean, Val, Bernie, Per, Nicola, Gabrielle, Tommy. Ian took the photo.

There was a good discussion on last year's activities, reports by different officers, and this year's events. The minutes and reports will be on Teamer.

Due to damage by storm Eowyn the league event planned for Castleblayney on March 9th is cancelled. We will have a league event in Cahore sand dunes instead on April 27th. This is the week before the Irish Championships, also on sand dunes, so it should provide good practice.

The maprun before the AGM only attracted 4 runners, perhaps due to the weather. The courses will be updated on the maprun page, so will be available for anyone to try.

Our club AGM is on Saturday 8th February in the River Valley Comunity Center at 2 PM. Please come and see what the club activities are going forward, and have an input. Tea, Coffee, sandwiches and biscuits will be provided. And don't worry, you won't be forced onto the committee or to take on any job.

We will meet at 12.00 before the AGM for a Maprun in River Valley. There will be 4 courses available. A short course which will stay in the park, and a medium course which will include some of River Valley and Glasmore park streets. There will be two long courses. One, which is very similar to last year, will include Brookdale and Ridgewood streets. The second goes up the west section of the valley and includes some of Swords Manor and Knocksedan streets.

Thanks to all who came to the Night event in the Sports Ireland Campus. Thanks to Kathryn and Sean for planning and organising, and to the other helpers. It was a clear night in the aftermath of storm Éowyn.

Results are here.

Some more photos are here

Happy New Year to all Fingal Members and friends

Here's to looking forward to an enjoyable and succesful 2025 year of orienteering

The first Fingal event of 2025 will be a night event in the Sports Ireland Campus in Abbotstown on Saturday evening, January 25th. The event will start about 6PM. There will be 2 courses, a Long and a Short. Entry will be on orienteering.ie here

The rest of the main Fingal events for 2025 will be as follows.

We will return to Castleblayney on March 9th for a Leinster League event. Per is planner.

The scatter league will return in the Autumn. The events will be a bit more spread out this year rather than on consecutive Sundays. The dates are August 31st, September 14th, September 28th, and October 5th. Venues are still to be confirmed but will include the popular parks of north Dublin.

The 2nd Leinster League event will be on a new map of Balinagee forest and open mountain on November 9th. Val and Tommy are completing the map. Balinagee is on the north side of the R756 west of the Wicklow gap. It is on the other side of the road from the Setanta areas at Oakwood and Fair Mountain.

We will most likely also have one or two summer evening events in June or July, and a Christmas event on December 14th. We also hope to have some training events and MapRun meetups.

Other events to look forward to are the Leinster Champs in Claravale on February 23rd, the Irish Championships in Derry on the first weekend in May, the Munster Championships near Mitchelstown, October 19th, and the Northern Ireland Championships on November 1st