Welcome to Fingal Orienteers Web Site
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.
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.
The next Fingal event is a Leinster League event at Balinagee, Co. Wicklow. Balinagee is on the North side of the R756 road from Laragh to Hollywood. It is on the west side of the Wicklow Gap.
The regular 7 league courses will be available, provisional lengths are as follows
Yellow 1.9 Kms, 45 M Climb, scale 1:5000
Orange 2.4 Kms, 50 M Climb, scale 1:5000
Red 4.6 Kms, 195 M Climb, scale 1:10000
Light Green 3.2 Kms, 90 M Climb, scale 1:5000
Green 4.4 Kms, 170 M Climb, scale 1:7500
Blue 6.6 Kms, 250 M Climb, scale 1:10000
Brown 7.8 Kms, 315 M Climb, scale 1:10000
Entries are open at Orienteering.ie fixtures. Please enter before 6.00 PM on Saturday.
NOTE phone reception is not good at the registration location so please bring cash if entering on the day.
There is no Short Green but hopefully participants will find the Light Green sufficiently technical.
There will be 2 starts, a separate start for the Yellow and Orange, 200 Meters from registration, and main start, 400 Meters from registration.
Ballinagee is on the North side of the R756 west of the Wicklow Gap. If coming from Hollywood turn left into the forest just after Ballinagee Bridge. If coming from Laragh turn right just before Ballinagee Bridge, about 4K after the Wicklow Gap. Note we will start collecting early controls on the Brown, Blue, and Green after 2.30.
Balinagee is a new map and this is the first time it will be used for a regular orienteering event. It was included in the map used for this year's Rogaine, and indeed anyone who has done Rogaines regularly will most likely have passed through Balinagee.
The map includes the forest and some of the open mountain to the north. Only the Brown and Blue courses will have controls on the open mountain. The forest is mostly typical Coillte spruce forest of varying density, and some deciduous sections. The contours are not particularly complex. There are a multitude of boulders and other rock features. Most small ditches and extraction rides are not mapped. The extraction rides are not particularly fast to run on because of forest thinnings on the ground.
The forest was mostly mapped in 2024 by Val Jones, and the open was mapped by Tommy Burke in 2025. We are grateful to Pat Healy for providing photogrammetry and lidar data.
Fingal members came home with a good haul of prizes from the 2025 Munster Championships near Mitchelstown. Unlike at DCU the weather was nice and sunny in Munster. Ciaran Young 1st Light Green, Dave Richardson 1st M65, Kathleen O'Donnell 1st W16, Alan O'Donnell 2nd M45, Val Jones 1st M70, and Eileen Young 1st W55.
Thanks to all who came to our Scatter event at DCU and Albert College Park. The event was aimed at students but unfortunately no students came, as far as we know. The morning was pretty wet which probably put some people off, as well as others going to the Munster Championship. Nevertheless we had about 55 entries which was reasonable considering. Thanks to Sean Kearns for planning and all the other helpers including Bernie, Sarah, Alex, Nicola, Per, Roxanne, Chris, and Marta.
5 people came to compass training at Ardgillan Park on the 18th of October. Hopefully they all benefited and can put the learning into practice. We will have more training sessions and please let us know what you would like us to concentrate on, and where the training should take place. We can have it on a Saturday again, and we may go away for a weekend next year, like in previous years. We can train on the Saturday, then attend another club event on the Sunday.
<- Kathryn, Eileen, Ciaran, Frank, and Val, with Per in the background.
Thanks to all who came to our final 2025 Scatter event at Malahide Castle Demesne. The morning was fine and dry although still windy after storm Amy. Thanks to Frank Flood for planning, and Kathryn Walley for organising. Thanks to all the other helpers including Bernie, Sarah, Nicola, Per, Roxanne, Bernie, Val, Carl, Marta, Ciaran, and Eileen. We had over 130 competitors, including over 40 Portmarnock scouts and cubs.
Congratulations to all prizewinners, Hopefully you enjoy the chocolate, honey, or whatever you received as a prize.
1st, 2nd, and 3rd Mens Long were Angus Tyner, Brendan McCarthy, and Tivon Tyner.
1st and 2nd Ladies Long were Eileen Young and Heather Wood, after a very close finish.
1st, 2nd, and 3rd Mens Medium were Oliver Clear, Brian Farren, and Per Olav Elovsson.
1st and 2nd Ladies Medium were Orla Jennings and Creidhe O'Sullivan. (Only 2 ladies completed 3 events.)
1st and 2nd Boys medium were Ryan Clear and Adam Clear.
1st Boy Short Course was Mason Malone.
1st Girl Short Course was Iyla Kumar.
1st Short Course Others was Nicola Garrett.
Luka Zalokar was also awarded a special prize for progressing from the Short course at St. Anne's, to Medium at the Sports Campus,
and to Long at Malahide
Angus and Tivon Tyner, Brendan McCarthy, Brian Farren, Creidhe O'Sullivan, and Mason Malone, please contact Bernie to pick up your prizes.
The final Scatter League Table is here
The next Fingal event is also a scatter event at DCU and Albert College Park on Sunday, October 19th i.
Entries will be open here at orienteering.ie. While entry will be available on the day we would much appreciate it if you could enter online to save on the queue in the morning.
The event is aimed at students but is open to everyone to take part.
Thanks to all who came to the third 2025 Scatter event Sport Ireland Campus in Blanchardstown. It was a fine sunny morning and we only had a brief shower when packing up. Thanks to Liam O'Donnell for planning, and dad Alan for organising. Liam put a lot of thought into the control placement and he insisted that 2 obvious ones to leave out did not provide the shortest route. Thanks to all the other helpers including Sarah, Nicola, Per, Roxanne, Bernie, Val, Carl, Chris, and Jean. Numbers were quite low, with various other events attracting the juniors and others.
The Final event of the series is on Sunday, October 5th in Malahide Castle Demesne.
Entries will be open here at orienteering.ie. While entry will be available on the day we would much appreciate it if you could enter online to save on the queue in the morning. Online entry is open until 6 p.m. on Saturday, the 4th.
Best 3 events from 4 are needed to count for the league prizes which will be presented at Malahide, as soon as possible after most runners have completed.
The Scatter League Table is here, which includes only those who have done 2 events so far. Please check and if you think you are missing let us know.
One thing that is disappointing this year compared to previous is that there are so few on the Short course. It seems there is a lack of kids of late primary school age coming out to try the sport. Kids of that age usually enjoy the scatter events.
<- Brian, Val, and Chris
Thanks to all who came to the second 2025 Scatter event in St Anne's Park. We had over 100 participants, including about 50 cubs. Numbers were probably a bit down because the forecast was bad. However the rain wasn't very heavy and eased off by 12.00. It was very windy especially down near the coast road, bit it was quite sheltered under the trees.
Thanks to Brian Farren on his first time planning an event, and Chris for organising. There were some good comments particularly on the long where it wasn't obvious which 2 controls were the best to leave out.
Thanks to all who helped out, Per, Nicola, Roxanne, Val, Tommy, Adrienne, Sarah, Alan, Eileen, Marta, and Jean
The next event is on next Sunday, September 21st in Sport Ireland Campus, in Blanchardstown.
Entries are open here at orienteering.ie. While entry will be available on the day we would much appreciate if you could enter online to save on the queue in the morning. Online entry is open until 6 p.m. on Saturday.
The format is the same as St. Anne's and Santry. Remember 3 events are needed to count for the league prizes, which will be presented at Malahide on October 5th. The Sports Campus is on Snugborough Road in Blanchardstown. The registration will be signposted from the entrance.
The 2025 Scatter Series 2 event takes place this Sunday, Sept. 14th in St. Anne's Park, Raheny.
Click here to Enter Online. Please enter online. We will have entry on the day but registration is expected to be busy.
There will be a mass start at 12pm. There will be three courses, long, medium and short. 20 controls willl be scattered around the park and those doing the long course must find 18 controls in any order, the medium course, 13 controls and the short course, 8 controls.
St Anne's is located on the Howth Road and is bordered at the far end by the coast road and the Bull Island causeway. If you are coming to the event please use public transport, the 6, H1, H2, H3 buses all pass close by and you can get off at All Saints Road Stop 532 and walk in. It will be signposted from there and about a 5 min walk. You can also get the 130 bus to the south side of the park. The event registration and start will be located in the usual location where the path into the park from the Tennis courts meets the main avenue in the park - it will be signposted from the Tennis courts, about a 5 mins walk.
Parking in the car park at the tennis courts is recommended and free, if it is full please park along All Saints Road but please do not block local residents. There are other car parks on the south side of the park but are smaller and can be busy.
Please arrive in plenty of time to register, drop keys, and prepare, we hope to begin with a mass start for everyone at 12pm. Tea/coffee/biscuits/squash should be available after the event, but you are asked to bring your own cup if possible. The park should have plenty of places to get a coffee, in particular the Red Stables does nice cakes as well and refreshments. Toilets are located here as well.
Courses will close at 2pm.
View Registration, Start Location
The other Scatter Series events will take place on 21st September in the Sport Ireland Campus and on October 5th in Malahide Castle Park. Points will be given at each event and prizes will be awarded at Malahide Park for those in first, second and third place. Participants must attend at three events to be in with a chance of winning.
Thanks to all who came to the first 2025 Scatter event in Santry Demesne. We had nearly 100 participants, which was a bit more than expected for the first event. Hopefully you all enjoyed it. The rain stayed off and it was warm even if windy. The main problem we had was in trying to put up the green tent, which we abandoned.
Thanks to Bernie for planning, and congratulations to Marta on organising her first Fingal event.
The next event is on September 14th in St. Anne's Park in Raheny. More details will be posted soon.
Also congratulations to Jean O'Neill who came 1st in the Hypervets class in the European Championship spectator races.
The Fingal 2025 Scatter Series starts next Sunday, August 31st, in Santry Demesne.
There will be a mass start close to the car park at 12pm. There will be three courses available, Long, Medium and Short. 20 controls will be scattered around the park and those doing the long course must find 18 controls in any order, the medium course 13 controls, and the short course 8 controls. Courses will close at 2pm. Santry Demesne is located beside Morton Stadium
The park is served by several bus routes. The numbers 41, 41c and 33 from Abbey Street to Swords/Balbriggan. The number 16 from Ballinteer to the airport. The number 27b from Eden quay, and the N6 from Kilbarrack to Finglas. Parking is limited in the car park, and the park is very popular, especially on fine Sunday mornings. There is parking available across the road outside the shops, or in the nearby estate. Toilets are available close to the start area, just in front of the car park.
Tea, coffee, biscuits will be available after the event, but you are asked to bring your own cup if possible.
The other Scatter Series events will take place on September 14th in St Annes Park, September 21st in the Sport Ireland Campus and on October 5th in Malahide Castle Demesne. Points will be given at each event and prizes will be awarded at Malahide Park for those in first, second and third place. Participants must attend at least three events to be in with a chance of winning.
Thanks to all who came to our event in Fairview Park yesterday evening. It was a warm dry evening, nice for running around the park and the streets of Marino.
Thanks to Nicola for stepping in on the night to deputize for Bernie. It was Nicola's first time organising. Thanks to planner Val, SI Sarah and Chris, and the rest of the helpers, Tommy, Gabrielle, Alan O'D, Adrienne, Alan S, and Jean. Special thanks to Gabrielle and Kathryn for introducing beginners at the event, especially to the 20 or so scouts from the Coolock/Artane troup
Also thanks to Oliver and Adam Clear for helping us at the start to unload the equipment from the cars. We managed to get over the logistics of no parking available in the Park itself.
The next Fingal Orienteers event is in Fairview Park on Tueday, July 8th.
Starts from 6 PM until 7.30 PM. Courses close at 8.30 PM. There will be 3 courses available, Short, Medium, and Long.
Short 2K, all contained in the main park.
Medium 3.5 K includes the main park and the section around the all weather pitches by Clontarf Station.
Long 7.7 K estimated shortest route, includes the main park, around the all weather pitches,
and the Marino streets via the Fairview footbridge over the main road.
Registration, Start and Finish will be inside the East end of the park, opposite the Malahide Road junction, near the Westwood sports center fence.
Participants are asked to take public transport. Clontarf Dart station is very close. Also many buses pass by Fairview, including 6, 14, 15, 27, 27A, 27B, 42, 43, 130, H1, H2 and H3. Fairview is only 2.5K from O'Connell Bridge. There is a nice new cycle way that passes the park.
There is NO car park at Fairview park. There is paid parking at Clontarf Dart Station, and a small car park that is free after 6. There is a larger car park further out Clontarf road, free after 6. Parking may be found on the streets in Marino, �1 an hour until 7 close to Fairview, free further away. No parking in the Westwood car park unless you are a member.
Enter online on orienteering.ie
Entry on the day will also be available, subject to map availability.
Thanks to all who came to our summer event in Skerries. Luckily the showers held off and it was a lovely evening for a run around Skerries park and town. While not many regular orienteers wanted to battle the traffic to come northside we had quite a few local runners giving orienteering a go.
Eileen's courses were tricky and provided a lot of route choice. Everyone on the Long was caught out by an uncrossable wall. Thanks to Eileen and Ciaran for organising and the other Fingal members who helped out.
Fingal have 2 summer evening events coming up. The first is on June 24th in Skerries and the second is on July 8th in Fairview Park.
The registration and start for the Skerries event will be at the windmills car park. There will be 3 courses available, a long, medium and short. Entry will be open on orienteering.ie soon, as well as further details
Orienteering continues during the summer with Tuedsay evening events in Knocklyon, Cabinteely, Shankill, and 3 events in the Phoenix Park in August. There is also the annual Setanta rogaine on the weekend of 14/15th June, a league event in Slievenagore, Co. Down on June 21st, and a CNOC in the Curragh on June 22nd.
2025 Irish Orienteering Championships
<- 3 generations of O'Neill/Ryan family.
At the Irish Orienteering Championships we had 3 clean sweeps of Sprint, Middle, and Long Champions, Liam O'Donnell M14, Jean O'Neill W75, and Val Jones M70. Also Kathleen O'Donnell was 1st in W14 Sprint, 2nd W14 Middle and Long, Eileen Young 1st in W55 Sprint, 3rd W55 Long, and Eoin O'Donnell 3rd M18 Middle. Also the Fingal H24 team came 2nd in the relays. The J48 team would have won except for a mispunch. There were many mispunches in the depressions in the otherwise very fast relay terrain
Photos of club members and others here
There were about 450 entries in the Irish championships with many from Britain, Europe, and further afield. The weather was sunny and dry for the weekend, although there was a cold wind from the sea. The university at Coleraine was a tricky area for the sprint, and the Magilligan sand dunes provided for challenging navigation, in spite of it having been used before for British, Irish, and NI Championships.
Thanks to all who came to Cahore yesterday. The weather was fine and dry, warm in the dunes when out of the sea breeze. We had more than on previous league events in Cahore, and the numbers on the Brown exceeded my estimate. I don't think anyone got around without some mistake judging by the splits and routes. Apologies for the fences particularly to those on the green, and for the cattle and electric fence. The cattle were only put out last week and the farmer wasn't very clear on where they would be. There were some late compromises in the courses due to the cattle and the wildlife ranger restrictions. Hopefully people will benefit next weekend.
Thanks to Mick Mangan of Setanta for controlling again for us, Ian Murphy for organizing, and the club members who helped out, Eileen, Ciaran, Bernie, Sarah, Per, Nicola, Roxanne, Adria, Alan, Eoin, and Liam.
JK 2025
Good morning.
JK 2025 was excellent and blessed with fab weather until the Monday Relay. Day 1 Sheffield was really interesting about the city center. My 3D head has to work overtime with the multiple levels, and split levels, cul de sacs and uncrossable walls.
Middle was in a challenging area, with many many criss cross paths, with rough undergrowth off path towards the various control sites.
Long course on Sunday was extremely technical at the start over rough rocky physical terrain, opening up onto open terrain for a bit, before coming back into technical woodlands. Plenty to keep us busy and enjoyed.
I only saw my own family O Donnell x5 and Eileen at event. Accommodation was lovely and worked well with only about 70 of us staying in Cliffe house Shepley. Kids had a ball there and adults had a few sociable bites and drinks.
Some good results from the Irish, particularly some of our juniors, Liam placing 4th on the middle. Eoin as part of Adhoc team placing 2nd in Relay.
Alan O'Donnell
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.
Orienteering abroad
Hi folks.
I have many happy trips abroad to wonderful events. I would like to encourage you to branch out and experience O events abroad.
For starters, the Tollymore festival of O weekend, organised by northern clubs, LVO, takes place in Tollymore Forest Park near Newcastle, Co.Down. It is held at midsummer weekend, this year from 20th to 22nd June There is a sprint/urban event on Friday evening, a forest event on Sat and a fun event on Sunday morning. Everyone camps at a special site in the forest park reserved for orienteers-with showers etc and wash up facilities. There is a great BBQ on Saturday evening, and a campfire afterwards.
Abroad, over the years I have loved the events in Belgium, my favourite in recent years is ASOM---Antwerp Sprint Orienteering Meeting. Actually, it used to be in Antwerp, but now it moves around Belgium. This year it is in Turnhout, at a date earlier than the usual June, from 25th to 27th April. It is street/urban over 3 days. Each day's event is close to the town centre, no transport needed at all! Very friendly, assembly/finish is usually in a school playground/courtyard, with changing rooms, toilets,food etc.
I find details of most events on the website https://worldofo.com/
I hope I have whetted your appetite! You can contact me anytime for more information. Entry fees are very reasonable, as is accommodation. Children are very well catered for, sometimes there is a creche for little ones. I have compiled a list of suitable events this summer---to follow!
Jean O'Neill (Club president)
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 �owyn.
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