Blackford HillSat 18 Jun

Head for the Observatory car park as Registration, start, finish and download will be located very close by.

Public Transport: It should be quite easy to reach this event by bus. Check Lothian Buses to plan your route.

By Bike: If you live in or close to the city, you'll find it pretty easy to come to the event by bike. A variety of quiet cycle route maps throughout the city are available on the Edinburgh City Council Quiet Routes web pages. It should be possible to lock your bike to a fence near Registration.

By Vehicle: Head for the Observatory car park, at the top of Observatory Road, Edinburgh.

As usual for ESOC local events there will be White, Yellow and Orange courses for beginners and improvers. There will also be Green and Blue courses for experienced orienteers.
On this occasion we will also offer a free very, very short white course suitable for toddlers and very young children (along with an accompanying adult). Check this out on the day.

Note that the above course information is a guide only and small changes could be made by the time of the event.

Footwear: The steep slopes are often very slippery in both wet and dry conditions. Studded orienteering shoes are strongly recommended for competitors choosing Blue and Green courses.

Buggies: There are steep slopes on all courses and none of the courses are suitable for buggies (in some cases due to steps as well as the steep inclines). The very short, white course for toddlers is included in this unless it is a robust all-terrain buggy.

NOTE: There is a junior training session immediately before this event and small training control kites will be used for this. They are not likely to be on the same feature as the Event controls but may be seen in passing. Please ignore them. These training kites are less than half the size of normal orienteering kites and may have a number attached but they will not have any SI Unit (for electronic timing) attached.

Read more about Course lengths and Difficulty here

Pre-Entry and pre payment via Racesignup are required for this event. Entries open 9am on Monday 6th June and will close at 10am on Saturday 18th June - the day of the event. However to be guaranteed a course map for your chosen course you MUST pre-enter by 6pm on Tuesday 14th June.

Late pre-entries - As mentioned above, entries will remain open until 10am on the morning of the event but entries will only be accepted by Racesignup if there are course maps remaining. RaceSignUp will not accept your entry once the maps for your chosen course have sold out however it's still worth trying to enter, you could still be lucky. You could maybe even try entering a different course if your first choice is full.

Entry on the day (EOD): If you have to resort to coming to the event without pre-entering please read the Registration Section above for details of what to do.

You can view an entry list for all competitors and their chosen start blocks on RaceSignUp (scroll down to Start List section). Please note that you can arrive at the start any time within your block.

Entry Fees: As well as individuals the entry system also allows pairs, groups or families who wish to go round a course together to enter using a sliding scale of fees. Full details at the RaceSignUp webpage link above but a flavour of the entry fee scales is given below for advance guidance.

Note that a Senior is someone born 2001 or earlier and a Junior is someone born 2002 or later. Matriculated students will normally be eligible to enter as Juniors and pay junior fees - check out RaceSignUp as before.

SportIdent (SI) electronic timing will be used. If you have your own SI (dibber) please bring it with you.

We have SIs for hire free of charge via the pre-entry system but there is a £30 charge if lost. If you would like to buy your own SI-Card then a variety are available directly from SportIdent UK. The choice may be confusing and it may help you to know that the SI-Cards which ESOC hires out are very similar to the most basic model shown on the linked page - the SI-Card 8.

Registration, Start and Finish : These will all be very close to parking.

REGISTRATION will be open from approximately 1pm to 2.15pm for very limited Entry on the Day (EOD) but only if maps are still available. See also section on Entry Details below – payment for EOD will be in cash only. Please try to have the correct money if at all possible.

WHITE and YELLOW COURSE MAPS: Please collect these from Registration before going to the Start. Course maps for other courses are collected after punching the start.

STARTS: From 1.00pm to 2.30pm with course closure at 4pm. You should be back at Download by 4pm as controls will start to be brought in by 4pm so if you think you'll take a long time to complete your course please enter early so you can choose an early start time.