North Pentland Hills (Dreghorn)Sun 6 Mar
South of Scotland Orienteering League (SoSOL)
Regional level event
Explanation of event levels
Local events are usually low key and in the 'localised' area, ideal for newcomers to try the sport and Training events are non competitive and used for training and coaching, aimed at members of the club, but they can attract people from neighbouring clubs, and are often ideal for newcomers to try the sport. Regional events attract participants from around the local Region, National events are high quality competitions that will attract people from far away, Major events are Major Events such as a British Championships. Virtual events are where there are no physical controls being used. Your presence at a control is registered using an App on your mobile phone, normally the free MapRun App.
Terrain type: Woodland & Moorland
Results
Officials' Reports
ORGANISER'S COMMENTS from Fiona Findlay: I want to thank all of the people involved in today’s event from land owners, helpers to competitors.
Janet for initiating the process, the MOD and tenant farmers for allowing use of their land and Simon, Sabine and Paul for great courses.
A special thank you to Fran who stepped in at short notice to cover for me on the day and all the helpers who offered to help, some not running themselves. More people than usual were needed because of a far start and needing to man both a barrier and a gate. The event couldn’t have gone ahead without you.
The weather was perfect and I hoped you all enjoyed the Pentland Hills.
Addititional Comment from Fran Humphrey who stood in for Fiona on the day of the event: Congratulations to Fiona for her superb pre-event organisation and my thanks to all the helpers on the day who just got on with their jobs in their usual competant ESOC way. Fiona was right - I had very little to do on the day as it all went so smoothly.
PLANNERS' COMMENTS from Sabine Oechsner and Simon Gregersen: The North Pentland Hills posed quite a planning challenge due to plenty of elevation, rough open lands, and barbed-wire fences. The area is well-used by local orienteers and hill runners so it also required a fair amount of creativity to come up with a set of courses that would challenge the locals navigationally as well!
Blue skies, lots of sun, and next to no wind made it a truly marvellous weekend to be out and about putting out controls. This stood in sharp contrast to all our other visits to the area with storm-like winds and even snow on the exposed hillside.
Very early on, we decided on having two starts. This meant as many as possible could get the full Pentlands experience by getting to run on the demanding hillside and naviating some of the tricky contour details. On the flip side, it also implied a tough climb to the start. We hope everybody made proper use of the walk to get warmed-up while enjoying the magnificent views over Edinburgh offered on the way.
The white, yellow, and orange courses took off from Chuckie Knowe and remained mainly around the Dreghorn woods. The courses were---as always---hard to get just right in terms of technical difficulty. Many, many thanks to Paul Caban, our controller, for all his advice and feedback in the process of getting them just right.
The remaining courses all took off from the hillside with a loop of controls on intricate contour details. The light green, short green, and green courses then dropped down into the Dreghorn woods to find some devious crags, boulders, and stream bends. The blue and and brown courses continued with a 2.2 km or 2.9 km long leg (!), respectively, out in to the open lands to the south of Bonaly. We are very pleased that the long legs were well-received and that almost all the possible route choices that we could think of were taken.
Yet again, many, many thanks to Paul for all his advice and for helping putting out units, to Fiona for a very smooth organisation, and to Janet for convincing us to plan the event in the first place---it has truly been a joy! And thanks a million to all the other helpers on the day, in particular to Sally, Crawford, Hanne, and David for staying after the event to collect controls.
For all other post event comments please read on. ORGANISER'S and PLANNERS' COMMENTS added Monday 7th March.
Pre-event Information
Location Info
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Near: City of Edinburgh Lat,Lng: 55.89845,-3.23633 OS Grid Ref: NT228697 Postcode: EH10 7HH
Open an interactive map in: GoogleMap - OpenStreetMap - AppleMaps - BingMap
Directions / Parking
The postcode given is for the Travelodge at Dreghorn Services and is ONLY A GUIDE to reach the general area.
You can reach this orienteering area reasonably easily by public transport.
By bus: Lothian Buses service 16 to the stop near roundabout at Dreghorn Link is the best option. Follow Dreghorn Link towards the city bypass and follow intstructions as below from westbound carriageway. Note that the roads here are very busy, take great care when crossing.
By bike: A variety of quiet cycle route maps throughout the city are available on the Edinburgh City Council Quiet Routes web pages. There is a fence adjoining the car parking where bikes can be chained.
By motor vehicle: Head for the Edinburgh city bypass (A720) and exit at the Dreghorn Junction. Coming from the eastbound carriageway of the bypass (or from the city via Dreghorn Link) cross over the bypass and follow the road around to the right as though you were heading back on to the westbound carriageway of the bypass (note this part of the westbound slip is a two way road). The turning to the parking area is 50m from the corner on the left.
From the westbound carriageway of the bypass head to the top of the Dreghorn junction slip road go straight across (again, note two way road here) as though you were heading back on to the westbound carriageway. After 50m turn left. Parking for orienteers is NOT on the public parking area immediately adjoining the city bypass.
EXTRA NOTE RE OVERNIGHT CLOSURE OF A720 (added 2nd March): This is not likely to be a problem for people coming to the event but it is worth noting anyway that the A720 (city bypass) eastbound between Lothianburn and Straiton will be closed overnight for 3 nights Friday, Saturday and Sunday (4th, 5th and 6th March) from 8.30pm with reopening times of 11am Saturday and Sunday and 6am Monday.
HEIGHT RESTRICTED BARRIER FOR VEHICLE ACCESS: there is an access barrier with a height restriction, just after the final left turn mentioned above, to gain access to the Dreghorn parking area - approach with extreme care. Specific information about how we can enable this barrier to be open to orienteers with a vehicle over the designated height will be added here nearer the event. Note See note above about course closure time of 3pm as this affects the time you will have from getting back to getting out of the car parking area. Everyone will need to be out of the orienteering-specific parking area as soon as possible after their run and changing otherwise they will be locked in.
Course Information
Course information is shown below.
| COURSE | DISTANCE Km | CLIMB M | SCALE | START |
| Brown | 9.0 | 260 | 1:10,000 | Far |
| Blue | 6.2 | 200 | 1:10,000 | Far |
| Green | 4.9 | 165 | 1:7500 | Far |
| Short Green | 3.5 | 125 | 1:7500 | Far |
| Light Green | 3.7 | 130 | 1:7500 | Far |
| Orange | 2.1 | 100 | 1:7500 | Near |
| Yellow | 2.2 | 65 | 1:7500 | Near |
| White | 1.7 | 45 | 1:7500 | Near |
Entry Details
Pre entry closed on Sunday 27th February. Start time blocks are available via Fabian4. Entry on the day of the event (EOD) will not be available.
ENTRY NOTES:
1. Entrants can select a 15 min start block from the range available at the time of making the entry on Fabian4. The system has been setup for a maximum of 30 participants (or 8 per course) in each block for the far start and a maximum of 10 participants (or 5 per course) in each block for the near start.
2. Please arrive at the appropriate start in time to start within your chosen time block. It is not however necessary for everyone to be there at the beginning of their chosen block.
Entry Fees
|
Pre-Entry |
|
|
To midnight 27th Feb |
|
| Brown, Blue, Green, Short Green & Light Green Courses | |
| Seniors (born 2001 or earlier) BOF/SOA member | £10 |
| Seniors (born 2001 or earlier) none BOF/SOA member | £12 |
| Juniors (born 2002 or later) BOF/SOA member | £5 |
| Juniors (born 2002 or later) none BOF/SOA member | £6 |
| Students BOF/SOA member | £5 |
| Students none BOF/SOA member | £6 |
| Orange, Yellow & White Courses (ONLY) | |
| BOF/SOA member | £5 |
|
None BOF/SOA member |
£6 |
Free standard SI card hire, if required, but there will be a £30.00 charge if it is lost.
Hire of SIAC cards is £2.50 and a charge of £60 will be made if it is lost.
Registration and Start times
No Registration or Enquiries on the day.
START TIMES: 11.00am to 1pm.
STARTS: There will be 2 starts. One close by the car parking for White, Yellow and Orange course competitors (Near Start) and a separate start (Far Start) for all other competitors which is 1.7k walk away with approx 175m climb.
FINISH: Single finish close to car parking.
Contacts / Officials
Planners: Sabine Oechsner and Simon Gregersen (ESOC)
Controller: Paul Caban (INT)
Organiser: Fiona Findlay (ESOC)
Early enquiries of any kind: email hidden; JavaScript is required
Entry enquiries once entries open (only): email hidden; JavaScript is required