North Pentland HillsSun 9 Jun

Event centre (Parking, Toilets, Registration and Download) will be in Dreghorn Barracks by kind permission of the Ministry of Defence. The Barracks entrance is off Redford Road, Edinburgh at NT227687.

Dreghorn Barracks are close to the Dreghorn junction of the Edinburgh City Bypass (A720). The Barracks are signed from several directions but from the Edinburgh bypass leave the A720 at the Dreghorn Junction and cross over if coming from the east. Straight across the first roundabout and turn left at the next. The Barracks are approx. 200m on your left and the entrance is obvious. There will be O signs at the gate.

On entering the barracks there will be a vehicle check at the gate to enable you to obtain a permit from the gatehouse. You will be asked to enter your vehicle registration number through the online entry system to speed up the process. Photo ID may also be required as this is a working Barracks and there could also be additional security searches/checks at the gate.

Parking on flat tarmac is on the parade ground which will be signed from the gate. There will be a marshal to direct you where to park at the parade ground as there will be military personnel around on the day. Please obey the 15mph speed limit.

People arriving by bike or on foot will need some form of ID.

By Bus: Check the Lothian Buses website. Route 16 stops along Colinton Road and would involve a 10–15-minute walk to Dreghorn Barracks.

By Bike: A variety of quiet cycle route maps throughout the city are available on the Edinburgh City Council Quiet Routes web pages.

It will be possible to lock your bike close by Registration.

Edinburgh based orienteers are welcome to join the newly expanded ESOC car sharing WhatsApp group. Please contact email hidden; JavaScript is required for the joining link.

The area is mostly exposed open hillside with some wooded areas at the lower elevations. There are paths and tracks, plenty of contour detail, some crags and ditches. There are also numerous fences in the area. None have been marked as uncrossable and there are no mandatory crossing points.

The area is used for sheep grazing and there are numerous unmapped animal tracks. There also a few unmapped mountain bike tracks in the woods. Competitors may also encounter the resident herd of highland cows on the high ground in eastern part of the area. They are used to people and should not be a problem.

Where there are gates and stiles these are mapped as crossing points. Gates will not all be open, but are still the easiest place to cross. There are some high fences - stiles over these high fences have been mapped as footbridges (see below) and also have been overprinted with crossing points.

Map Symbols

• Non-Standard Symbol - Stile Crossing Point
  On the map, tall stiles over high fences have been mapped using a Non-Standard map symbol - the Small Footbridge symbol (ISOM 512). This appears as a thick black dash which is placed across the fence at right angles to it.
  These stiles are optional crossing points for competitors to use, to cross the high fences. The optimal route choice on some courses may involve using these stiles as crossing points. Wherever practicable, the purple Crossing Point overprint ) ( (ISOM 710) will also be used on the map to highlight these crossing points, provided that this does not interfere with other key overprinting such as control circles. An example will feature in the Final Details document.
• Gorse has become overgrown in places and therefore should not be used for fine navigation, where it will affect route choice it has been mapped either as dark green or with the overprint: undergrowth: walk
• V rocky pit will be used for a man made pit used by the army for training.

The map scale is 1:10,000 with 5m contours for all courses. Maps will be printed on waterproof paper with control descriptions on the front. Loose control descriptions will be available in the start lanes. Routegadget from 2023 here https://www.esoc.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#102

Maps for Courses 12 & 13 ie Yellow and White should be collected from registration before proceeding to the Start.

• Courses Close: At 4pm (16:00). You must report to Download even if you do not complete your course.
• Objects: Do not touch or pick up any objects (military training ground)
• Safety bearing: North towards the A720 city bypass: return to the underpass that will take you into Dreghorn Barracks.
• Weather: In the event of hot weather please bring additional water as none will be supplied on the course or at the finish. Also take any other precautions to prevent heat stroke.

Courses offered as per the 2024 SOL guidelines available on the SOA website. You may enter any course BUT to be eligible for SOL league points you must enter the course associated with your age class, but SOL points may be awarded to people “running up” in the one of the age classes associated with the colour they run. By default, the oldest such age class is used for seniors.

“String Course” There will be a free activity for younger juniors on the Barracks fully fenced sports field, approx 200m from parking along the route to the starts. It may or may not be a traditional String course but will be lots of fun.

Starts and Finish

Start Times will be 12:00-14:00 and there will be 2 starts, both signed/taped from registration and the parade ground.

The route to the Starts is all on tracks and passes through a short tunnel, which will be manned by MOD guards during the competition for security. The route splits after 500m (shortly after the tunnel section) with the Near Start a further 400m slightly uphill and the Far start a further 1100m with an uphill section (30m climb) toward the end.

• Near Start for White, Yellow, Orange, Long Orange, Light Green, Very Short Green and Short Green courses
• Far Start for Green, Short Blue, Blue, Short Brown, Brown, Black courses

Finish: From the Finish it is a 700m walk back to download and there is an obvious family meeting point at the gate at the bottom of the Finish field if required.

You must report to Download even if you do not complete your course. Course closing time is 4pm. if you run out of time please report to the Finish or Download ASAP to avoid us having to set up a search party.

Course details are given below along with the associated age classes, provisional course lengths and climb subject to final controlling

Read more about Course lengths and Difficulty here

Pre-entry via RaceSignUp (RSU) is required for this event and note the key dates below. Also note that there will be no entry on the day (EOD) due to Ministry of Defence restrictions for entering and leaving the Barracks.

• Entries open in RaceSignUp on Friday 17th May – enter by selecting a course by colour. Individual start times can be pre-selected on entry but will not be displayed on the RSU page.
• Closing date is on Monday 3^rd June at 23:59.
• Late entries by email to email hidden; JavaScript is required may be accepted, if maps are still available up to 23:59 on Wednesday 5^th June to allow car registration details to be submitted to the MOD and start times to be allocated.
• Number of maps available will be listed on RaceSignUp page in the Courses panel as Entry Limit-Number of entries and will be up-to-date up as of Tuesday 4th June at 10:00.
• Start times will be posted on the RaceSignUp page on Thursday 6^th June, some may have to be adjusted by a few minutes as necessary to fit the SOL rules on start times for members of the same club.

NOTE: New to RaceSignUp? You will need to create an account before making any entries. You won’t need to pay for entries until everyone in your group/family has been entered. Profiles for individuals can be saved to your account.

Entry Fees

Fees for individuals are in the table below but we will also accept entries from pairs (sharing a map and dibber) on the easier technical courses only (courses 9-13) and they will not be eligible for SOL league points)

To enter as a pair, provide the details of one person as normal, then in the appropriate Pairs comment box add the name of the second person and, at the bottom of the entry form, select whether the additional person is an adult or junior. For a pair of juniors ensure the lead person on the entry form is a Junior. If a map and dibber is required for each person, then instead please enter as two individuals and select similar start times

Juniors: Parents are reminded they should declare if they are actually helping a Junior competitor as opposed to following. Assisted juniors are competitive in their colour course (e.g. White) but not in age class(e.g. W10B)

If you are the ‘shadower’ then you must have completed your own race before undertaking any shadowing.

Sportident (SI) electronic timing will be used. SIAC for contactless 'punching' will be enabled except for the Start and Finish which should be punched manually. Requests for dibber hire can be made through the entry form.

• SI cards are free to hire, and there will be a £30 charge if lost.
• SIAC cards cost £2.50 to hire and the charge if lost is £60.

Start Times will be 12:00-14:00 and there will be 2 starts, both signed/taped from registration and the parade ground. The routes pass through a tunnel which will be manned by MOD guards during the competition for security.

Registration and Download will be in a building with access to toilets and space to leave bags

Registration will be open from 11:00 – 13:30 for

• Collection of hired dibbers.
• Collection of White and Yellow maps
• To leave keys – lone runners should leave in a named envelope.
• To leave a confidential medical form – see the Important Event Information panel.

• SCOTJOS will have a cake stall in the Registration/Download hall, so please bring change!
• First Aid will be provided by qualified ESOC members – see the Important Event Information panel. Ask at Download for assistance.
• Toilets and bag drop/changing area n the Registration/Download hall.
• Why not make it a double-O weekend? Interlopers are holding a Local event at Kinneil Woods near Bo'ness on Saturday 8th June. As well as the usual yellow, orange and light green courses they are putting on a red 'runners' course for those wanting a longer run at TD3 / orange level. Entries are open, with initial closing date of midnight on Monday 3rd June for advance entries. Full details on the event website here and Kinneil House and Museum will be open too, details here