Coast & Islands 2026Isle of Coll, 14-18 September
Credit: Crawford Lindsay
This was a brilliant week of orienteering, with good terrain, maps and courses, although the weather was less than ideal.
Masterplan Adventure were the organisers of Coast & Islands 2026, and all the events were on brand new maps. There were 5 orienteering events on consecutive days, with no fixed start times, so it was very relaxed. The Start window was late on the first day and early on the last day, to fit in with ferry times; on the other days it ran from 10am until 1pm. The terrain was all open, with no trees at all, complex contours, many rock features and marshes, and some wonderful views. There was a choice of Long, Medium, Short or Orange courses, and all demanded full concentration throughout. Just 7 ESOC members competed, and everyone enjoyed the week, despite the challenging transport logistics and often wet conditions.
Many people arrived a day or two before the event, and explored all corners of the island over the weekend, enjoying good weather, but unfortunately this didn’t last, and the weather through the week was often windy and wet. The first two days of orienteering were on the north coast, and the other days were at the west end. Parking was limited, so everyone was encouraged to cycle, and many people did, despite the weather.
Day 1 – Traigh Torastan, Monday 14 September
The Assembly area was by the cemetery, 6km north of Arinagour, the main settlement on the island. The map covered the coastal area, with complex sand dunes and rocky headlands. This was a Middle Distance event, and the Start window was from 1pm until 4pm, to allow for people arriving on the Monday ferry at 9:55.
The weather was dry some of the time, with heavy showers, and few avoided the rain altogether. Some also had the misfortune to get very wet in an unexpectedly deep stream.
ESOC results:
- Long (59 competitors) - Tom Dutton 34th
- Medium (62) - Richard Oxlade 14th, Helena Nolan 26th, Crawford Lindsay 36th, Meg Baker 45th
- Short (39) - Sally Lindsay 6th, Rhona Fraser 38th
Day 2 – Torastan, Tuesday 15 September
The Assembly area for Day 2 was the same as the previous day, and the map covered inland terrain south of the road, featuring rocky hills, with lots of contour detail and marshy ground between the hills. Courses were Classic Distance, and the long course visited a tougher area with bigger crags.
Early starters had the best of the weather, with persistent rain later.
ESOC results:
- Long (56 competitors) - Tom Dutton 40th
- Medium (57) - Richard Oxlade 21st, Helena Nolan 25th, Meg Baker 40th, Crawford Lindsay 42nd
- Short (45) - Sally Lindsay 1st, Rhona Fraser 37th
Day 3 – Traigh Feall, Wednesday 16 September
The Assembly area for Day 3 was at the west end of the road, around 9km from Arinagour, beside some very high dunes. Courses started on a rocky hill (which had some huge crags on the coastal side), then headed west into the dunes - the terrain was mostly grassy dunes of all sizes, with some flatter, faster areas. The dunes are grazed by sheep, so there were many small paths which were sometimes useful. This was a Middle Distance event.
The weather was warmer, with gentler showers.
ESOC results:
- Long (54 competitors) - Tom Dutton MP
- Medium (60) - Helena Nolan 12th, Crawford Lindsay 31st, Richard Oxlade 32nd, Meg Baker 36th
- Short (46) - Sally Lindsay 10th, Rhona Fraser MP
Day 4 – Crossapol & Traigh Feall, Thursday 17 September
The Assembly area for Day 4 was the same as for Day 3, and the map overlapped slightly with the Day 3 map. The terrain was again mostly grassy dunes; the Long and Medium courses visited a small area of rocky hills at the west end of the area. It was a Classic Distance event, and courses were quite long.
It was very windy (according to the Coll weather report, there was a gust of 79mph later that day), with some extremely heavy showers.
ESOC results:
- Long (49 competitors) - Tom Dutton 34th
- Medium (52) - Richard Oxlade 15th, Helena Nolan 27th, Crawford Lindsay 37th, Meg Baker 40th
- Short (46) - Sally Lindsay 11th, Rhona Fraser 38th
Day 5 – Traigh Hogh, Friday 18 September
The final day’s Assembly area was at Totronald, at another road end, a few km NE from the previous day. The Start window was from 8am until 11am, to allow for the Friday ferry departure at 11:10. Courses were Middle Distance, and the terrain was again a mix of rocky headlands and grassy dunes, an interesting contrast.
The weather was best for early starters, and it became very wet later on.
ESOC results:
- Long (51 competitors) - Tom Dutton 37th
- Medium (54) - Richard Oxlade 20th, Crawford Lindsay 24th=, Meg Baker 27th, Helena Nolan 30th
- Short (44) - Sally Lindsay 1st, Rhona Fraser rtd
Saturday dawned clear and sunny, showing Coll at its most scenic, though it was still windy, with big waves on the north shore beaches. Most were leaving on the Saturday ferry, and there was some concern about the weather, with warnings of potential cancellation at short notice, but all was well and the crossing was reasonably smooth, and uneventful.
The full results, plus analysis, for each day are on the Coast and Islands website. This also includes other details about the week’s events.
Here are some more comments about the week from ESOC competitors.
Helena Nolan: “The Coast & Islands areas were my favourite type of orienteering - no trees, mainly runnable, and tricky contours to get your head around. The weather held out for most of my runs and definitely could have been worse. I was staying in the bunkhouse but sleeping in my campervan - the perfect solution, no one to disturb you during the night.
All in all I would thoroughly recommend this event.”
Richard Oxlade: “The first challenge for Coast & Islands was getting there - within hours of announcing the event's location, all accommodation had gone. Default to Plan B - my small campervan on the salubrious Garden House campsite. At least I could fit through the archway into the garden despite the entrance starting to look like the Somme by the end of the week. The upside of such limited numbers (~170) was that the week had a great orienteering community feeling.
Arrival on Day 1 from the WMMTBO (World Masters Mountain Bike Orienteering) on the sunny Moray coast was a bit of a shock - the cloud lowered and the wind picked up as we approached Coll on the very early morning ferry. Still a healthy breakfast compensated - "6 pieces or 8 love?". Luckily the rain held off that day for some fabulous coastal orienteering at Traigh Torastan and I was only drenched on the cycle back to Arinagour with its wonderful community centre and hot showers. Days 2-5 went by in a whirl of watching Met Office Radar to pick the dry (least wet) periods and navigating carefully (or not) through glorious rock terrain and sand dunes. As a geologist, the Lewisian gneiss terrain wowed (yes it is nearly 3 billion years old) while the much younger sand dunes provided a wonderful contrast with the odd crag of "Indurated calcarenite" (fancy term for some very young fossilised dunes) providing further variety. The secret of a good run for me (when I had one) was sticking to a bearing (usually my weak point) and use of the bigger features - there were some big dunes. The biggest in Scotland, I'm told - up to 30m.
I scurried away on the Friday ferry to beat the strong winds forecast for Saturday but others stayed on or headed for Tiree. It's a lovely part of the world. And with all those maps, does anyone fancy a training weekend?”
Rhona Fraser: “Great courses and wonderful terrain. It was a shame the weather was not better but then again it was September and according to the forecast a week before, we were going to get almost constant rain, so it could have been MUCH worse. I got my non-O friend to do the orange course (for free for a few bits of Millionaire’s shortbread) on Day 3-4. She managed to get most of her controls and I saw her discussing her course just like 'normal orienteers' after the event rather than sitting on the side lines. She now doesn't believe we are quite as mad as she first thought.”
Crawford Lindsay: “We enjoyed last year’s Coast & Islands in Shetland so much that we decided to go to Coll for this year’s event. Like last year, we had races on treeless terrain with intricate contours and rock features. However, last year I had dry feet all week and this year it was much wetter underfoot and much rougher as well. The dunes were complex and confusing in places but there were great views on all days, and I really enjoyed it.”
Meg Baker & Tom Dutton:
“We had a fantastic time at Coast & Islands. We found both the orienteering and weather quite challenging. It was great having the events in such close proximity and that so many people cycled to them. The organisation and mapping was impeccable, yet everything was done in a wonderfully relaxed manner. The orienteering community is always friendly, but it seemed especially so for this event, with the small entry list and the adventure of just being there.”
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