East of Scotland Championships 2025Loch Katrine, 8 November
Credit: Peter O'Hara
The 2025 ESOA Championships was organised by Edinburgh University Orienteering Club, and held in conjunction with the individual event for the Scottish Students Championships. Several issues (outwith the organisers’ control) made this an event to remember!
Loch Katrine is in the Trossachs, and the orienteering map covers an area at its eastern end, on the slopes above the track that runs along the northern shore. Parking for the event was at the Trossachs Pier car park. There was a lower turnout than usual for this event, perhaps because of the fearsome reputation of the Trossachs terrain.
Keith Brown reports:
“Loch Katrine was the site for this year's ESOA championships. The day started off with an email from the organiser saying that there had been felling during the last week which impacted most of the courses. The Short Green would not be able to be run, and those that wanted could do the Light Green instead. The other courses would have some controls removed. The other thing was that as a condition of use anyone going off paths had to wear hi-vis.
The drive across to Loch Katrine was pretty dreich but everyone hoped (forlornly) for it to brighten up. The carpark had plenty of room and that left the 2km trek/cycle along to assembly. The starts were delayed for about 30 minutes because of the issues with changing the courses. With an 800m trek up a steep path to the start, the hope was that much of the climb was done (it wasn't). At the start it was explained what the changes to each course were and that the Short Green would do only the first 11 controls of the Light Green. All the changes were marked on the maps.
Everyone set off on their adventures, I mean courses. It was very wet and much of the going was quite challenging with plenty of climb to keep you warm. The bits that had been felled still had the trees lying to make sure it was slow going in those areas. The most northern section had quite low visibility and was physically demanding. Towards the western part was lovely runnable forest with some quite boggy parts. The final sections back down to the finish were tough going. There was a high attrition rate with about 25% mispunching or not finishing. The courses were challenging and it sounded like most people enjoyed the challenge once they made it back. The organisers did a great job managing to run the event with the hurdles put in their way.”
ESOC competitors in the top half of the results for their course were:
- Brown (23 competitors) – Ben Brown 12th
- Blue (28) – Peter O’Hara 13th
- Green (19) – Richard Oxlade 3rd, Hanne Robertson 7th
- Short Green (8) – Margaret Dalgleish 2nd, Les Dalgleish 4th
- Orange (8) – Maria O’Hara 1st
- Yellow (1) – Grace O’Hara 1st
The ESOA champions have not yet been announced, and the prizegiving is scheduled to take place at SOUL 8 on 23 November.
Other entries categorised under: Event Reports