Royal Deeside 2025 - Scottish 6 Days27 July - 1 August
This year's biennial festival made a welcome return to Deeside. There were 5 forest days, ranging from Craig Choinnich, in the west, to Glen Dye in the east, while the Wednesday 'rest day' featured an urban sprint around Ballater as well as an MTBO event and, in the evening, a quiz night which was part of a busy social programme provided by the organisers. A variety of ESOC members have provided us with an interesting set of reports covering the various events.
Credit: Catriona Gillespie
Day 1 - Glen Feardar East
"My First Scottish Six Days
At day one of the Scottish Six Days, 2345 competitors took part on 27 different courses. People came from 29 different countries to compete at this big day. 52 of these competitors were from ESOC!
At Glen Feardar the terrain was rough and hilly with lots of scattered trees. There were also plenty of boulders and marshes. We were quite lucky with the weather, it was sunny most of the time but there were occasional showers. The courses took everyone to their limits, but everyone did very well – particularly Margaret Dalgleish and Alexis Gow who both came second!
In the arena lots of different clubs had tents and banners so they could cheer on others. There were also lots of stalls selling food and a stall selling running and orienteering clothes and equipment.
At the sprints (from the last control to the finish) William Atkinson and Calum Robertson came first, both running from the last control to the finish in 17 seconds!"
This is Kirsten Tinsley's report. She is 9 years old and this was her family's first 6 Days. They could only come for the one day this year, but Kirsten made the most of it, finishing 2nd on the Yellow course out of 28 entrants. (She is shown as non-competitive in the results because she was having some assistance from Mum, but this distinction is unnecessary on colour-coded courses.) Well done, Kirsten!
Day 2 - Glen Feardar West
The second day used the same Race Arena as the first but the courses were in a different part of the Glen. David Nisbet is a much more seasoned competitor than Kirsten. Here is his report:
"Glen Feardar West and the Misfortunes of an M65
What could be worse than the first start time on my course? Perhaps the first start time, a longish walk to the start, the promise of bracken on the course, the knowledge that the M65 course was (again!) longer than the M60 one and tired legs from the previous day. Fair to say that this wasn’t shaping up to be my favourite of the five days. On the plus side, this was my first visit to Glen Feardar and so an opportunity to experience a new area; the weather was ideal, with no rain, little wind and cooler than in recent days; and I was confident that I would get the final control cleanly given that it was the same last control as yesterday.
And I had a plan. It was clear from Day 1 that running through heather is no longer an option for me and so time to accept that I would walk the heather sections and hopefully manage a slow jog in the rest. The plan was tested straight away: the first half of the course was through a mixture of heather and blaeberries. Slow progress, but a nice area, good views and relatively straightforward navigation.
The course then entered the forested area, which provided much easier underfoot conditions. Rather disappointingly, we had only two legs here. Even more disappointingly, I made a horrendous mistake on one of them – a terrible route choice (to save a minimal amount of climb), lured away from the approach to the control by another kite and mistaking the feature that kite was on. Schoolboy errors from someone who really should know better.
The final section of the course was through more heather and bracken – by now I was stumbling rather than walking – before the last two easy controls to the finish. And the final ritual, now becoming too frequent, of selecting an official at the download who didn’t know me in case (s)he looked at my time.
All in all, Glean Feardar seemed a tough, but pleasant area, I enjoyed the event more than I had anticipated and certainly got my money’s worth."
There were some good results from the boys today, with William Atkinson coming 7th (out of 29) on M14A and Calum Robertson 9th (out of 37) on M16A,
Day 3 - Craig Choinnich
This was "ESOC's Day", which meant that all our runners undertook various jobs to help stage the event, along with three other Scottish clubs, Tay, RR and KFO, and some volunteers from English clubs. Some ESOC members had major roles: Jayne MacGregor was joint Organiser along with John Tullie of Roxburgh Reivers; Ewart Scott was one of the Planners, the other being Clive Masson of Tay.
It should be said that several ESOC members were involved with the staging of the whole 6 Days this year, not just "our day". In particular, Richard Oxlade was the overall Coordinator, as well as Event Treasurer, a Controller on Day 2 and the Planner of the MTBO event! Margaret Dalgleish was the Equipment Team Manager, and others working as part of the core team included Roger Scrutton, Alan MacGregor, the Hardings, and the Robertsons. These and others put in a tremendous amount of time, both in the months leading up to and during the week, to ensure its smooth running.
Apart from all that, most folk still found time to run! Craig Choinnich was generally found to be less physically arduous then the previous days in Glen Feardar. It was also a Middle Distance race, although that didn't seem to hold true for the W80 course where the winning time was several minutes longer than the day before! Having said that, the planners were kind and managed to devise a W80 course that skirted around most of the steep slopes rather than up them. These lower, gentler slopes were clothed in mature pinewoods with interesting contour and water features. Longer courses climbed to an intricate heathery area where rock features were more common.
Two 2nd places today, Rebecca Daley on W16B, one place ahead of Alexis Gow, and Helena Nolan who had a stormer on W55L (79 competitors). Also with very good runs, Jo Stevenson W45L was 5th (out of 46) and Alison Harding W65L was 4th (out of 43), but perhaps star of the day was Adam Clark who won the Orange course by around 3 minutes (62 competitors).
Day 4 - Balfour Forest
Reports of the "Rest Day" activities will follow after the two final forest days. These two races (Days 4 and 5) were World Ranking Events for the elite classes and hence had commentary, adding another level of excitement. Balfour was a Middle Distance race for the WRE but a Long Distance for everyone else.
This report for Day 4 is from Alison Harding:
"The 6 day was different for us this year as we agreed to be part of the Merchandising team. It should have been straightforward - handing out pre-orders and selling the small amount of available merchandise (O-tops, t-shirts, sweatshirts, buffs and bags). Of course, nothing quite so easy which I can elaborate on separately if anyone is interested!
On day 4 we arrived by 9am and parked in the arena to unload our stock, already a fair number of people about, mainly waiting for the coffee booths to open. A bit of dampness in the air early on but drying up later. In 2017 I did well at Balfour and enjoyed myself, but the SOL last year was a disaster and I couldn't quite understand how I found it so different. Hence I was rather anxious about day 4.
We had open starts all week so had to schedule a start in each block and day 4 was block 3 (I think) about 11.50. The walk to the start was along a closed road and not too far up the hill in the northern central part of the map. I did course 13 (3.6km with 135m climb and 11 controls). It was an uphill slog to the first control but situated on the edge of the open made it easier to find. Then we had a route via or round some bracken and through a boggy area to a nice bit of woodland with a loop and back through the bog. A longish leg took us to an open heather covered hill and back down the slope to the fence crossing. That went OK although it was near the area where I had my nightmare last time. The last 2 controls I think everyone had which were slightly contrived to get us over a couple of fences into the arena, but made a great run-in.
I really enjoyed this area and it makes me wonder why we sometimes have a great run and others a not so great run?
My grandson did the White course, so about 800m to the start and then 2.2km! The first half uphill and the second half downhill, a monstrous course for little legs. He loved it. The downside to the day was removing about 40 minute ticks from Kevin's legs, I had one, so another conundrum."
Alison actually had her best run of the week on this day, finishing 2nd out of 39, so she needn't have been anxious! But pride of place went to Rebecca Daley who was the winner of W16B.
Day 5 - Glen Dye
Here is a report from Emma Anderson, summing up the rivalries of the week:
"Suddenly, we were heading to the final Friday event at Glen Dye, just south of Banchory. It was much anticipated as earlier in the week Jayne had commented 'Glen Dye was my favourite area to orienteer in when I lived in Aberdeen'. Those of us staying further west had a longer drive, but with late start times, this was leisurely and allowed for a cafe breakfast on the way. The car park cut off meant that many ESOC members were milling around the arena prior to running. Calum was very consistent over the week, could he keep this up? Who would win out in the friendly rivalry between Alexis and Rebecca? And could Alison make it onto the overall podium? 49 ESOCers had made it to Day 5, although, sadly, we were lacking Club Captain Helena after a fall at the end of Day 4.
From the arena we could see competitors heading up through the felled forest to the start which was located some distance away on a rough logging track. Once we set off though, the forest was very runnable, with smoother underfoot terrain than previous days, and the cloudier weather gave us slightly cooler running conditions. The forest was generally open with ponds, marshes, streams and some areas of high bracken. All the courses crossed a minor road, but this was closed to traffic. They also crossed a wide stream which required getting wet feet, and which Ossian thought was very exciting! Two close controls after mandatory fence crossings and then the final run-in stretching ahead along the grassy flat.
Going into the final day, Calum and William were within 2 seconds for the boys' ESOC run-in competition, while it looked as if Alexis had wrapped up over the Daley sisters for the girls. In the adult category Walter and Arthur were in contention for the men's, while Helena had 11 seconds over Emma in the ladies.
On this final day there were excellent podium positions for Alexis in W16B and Alison in W65L. Also, Adam on Red and Les on Yellow.
Glen Dye was indeed a lovely area and certainly my favourite of the week. All in all a fun time at our first multi day event, with smooth organisation and perfect weather. It was amazing to see so many orienteers running in different directions in such varied forests, but now it was time for tired legs and tired heads to wend their way home with beautiful clear views from the Cairn O' Mount. The week was summed up by my friend who asked, 'How did you get on with finding things in forests?' To find out, see day and overall results below."
Day 5 results in the top half:
- M16A (34) - Calum Robertson 10th
- M65L (83) - Kevin Harding 16th, Richard Oxlade 20th
- M70S (32) - Roger Garnett 11th, Alistair Armitage 17th
- M75L (49) - Ewart Scott 18th
- M75S (24) - David Kershaw 10th
- W16B (8) - Alexis Gow 2nd
- W45L (41) - Jo Stevenson 7th
- W65L (37) - Alison Harding 3rd
- W70L (46) - Margaret Dalgleish 4th, Janice Nisbet 14th
- Green (126) - Walter Clark 22nd, Keith Brown 30th
- Red (27) - Adam Clark 2nd
- Orange (71) - Zoe Clark 5th, Hazel Clark 16th, Rhona Fraser 36th
- Yellow (35) - Les Dalgleish 3rd
Overall results in the top half:
- M14A (31) - William Atkinson 16th
- M16A (39) - Calum Robertson 13th
- M55S (44) - Ron Nolan 17th
- M65L (98) - Richard Oxlade 16th, Kevin Harding 19th
- M70S (40) - Roger Garnett 9th=, Alistair Armitage 11th
- M75S (28) - David Kershaw 12th
- W16B (9) - Alexis Gow 3rd, Rebecca Daley 4th
- W45L (52) - Jo Stevenson 7th
- W50L (60) - Fran Daley 21st
- W55L (88) - Helena Nolan 12th, Emma Anderson 38th, Hanne Robertson 44th
- W65L (46) - Alison Harding 4th
- W70L (52) - Margaret Dalgleish 5th, Janice Nisbet 18th, Mary Williams 20th
Credit: Ossian Imrie
Finally, the all-important run-in competition
(with thanks to Catherine and Ursula for working it all out)
First boy and overall winner was William Atkinson,
First girl was Alexis Gow.
The fastest 'grown-ups' were Walter Clark and Helena Nolan.
Rest Day Sprint Race - Ballater
This report comes from Rachael Imrie:
"Having been seeing trees, heather and sneaky looks-like-moss-but-actually-is-rock landscapes in my dreams, I was very ready for the comparatively easy terrain of the Ballater streets for the 'rest day' sprints. Ballater was billed as a typical grid pattern highland village with the mapped area extending into parks and playing fields. There was mention of a wooded section but it didn’t appear on any of the maps that I saw in the start box. The weather came through again – though was probably on the warmer side of ideal for me – and made for sunny atmospheres at assembly and also probably increased the tourist-dodging challenge of a town sprint.
It turns out that you are good at what you train for as, having been genuinely uncertain that I was ever coming out of Glen Feardar, I was actually off the bottom of the results tables in this sprint (15th, WV): it felt akin to a short fairly easy Sprintelope with the luxury of actual SI units and kites.
Notable mentions in the results (top half for age-class course): Les Dalgleish 3rd MHV; Margaret Dalgleish 6th WUV; Emma Anderson 10th WSV; Janice Nisbet 14th WUV.
The kids and Alex (long suffering allegedly non-orienteering husband!) had fun pootling round the Yellow course and, by this stage, had just about forgiven me for accidentally booking them on all the Yellows rather than the White courses for the week (turns out 10A was Yellow and 10B was White, oopsie!)… at this stage I had deliberately omitted to mention the river crossing coming up on Day 5.
Would I change anything? One more toilet."
Ossian’s favourite thing of the week was the sprint finish competition on the forest days, hence his picture of them reaching control 100 and prepping for the final dash (see above).
All the results for Days 1 to 5 at Royal Deeside 2025, plus the overall results and the Sprint Race results, can be found on the results page of the Scottish 6 Days website. This also includes links to Routegadget where all the maps and courses can be seen.
Day 3 (Creag Choinnich) and Day 4 (Balfour) were the 19th and 20th events in the 2025 UK Orienteering League. There are more details about the UKOL, including the league tables, on the UK Orienteering League page of the British Orienteering website. With these events included, ESOC is currently lying 15th in the club league. The score for each club is calculated automatically from the 15 best club members' scores (across various age class groups) - so the club members whose scores are included have changed as the year goes on.
Rest Day Mountain Bike Orienteering - Scolty
Here is Keith Dawson's report on the MTBO event that also took place on the very busy middle Wednesday.
"The 'rest day' for the 6 Day included not only a Foot O Sprint but also the traditional MTBO event planned by Richard Oxlade and run on the day by Steve Smirthwaite of Moravian Orienteers and Mary Williams of ESOC and their team. The event was held as part of the run up to the World Masters MTBO Championships in September 2026 and attracted over 70 happy competitors on a glorious day.
MTBO uses a special O map with paths and tracks graded for rideability and speed, and routes are confined to these. The courses are control to control in numerical order like Foot O and the fastest time wins. MTBO is two great sports combined and 1+1 does truly equal 3.
The event took place at Scolty Hill, just south of Banchory, a hilly area with route choices to avoid some of the climb and some rocky singletrack in places. The views from the top of Scolty Hill were outstanding. The slowness of the rocky singletrack, though it was great fun to ride, meant the fastest routes were sometimes much longer around on the fireroads. This gave some good route choice challenges - around or more direct. The Novice C course on the easier lower slopes was enjoyed by a number of new competitors and youngsters who all came back with beaming smiles, wanting to know when the next event was.
The next MTBO events in the build-up to the Masters in Moray in 2026 are based on Inverness on 29-31st August 2025 at three new areas for MTBO. There are three races Sprint, Middle and Long. The British Champs are in the New Forest this year on 27/28th September, again with three races. "
The results of the MTBO races can be found here.
Rest Day Quiz Night
The final activity on the Wednesday "rest day" was a Quiz Night staged by Mike Stewart (INT and formerly ESOC). This provided an opportunity for everyone to have some down-time and several ESOCers joined forces to make up teams. Some met up first to have a meal together in Ballater, so it became something of an ESOC social. Here are some photos which show what a happy time they were having, despite all the hard work some of them had been putting in over the previous days and weeks.
Other entries categorised under: Event Reports - MTBO