Scottish Schools Orienteering Festival 2026Beecraigs Country Park, Thursday 4th June
Credit: David Robertson
The ESOC juniors made the club proud with 10 podium positions for Ingrid, Brooke*, Seb, Emma, Jonny*, Calum, Maria, Matthew*, Rohan and new member Michael.
Judy, Margaret and David write:
Around 400 pupils from all over Scotland, including several ESOC members, converged on Beecraigs Country Park for the Scottish Schools Orienteering Festival (SSOF). As this was a Schools event, several of our ESMS partnership members were also participating.
The Start was a little more complicated than usual for a SSOF as the younger pupils were heading off in a different direction to the older ones, effectively a route choice at the start kite. The Start team therefore separated the start lanes using coloured boxes and tape to set everyone off in the correct direction.
The weather changed rapidly all day with some very heavy showers, but this didn’t stop the fun. However, at one point an extreme rain shower, lasting several minutes, resulted in nobody being able to hear the 5 timing clocks beeping and the pre-start clock blowing over!! The experienced start team and the waiting pupils all coped despite the ferocious weather.
There was a real festival feel to the day, with a very busy arena where the crowds were out cheering on the finishers then hurrying back to their shelters when a downpour arrived! The heavier rain didn't linger too long though, but it did make the run in very slippery for those without studded shoes on.
As well as the main competition there was also the opportunity to try to record the fastest times in a fun maze.
It was great to see so many ESOC faces both competing and volunteering. The latter, along with others, made it a very well organised and fun event.
Welcome and well done in particular to newer members Hannah, Michael, Angus, Hamish and Leif who all put on great performances in the most junior category.
ESOC junior results:
- P5/6 Girls (56) - Ingrid Edenbrandt 1st, Hannah Tough 4th, Kirsten Tinsley 18th, Grace O’Hara (& A Brown) 23rd, Ailsa Brown 26th
- P5/6 Boys (76) - Seb Bleakley 2nd, Michael Tough 3rd, Eddie Mair 5th, Angus Megaw 12th, Luke Durnall 16th, Hamish Megaw 19th, Leif Peter 21st, Orrin Pentland 27th, Hamish Mair 55th
- P7 Girls (21) - Cerys Vernon 15th
- P7 Boys (16) - Matthew Marchant* 3rd
- S1 Girls (15) - Maria O’Hara 3rd, Ianthe Bleakley 5th, Sienna Baumann* 7th, Arielle Muir* 8th, Eloise Booth* 10th
- S2 Girls (12) - Alice Huggins* 5th, Joanna Marshall* 6th
- S2 Boys (14) - Rohan Arnold 3rd, William Malham* 14th
- S3 Girls (18) - Emma Daley 2nd, Amelie McKay* 18th
- S3 Boys (17) - Johnny Brydie* 2nd, Ewan Preen* 5th, Oliver Pitt* 8th, Kevin Gao* 14th
- S4 Girls (1) - Brooke Dobinson* 1st
- S4 Boys (9 ) - Ewan Arnold 4th, Gregor Menzies 5th, Alexander Malham* 8th
- S5/6 Girls (10) - Megan Brown 5th, Alexis Gow 6th, Thea Thomas 7th
- S5/6 Boys (11) - Calum Robertson 2nd
Results are on the Scottish Schools Orienteering Association website which includes individual and school teams, as well as routegadget and winsplits. The overall school results are here.
There is also a short report of the day on the Scottish Orienteering website.
Other entries categorised under: Event Reports - Juniors - Schools