This is a night event - it is not suitable for beginners. All competitors MUST carry a spare torch and whistle. The organiser may require jackets to be worn or carried depending on weather, terrain, etc. Participants are recommended to carry a mobile phone (it should not be used for navigation except in an emergency).
Mass Start at 18:30 - please be at the assembly point in plenty of time for roll call, map issue and safety briefing.
If you are totally new to orienteering this is probably not the ideal event for you - we have a series of beginner friendly events throughout the year. If you've never night orienteered before - perhaps give the junior course a try or talk to a coach about being shadowed. The club has a policy on juniors competing on the full courses - they MUST have successfully completed 3 TD5 events in daylight AND have been approved as competent for night O by club coach and or series organiser.
Parking: Parking is at Cowie Primary School, Main Street, Cowie. FK7 7BL, Grid ref NS838894, What3Words guessing.complains.mermaids. There is plenty of parking and parking is free.
There are regular buses from Stirling to Cowie.
Registration/Start/Finish: Registration and assembly are at the corner of Ochilview on the SE corner of Cowie village, by Gallamuir woods. Grid reference NS844889, what3words calculating.includes.unstated.
It is about 0.5km from the Primary School to assembly. If you come out of the primary school car park and turn left, just follow the road up the hill – there will be some red/white tapes to mark the route.
There will be a roll call and safety briefing at assembly at 18:20 before we walk/jog together around 300m into Gallamuir Woods to the start. The start and finish are together just inside the woods. Maps will be handed out at the start, shortly before the mass start.
Download will be back at assembly. Please remember to download on your way back.
Toilets: There are no public toilets so please plan accordingly.
Terrain: The eastern and western parts of the area are generally open runnable woodland, whereas the central section is still heavily overgrown and ground features, including some paths and broken fences, can be hard to distinguish.
The courses therefore mostly use the runnable areas, with few controls in the central part and they are generally not TD5 and involve some path running. This aims to avoid controls having a significant element of luck and maintain the event as a race.
The recent storms have brought down several trees, mainly in the SE part of the area. They do not materially affect runnability, but please do not navigate using the root stocks marked on the map, as there are now several more!
Map: 1:5,000, 2.5m contour interval, by Graham Gristwood. Last updated by Yotam Bertrand in 2025.
Control Descriptions: These are printed on the front of the map. There are no loose descriptions at the event.
Start Times: Mass start at 6.30pm. If you would prefer a punching start, this can be done following the mass start.
Timing: SPORTIdent will be used. Touch free punching will be activated but the start and finish must be dibbed manually.
Courses: Long: 4.9km 120m Short: 3.0km, 80m Novice: 1.6km 25m
The long and short courses are gaffled and each has a map flip, whereas the novice course has neither.
Courses Close: 20:00 All participants MUST report to the finish by this time.
Safety Info: Participants take part at their own risk: Any participants with relevant pre-existing medical conditions which might affect their participation should disclose them to the organiser before they start.
The western part of the map is separated by a large marsh. At the time of writing the marsh is passable on both sides, but it is not advisable to try and go through the middle. The small path on the southern edge is now blocked at the W end by a fallen tree. It is passable by navigating around it on the marsh side, but please take care.
There are several fences in the area, in various states of repair and most have barbed wire on the top. In the undergrowth, some are also hard to spot. The short course avoids crossing any fences and the novice course crosses two, but both are broken and lying on the ground, so only the long course is really affected, which crosses several fences, although gates are available for some crossings. Please take great care if you are approaching or crossing a fence.
There is one gate that has a big red sign on saying “Bull in field” – I am reliably informed this is not the case at the moment! (only the Long course goes over it).
The nearest medical facility is the hospital at Larbert, FK5 4WR, about 10 miles away.
Contact: Please contact Rhys Stanwix at [email protected] if you have any questions.