Many thanks to Sam P for planning and to Bob, David and the McDonalds for helping collect controls.
Foggieton 28/5/25 Summer Series Results
Many thanks go to Gary for planning tonight’s episode of our Summer Series and Bob, David and Sam for control collecting afterwards.
Tune in next week for Tollohill… (and don’t forget that the car park is small so please car share or cycle or take a bus if you can. Ta!)
Aden Country Park 25/5/25 Results
Results
RouteGadget all courses (but use Score only RG for Score course)
RouteGadget Score only
Check out our Facebook page for some photos
Many thanks to Laura for her usual great organizing, David for planning/computing and to all the Gramp members for helping out. Congrats to the winners of the Grampian Region Scout Orienteering Champs organised by Sean O’Sullivan from MAROC.
And that rounds up a very busy World Orienteering Week. Hope everyone who tried orienteering for the first time enjoyed it and maybe see you at some of our Summer Series events over the next month or so. Our next SS event is at Foggieton, parking at Cults Primary School, starts from 18:00.
Taster event at Hazlehead Park 22/5/25
Scottish Orienteering and Grampian Orienteers are hosting an orienteering taster session that’s open to all but especially aimed at those who enjoy getting outside to run or walk and fancy trying something a bit different!
Orienteering is an outdoor adventure sport using a map and compass and is suitable for all ages and fitness levels. Participants of this session will be introduced to the basics of orienteering by British Orienteering licensed coaches, before being given the chance to head out into the park to complete an orienteering course which can be done by yourself or in groups. Any under 16s should be accompanied by an adult.
Venue: Hazlehead Park (car park nearest the cafe)
Date/Time: Thursday 22nd May / 1830-2000
Who: ALL WELCOME (under 16s should have adult supervision)
Cost: FREE
If you want to come please sign up by clicking here for a link to a google form to give us an idea of how many maps we’ll need to print.
Could you help us spread the word about this event? Download this flyer and send it to friends and family or print it out and display it at your work/school/local park. Ta muchly!
Hazlehead 21/5/25 Summer Series Results
Results RouteGadget for Scores/Long/Short courses
Great fun was had at our first Summer Series event at Hazlehead tonight. Many thanks to Fiona & Zoe for putting on the event including 4 separate Maze courses!!
Many thanks to Bob/Samantha/Joanna/Dennis/Hugh for all helping collect controls afterwards👍👏 Maze courses.
Many thanks to Bob/Samantha/Joanna/Dennis/Hugh for all helping collect controls afterwards👍👏
Parking: the car park nearest the cafe
w3w: starts.mole.usage
Registration/Start/Finish: in front of the cafe – look for our GRAMP banner
Starts/Reg 18:00 – 19:00
Courses close (i.e. be back at Registration) 20:00
Seniors £6, Students/Juniors £3 contactless payment or cash
Courses:
Easy White/Yellow standard ~2km
Technical as-hard-as-we-can-make-it 3-5km TBC
Maze – try and beat the times set by Hazlehead Academy earlier in the afternoon!
Score Course – try and find as many orienteering controls in the park as you can
This is a World Orienteering Week Come And Try It event. Come and be part of something really big worldwide! We can provide a bit of on the spot training before waving you off into the park to try your hand at this great sport (and we’ll wait for you to come back bursting to talk about the experience as we know you’ll enjoy it.)
Safety – A risk assessment will have been carried out by the organiser, but participants take part at their own risk and are responsible for their own safety during the event. We’ll be sharing parks/streets/woods with others so be courteous to other users and watch out for bikes/dogs/horseriders.
Health – Full leg and torso cover is required in wooded areas due to ticks.
Privacy – when entering our events your name may appear in the results section of this website or in newspaper reports. Grampian Orienteers data privacy policy
Photography – In line with the policies of British Orienteering, the organisers of this event request that any person wishing to take photos or video showing children should register their details with event volunteers before taking any such photos or videos. The event organisers reserve the right to ask people to refrain from taking photos or video and may, if such warnings are ignored, refer the matter to the police.
Scottish Champs 2025
Some great results for Gramp at the Scottish Champs held at Barry Buddon over the weekend – a very tricky area jam-packed full of detailed contours which demands full on concentration all the way round and provided a trip down memory lane for several of the more experienced members of the club as we planned/organised a day there for Tay 2009 Scottish 6 Days. (If anyone wants to join them reminiscing then here are some photos on Flickr.)
Individual:
M12A 2nd Fergus Gallacher
M45S 4th David Esson
M50S 1st Adrian Will
M55L 8th Tim Griffin
M55S 5th Hugh Nicholson
M60L 7th Pete Lawrence, 14th Dennis McDonald just pipping 15th Sam Gomersall
M65L 7th Bob Daly, 9th Ian Hamilton, 15th Iain McLeod
M70L 2nd Paul Duley
M80 3rd Neil McLean
W14A 3rd= Joanna McDonald
W16A 6th Samantha McDonald
W45L 3rd Fiona McDonald
W55S 3rd Ros Nicholson
W60L 8th Lesley Gomersall
Relay:
All the Gramp teams ended up competing against each other in the 17+ points class which made for some very sociable rivalry.
4th Gramp3 Ian Morrison, Adrian Will, Gavin Morrison
5th Gramp2 Pete Lawrence, Fiona McDonald, Dennis McDonald
6th Gramp1 Tim Griffin, Samantha McDonald, Bob Daly
8th Gramp4 Matthew Humphreys, Lesley Gomersall, Sam Gomersall
(and rather worryingly the results also show “dnf Gramp Heart Attack!” so for the benefit of anyone not in the know that’s just David having a wee joke on himself when registering the teams!)
Hats off too to ex-Gramp Jayne MacGregor for pulling it all together as Organiser.
GMC entries now open!
Click here for SIEntries page for the Clachnaben GMC 11th/12th October.
Teams of 2 or 3 on A, B and C courses for either the full 2 day GMC experience or the Saturday only ‘taster’ version. Full rules/details can be found on the GMC page or on the SIEntries page.
JK 2025
Well done to the Gramps who went down to Sheffield for this year’s JK. (For those not in the know, the Jan Kjellstrom orienteering festival is an Easter bonanza of orienteering similar in size to the 6 Days with Sprint, Middle, Long and Relay races.)
Great results from Gramps, especially at the Sprint and Long!
Sprint: Samantha McDonald 7th W16, Fiona 14th W45 and Dennis 76th
Middle: Paul Duley M70 came 22nd, Dennis 109th M60, Samantha 33rd and Fiona 25th
Long: Paul Duley 5th M70L, Samantha 22nd W16A and Fiona 19th W45L
Photo credit: Wendy Carlyle
GRAMP ‘takeover’ Hazlehead Parkrun Sat 17th May
As we’ve previously mentioned in the GRAMP Gossip emails* we are planning to have a GRAMP presence at the Hazlehead Parkrun on Saturday 17th May (aka in Parkrun parlance as a takeover.)
This is so we can advertise the club to parkrunners/walkers and their families and promote our summer series events. Plus we hope that SOA will be hosting a taster session for runners on Thursday 22nd May at Hazlehead which we’ll also promote.
We would be delighted to see as many GRAMP members as possible signing up as volunteers for this Parkrun, then coming along in your GRAMP kit (if you have some) and hopefully spreading the word to other runners/walkers about how much fun orienteering is!
If you’ve not volunteered at Parkrun before, it’s very easy to do and you’ll get instructions on the day.
Below is a link to the roster of vacant positions – it would be good if there were a few GRAMP members at the finish area so we can point people in the direction of our flyers and QR codes – so maybe ask to be a barcode scanner. But feel free to choose another role if you wish.
(Bar code scanners and timers will need to download the parkrun app before the event.)
https://www.parkrun.org.uk/hazlehead/futureroster/
You will need to send an email to hazlehead@parkrun.com and tell them which position you’d like to do and include your Parkrun number. If you don’t already have a parkrun number you will need to register.
The roster can sometimes fill up fairly quickly so please sign up as soon as you can.
Any questions please get in touch.
*If you’re not receiving GRAMP gossip emails every month please let Fiona know and confirm your current email address as we don’t want you missing out on the news and gossip. Send her an email via secretary@grampoc.com
Tyrebagger/Elrick 7/5/25 Forest Sprint Results
What a super evening to get reaquainted with Tyrebagger after such a long wait for the felling to finish. It’s certainly suffered in the northern section but at least you now get a great view across to Bennachie from the car park on a day like today!!
The northern bit is still passable despite the debris, especially if you spot and exploit the extraction tracks and re-entrant floors although it does make it a bit of a zig-zaggy route, and lots of folk decided to try “going straight” in that section using the contours rather than simply pegging it round the paths.
Thanks to Ros for planning, MacDonalds for control collecting and David manning the keyboard.
The final Forest Sprint is next week up at Cambus O’May, details on Maroc’s website.
If you enjoyed the Sprints and want more chances to get out and about on a Wednesday evening then check our Events list for the Summer Series which starts at Hazlehead Park on 21st May. Details for each event will be posted separately in due course and linked to the Events list. Oh, and there’s a bonus taster event organised by SOA also at Hazlehead on Thurs 22nd so invite some friends and introduce them to our great sport.
Templars Park 23/4/25 Forest Sprint
Results
RouteGadget to follow soon hopefully
Many thanks to Dennis for planning and to Hugh/Ros/Bob/Fiona & Samantha for helping collect controls.
Dunnottar Woods 9/4/25 Forest Sprint Results
Results. https://www.sportident.co.uk/results/GRAMP/2025/FSDunnottar/
Many thanks to Ian Hamilton for kicking off Gramp’s side of this year’s Forest Sprints. Next week it’s Bellwood courtesy of Maroc.
Good turn out for the Forest Sprint at Dunnottar. 39 people including a group of scouts.
Thanks to Dennis, Fiona and Sam for collecting controls and to David for helping with registration and mentoring beginners.
GMC 2025 location revealed…
This year we’re going to be sending you all off for a spin around Clachnaben and surrounding areas for the Grampian Mountain Challenge on 11th and 12th October.
Check back here for a link to entries which will open on May 1st and then get your entry in asap as numbers will be capped. In the meantime you can check out the info/rules/kit list.
Please note that the solo class has been removed from all courses this year for safety reasons but you can run in pairs or teams of 3 and even informally link up with other teams while out on the hill if it helps you all get round and back to base safe and sound in time for the hot food and craic which is a huge part of the GMC experience on Scotland’s Friendly Sociable Mountain Marathon.
There will also be an opportunity for teams to run a one-day only linear course, including both orienteering and hill sections, on the Saturday if you fancy a taster of the GMC without the camping bit.
DNC 2024/5 Results
Well done to all those Gramps who braved the good, the bad and the downright ugly (weather in case you were wondering what I’m referring to) during this season’s DNC, not least those who definitely deserve their 50 points for stepping up to plan Gramp’s side of the series.
Samantha McDonald was the leading Gramp on the Long course steadily racking up her total to finish 3rd female and 7th overall, narrowly beating Ian Hamilton by just 2 points.
On the Short course, David Esson was 3rd male, 4th overall and delighted to regain his title as Mr Consistent by finishing 16/16 events while Ros Nicholson finished 2nd female and 7th overall, again pipping fellow Gramp, Adrian Will, by just a few points.
GRAMP Champs 2024 and AGM 2025
The following is a quick read summary of the AGM held in January. A copy of the full AGM minutes was attached to Zoe’s last Gramp Gossip this month before handing over the secretarial reins to Fiona.
Many thanks for all your hard work over the years collating and circulating info and organising the club’s 50th anniversary dinner amongst other things, Zoe.
Congratulations to those who won club champs trophies this year. Those that didn’t receive their trophies/prizes at the AGM should contact David Esson.
| Junior Men | Junior Women |
| 1st Fergus Gallagher | 1st Samantha McDonald |
| 2nd Cato Stockton | 2nd Joanna McDonald |
| 3rd Hannah Will | |
| Senior Men | Senior Women |
| 1st Ian Morrison | |
| 2nd Matthew Thompson | |
| 3rd Matthew Humphries | |
| Veteran Men | Veteran Women |
| 1st Julian Robinson | 1st Fiona McDonald |
| 2nd Adrian Will | 2nd Claire Gallagher |
| 3rd David Esson | 3rd Sarah Wallace |
| Super Veteran Men | Super Veteran Women |
| 1st Ian Hamilton | 1st Oonagh Grassie |
| 2nd Neil McLean | 2nd Laura Farquharson |
| 3rd Bob Daly | 3rd Lesley Gomersall |
The Chairman’s Quaich was awarded to Ian Hamilton for his outstanding service to the club, being a main official on committee for circa 15 years and ever the professional who gets on with the job with no fuss. Many, many thanks for everything you have done for the club, Ian.
And many thanks to David Esson too for carrying out both Chairman’s and SI/computing duties over the last few years with equal (laid-back) professionalism, coping with the Covid years and personal health issues but still ploughing on determinedly to get both club and himself back up and running.
Chairman’s AGM Report 2024
34 events – up from 29 in 2023. We are a healthy club, even though we have significant challenges in particular the lack of areas due to the Storms. At the moment we only have 3 areas which are big enough for a full colour coded and Glen Dye is currently embargoed for the Scottish 6 Days. Open day at newly remapped Aden Country Park, quite a few members made the journey and enjoyed themselves between the wintry showers.
During the year we produced a club survey which many members filled in. Thank you to all. Very useful information for the new committee to work on but generally people love having the Wednesday events throughout the year, but also would love more Sunday events. So we’re thinking of doing some local Sunday events at areas like Aden and Haddo and make it very much a social day out too. Look out for these this year.
Throughout the year, we did emphasise that the 3 main committee members were standing down at the end of this year. May I first of all say thank you to the people who have put their names forward. It is very much appreciated. The reason why I started asking so far in advance was I was concerned that if no one would come forward, it might have spelt a bad ending for the club, which would have been a great shame as we are a strong club in many other aspects. But if the proposed changes come to fruition, the committee and club will grow in numbers and therefore strength.
Other than the usual elections and Treasurer’s report, a couple of things were discussed at the AGM regarding identifying suitable areas to map to replace the areas we’ve lost and getting funding to cover professional mappers’ fees as these do not qualify for community grants.
2024 Successes
Scottish O Champs – 1st Kevin Reynard M55S, Neil McLean M80,
Claire Gallagher W45S, Joanna McDonald Yellow
2nd Paul Duley M70L
Scottish Orienteering League – 1st Joanna McDonald W14B, Samantha McDonald W16S, Ros Nicholson W45S, Neil McLean M80
2nd Carolyn McLeod W21N, Oonagh GrassieW65S
Scottish Relay Champs
17+ category
5th Tim Griffin, Claire Gallagher, Sam Gomersall
8th Malcolm Fisher, Lesley Gomersall, Kevin Reynard
20+ category
20th David Esson, Adrian Will, Bob Daly
Scottish Urban Orienteering League
No podium finishers from GRAMP although Laura Farquharson was 6th Supervet after attending nearly all the SOULs and several others managed a few races each over the year with good results which, if combined, may have resulted in a podium place 😉
We’re hoping to get funds to map an urban area and be able to offer to host a SOUL in 2025/6. Watch this space….
British Relay Champs
Mixed – 3rd Lesley Gomersall, Sam Gomersall, Mike Greenwood
Looking ahead
- Forest Sprint/Summer Series/Local Sunday events/ 6 Days on Deeside
- GMC in October to look forward to
New Year – New Committee
On behalf of the club a massive “Thank you!” to David, Zoe and Ian who bowed out at the AGM after many years of service between them on the committee. Zoe did tot it all up a while back and I’ve forgotten the exact figure but it would have earned at least a gold clock presented by the MD if it were years of service in a company! So definitely time for a change…
Tim Griffin – Chairman
Fiona McDonald – Secretary
Adrian Will – Treasurer
Fixtures – Paul Duley
If you want to see a full list of committee members/roles and who else does what for the club then check out the ‘Committee and contacts’ page. It goes without saying that offers of assistance and ideas are more than welcome from anyone at any time.
DNC Balmedie 12/2/25 Results
Many thanks to Ian for planning and to Jakub, Tim & David for helping Ian collect in the controls.
GMC 2025 dates announced
Dates for next year’s GMC have been announced: 11th & 12th October
As always the venue is a closely guarded secret for now so check back here in the summer for details, entries links, kit lists etc etc.
In the meantime, GMC organiser Dave Kirk has been in touch with WIM and WSX orienteers who have set up the Purbeck Hill Challenge, a one day trail/orienteering race closely based on the GMC idea of mixing up scales and terrain to give that interesting navigational twist.
This will be held 15/2/25 near Swanage so if you’re likely to be down south in that area around that time then they’d love to see you. Entries open now at Early Bird rates, due to increase slightly 1st Jan, with a cap of 100 entries.
(BTW, one of the main people involved with the PHC is one Rob Mills who used to be a GRAMP member many moons ago.)
Tollohill DNC 29/1/25 Results
Results
RouteGadget
Many thanks to Tim for planning and to Ian for collecting
Night O Safety
With orienteering at night comes some added enjoyment (for most) but also some additional hazards, we all need to be aware of and mitigate against as best we can. What if our headtorch fails? What happens if we injure ourself? What if, what if?
Hopefully, we’re not teaching anyone to suck eggs here but it is worth reminding ourselves that if something does happen and we are not prepared, then others may be inconvenienced or worse, because of this. So, a few items that we should all seriously consider carrying with us on our run – some should not really be for discussion!
– Primary headtorch (obvious!)
– Compass (obvious!)
– Spare headtorch or equivalent light source (essential)*
– Whistle (essential)
– Mobile phone – the organiser/planner’s number is on the map for a reason!
* NOTE: Spare battery for your main headtorch, is not a replacement for a separate spare torch, as it could be more than your battery that has runout/failed.
It is colder at night, so consider what you wear. What if you did injury yourself or maybe just weren’t up to feeling running at your usual speed – you will become cold very quickly if you are not running or going at your usual speed. We do night O through the winter, so keep that in mind and maybe take a bumbag with extra clothing.
If you are new to night orienteering be aware it may take you longer than ‘normal’ – much longer for some. Also, if you are not at TD5 level, you really should be doing this in the daylight before taking on night orienteering as the Deeside Night Cup (long) and the mini-cup (short) is planned with NO dispensation for it being dark. Maybe you are at TD5 level but never night O’d before – speak to someone about a shadowed run. Use the club member email to put a message round that you’d appreciate some mentoring and which DNC events you plan to attend and someone will respond.
Safety – A risk assessment will have been carried out by the organiser, but participants take part at their own risk and are responsible for their own safety during the event. We’ll be sharing parks/streets/woods with others so be courteous to other users and watch out for bikes/dogs/horseriders.
Health – Full leg and torso cover is required in wooded areas due to ticks.
Privacy – when entering our events your name may appear in the results section of this website or in newspaper reports. Grampian Orienteers data privacy policy
Photography – In line with the policies of British Orienteering, the organisers of this event request that any person wishing to take photos or video showing children should register their details with event volunteers before taking any such photos or videos. The event organisers reserve the right to ask people to refrain from taking photos or video and may, if such warnings are ignored, refer the matter to the police.
DNC Foggieton 15/1/25 Results
Oops! If you were looking for info on Tollohill on 29th then click here.
Results
RouteGadget (this uses the amended splits – see below)
Due to member of public moving a control we have removed control 234 and the legs on either side from the results. Many thanks to Paul for planning, and to Tim for helping collect controls.
HHH @Hazlehead Thursday 2nd January 2025 Results
To celebrate the start of a new year we had a fun event setup at Hazlehead Park, with a Social party afterwards. Thanks to everyone who came out to enjoy the snowy courses, David for organising and Gomersalls for being soup monitors.
DNC Elrick 11/12/24 Results
Many thanks to Ros for planning and Hugh and David for control collecting/controlling.
No 4 on the long was inspected last night and found to be in the correct place so the legs 3-4-5 have been reinstated in the results and used for RG.
Jon Duncan Junior Deeside Cup 2024
Congratulations to all our Gramp Juniors who competed in this year’s Jon Duncan Junior Deeside Cup and especially to our 2 trophy winners, Fergus Gallagher M12 and Samantha McDonald W16.
You can see how everyone got on in the 2024 Jon Duncan Junior Deeside Cup Final Results.
The organisers decided to declare the results as final following the Bogendreip event as the tenth event at Cambus O’May was too close to Maroc’s AGM for getting trophies engraved.
DNC Dunnottar Woods 27/11/24 Results
Lovely frosty night for orienteering at Dunnottar Woods tonight. Well done to first time planner Sam Pickett and to Ros, Hugh and David E for helping collect controls afterwards
Open Day at Aden Country Park Sat 16th November
Come this Saturday and enjoy the brand new Permanent Orienteering Courses on a brand new map at Aden Country Park. The Gramp coaches will be there to offer advice/help for any who wish.
There are two recommended permanent orienteering courses in Aden, a short course which is approximately 1.8km in length, and a long course which is approximately 2.9km in length. You can also create your own courses, by visiting the controls in a different order, or only visiting a selection of the controls. From 10am to 2pm and last start is 1pm.
DNC Balmedie 13/11/24 Results
Many thanks to Dave K for planning and to Sam P & David E for helping collect controls afterwards. Lovely dry, still, partially moonlit night tonight – perfect for enjoying the devilishly detailed dunes.
Thanks also to Beachside Bakes for staying open late providing great coffee and cakes for hungry orienteers. If you missed out but are likely to be in the Balmedie area again soon then keep an eye on their Facebook page for opening hours as they said they’ll be open most Saturdays and Sundays if it’s dry for Christmassy bakes and gifts. Mmmmmm!
DNC Hazlehead 30/10/24 Results
Results
RouteGadget everything on the 1:10000 map
Many thanks to Julian for planning and to Nigel and the 2 Dave’s for collecting controls.
6/10/24 Crathes Results
Results Results with BOF ranking points
RouteGadget
Many thanks to Adrian for organising, Bob for Planning, Andy Oliver (MAROC) for controlling in advance and to David & Ian for controlling on the day!
Privacy – when entering our events your name may appear in the results section of this website or in newspaper reports. Grampian Orienteers data privacy policy
Photography – In line with the policies of British Orienteering, the organisers of this event request that any person wishing to take photos or video showing children should register their details with event volunteers before taking any such photos or videos. The event organisers reserve the right to ask people to refrain from taking photos or video and may, if such warnings are ignored, refer the matter to the police.
Abz Uni Autumn Urban Sprint Wed 18th Sept Results
Results
RouteGadget (there’s a building and uncrossable fencing missing in the NW corner on RG as I haven’t got a copy of the updated map but wanted to get this up and running tonight)
Many thanks to Julian for planning, Dennis & Hugh for helping collect controls and to Agnes and David for acting as Bouncer to one of the controls.
Good to see the AUOC ‘flashmob’ – welcome (or welcome back) to Aberdeen! Hope you enjoyed it and feel inspired to try some more O with us soon.
P.S. Deeside Night Cup starts Wed 30th Oct at Hazlehead followed by Maroc’s event at Banchory on 6th Nov, then every Wed alternately right through to Feb. Check the DNC page for general details on this series and individual posts for each event on either Gramp or Maroc’s websites.
Seaton Autumn Urban Sprint Wed 11th Sept Results
Many thanks to Fiona for planning her first event! And to Julian, Dennis, Samantha & Joanna for helping collect controls.
Danestone Autumn Urban Sprint Wed 4th Sept Results
Results
RouteGadget – georef’ing glitched such that it’s impossible to match all control sites accurately to the map so had to compromise some in order to get the majority showing in more or less the right place
Many thanks to David Esson for planning and Fiona, Dennis and Samantha for helping collect the controls
Westburn Autumn Urban Sprint Wed 28st August Results
Results (now the correct set of results! Sorry!)
RouteGadget
Thanks to Tim for braving the torrential rain at the most inconvenient time when he was putting out the controls, David for computing and control collecting assisted by Rachel and Pete.
Safety – A risk assessment will have been carried out by the organiser, but participants take part at their own risk and are responsible for their own safety during the event. We’ll be sharing parks/streets/woods with others so be courteous to other users and watch out for bikes/dogs/horseriders.
Health – Full leg and torso cover is required in wooded areas due to ticks.
Privacy – when entering our events your name may appear in the results section of this website or in newspaper reports. Grampian Orienteers data privacy policy
Photography – In line with the policies of British Orienteering, the organisers of this event request that any person wishing to take photos or video showing children should register their details with event volunteers before taking any such photos or videos. The event organisers reserve the right to ask people to refrain from taking photos or video and may, if such warnings are ignored, refer the matter to the police.
Westhill Autumn Urban Sprint Wed 21st August Results
Results (updated 22/8/24)
RouteGadget – you can find out how close to optimum route you were
Apologies but I couldn’t get the map to load with the georef file produced by Condes but wanted to get something loaded asap for you to play with so you’ll have to tweak your trace manually.
BTW, RG now up for the last few Summer Series events too
Short – 3.0km (optimum route), 20m, 11 controls
Long – 5.0km (optimum route), 35m, 15 controls
Thankyou to Donald and Oonagh Grassie for kicking off the Urban Sprints on a blustery evening, David for computing and control collecting and thanks to everyone who came out to run (twice in one case – lesson learned, check you’ve got the right map).
Templars Park + BBQ 14/8 Summer Series Results
P.S. RouteGadget also loaded for recent events at Foggieton, Glen Dye and Duthie Park
Safety – A risk assessment will have been carried out by the organiser, but participants take part at their own risk and are responsible for their own safety during the event. We’ll be sharing parks/streets/woods with others so be courteous to other users and watch out for bikes/dogs/horseriders.
Health – Full leg and torso cover is required in wooded areas due to ticks.
Privacy – when entering our events your name may appear in the results section of this website or in newspaper reports. Grampian Orienteers data privacy policy
Photography – In line with the policies of British Orienteering, the organisers of this event request that any person wishing to take photos or video showing children should register their details with event volunteers before taking any such photos or videos. The event organisers reserve the right to ask people to refrain from taking photos or video and may, if such warnings are ignored, refer the matter to the police.
Duthie Park & Ferryhill 7/8 Summer Series Results
RouteGadget
Ultrasprint Loop 1
Ultrasprint Loop 2
Ultrasprint Loop 3
Yellow-ish
Long
Yellow-ish: 1.3km, 1:4000 map
Long “lotsa loops”: 2.7km, 1:4000 map
And, for something slightly different, we had “UltraSprints”:
3 loops (do as many or as few as you like, and please be prepared to recycle maps if everyone wants a go), each between 0.8 and 1.1km. The map is 1:4000, enlarged to 1:2000.
Do a loop, catch your breath as you download, clear your dibber and repeat….
Safety – A risk assessment will have been carried out by the organiser, but participants take part at their own risk and are responsible for their own safety during the event. We’ll be sharing parks/streets/woods with others so be courteous to other users and watch out for bikes/dogs/horseriders.
Health – Full leg and torso cover is required in wooded areas due to ticks.
Privacy – when entering our events your name may appear in the results section of this website or in newspaper reports. Grampian Orienteers data privacy policy
Photography – In line with the policies of British Orienteering, the organisers of this event request that any person wishing to take photos or video showing children should register their details with event volunteers before taking any such photos or videos. The event organisers reserve the right to ask people to refrain from taking photos or video and may, if such warnings are ignored, refer the matter to the police.
Glen Dye 31/7 Summer Series Results
The results are now complete.
Many thanks to Adrian for planning and to Ros, Hugh and David for helping collect controls.
Safety – A risk assessment will have been carried out by the organiser, but participants take part at their own risk and are responsible for their own safety during the event. We’ll be sharing parks/streets/woods with others so be courteous to other users and watch out for bikes/dogs/horseriders.
Health – Full leg and torso cover is required in wooded areas due to ticks.
Privacy – when entering our events your name may appear in the results section of this website or in newspaper reports. Grampian Orienteers data privacy policy
Photography – In line with the policies of British Orienteering, the organisers of this event request that any person wishing to take photos or video showing children should register their details with event volunteers before taking any such photos or videos. The event organisers reserve the right to ask people to refrain from taking photos or video and may, if such warnings are ignored, refer the matter to the police.
Foggieton 26/6 Summer Series Results
Safety – A risk assessment will have been carried out by the organiser, but participants take part at their own risk and are responsible for their own safety during the event. We’ll be sharing parks/streets/woods with others so be courteous to other users and watch out for bikes/dogs/horseriders.
Health – Full leg and torso cover is required in wooded areas due to ticks.
Privacy – when entering our events your name may appear in the results section of this website or in newspaper reports. Grampian Orienteers data privacy policy
Photography – In line with the policies of British Orienteering, the organisers of this event request that any person wishing to take photos or video showing children should register their details with event volunteers before taking any such photos or videos. The event organisers reserve the right to ask people to refrain from taking photos or video and may, if such warnings are ignored, refer the matter to the police.
Balmedie 19/6 Summer Series ***CANCELLED***
Sorry but we’ve had to cancel this event.
Safety – A risk assessment will have been carried out by the organiser, but participants take part at their own risk and are responsible for their own safety during the event. We’ll be sharing parks/streets/woods with others so be courteous to other users and watch out for bikes/dogs/horseriders.
Health – Full leg and torso cover is required in wooded areas due to ticks.
Privacy – when entering our events your name may appear in the results section of this website or in newspaper reports. Grampian Orienteers data privacy policy
Photography – In line with the policies of British Orienteering, the organisers of this event request that any person wishing to take photos or video showing children should register their details with event volunteers before taking any such photos or videos. The event organisers reserve the right to ask people to refrain from taking photos or video and may, if such warnings are ignored, refer the matter to the police.
Cove 12/6 Summer Series ***CANCELLED***
Sorry but we’ve had to cancel this event.
Safety – A risk assessment will have been carried out by the organiser, but participants take part at their own risk and are responsible for their own safety during the event. We’ll be sharing parks/streets/woods with others so be courteous to other users and watch out for bikes/dogs/horseriders.
Health – Full leg and torso cover is required in wooded areas due to ticks.
Privacy – when entering our events your name may appear in the results section of this website or in newspaper reports. Grampian Orienteers data privacy policy
Photography – In line with the policies of British Orienteering, the organisers of this event request that any person wishing to take photos or video showing children should register their details with event volunteers before taking any such photos or videos. The event organisers reserve the right to ask people to refrain from taking photos or video and may, if such warnings are ignored, refer the matter to the police.
Haddo Country Park 5/6 Summer Series Results
Many thanks to Dave Kirk for planning and to Alan Bennett & Bob Daly for helping collect controls and all who journeyed north to sample Haddo’s pot pourri of features – it’s amazing how much is packed into such a small area.
Westburn & Victoria Parks 29/5 Summer Series Results
Many thanks to Dennis for planning and to Dave K, Fiona, Sam & Joanna for helping collect the controls.
Safety – A risk assessment will have been carried out by the organiser, but participants take part at their own risk and are responsible for their own safety during the event. We’ll be sharing parks/streets/woods with others so be courteous to other users and watch out for bikes/dogs/horseriders.
Health – Full leg and torso cover is required in wooded areas due to ticks.
Privacy – when entering our events your name may appear in the results section of this website or in newspaper reports. Grampian Orienteers data privacy policy
Photography – In line with the policies of British Orienteering, the organisers of this event request that any person wishing to take photos or video showing children should register their details with event volunteers before taking any such photos or videos. The event organisers reserve the right to ask people to refrain from taking photos or video and may, if such warnings are ignored, refer the matter to the police.
Scottish Champs 2024
Well done to all the Gramps who ran at the Scottish Champs at Craig Leach and Roseisle over the weekend and big thanks to INVOC and MOR for staging two great events to test everyone both individually and as a team.
Individual
Fergus Gallagher 5th M12
Tim Griffin 7th M55L
Kevin Reynard 1st M55S
Dennis McDonald 11th M60L
Sam Gomersall 14th M60L
Bob Daly 16th M65L
Paul Duley 2nd M70L
Neil McLean 1st M80
Samantha McDonald 9th W16A
Fiona McDonald 10th W45L
Claire Gallagher 1st W45S
Joanna McDonald 1st Yellow
Relay
17+ points category
Gramp 1 5th – Tim, Claire, Sam
Gramp 2 8th – Malcolm Fisher (honorary Gramp for the day), Lesley, Kevin
20+ points category
Gramp 3 9th – David, Adrian, Bob
We lent Fergus to MAROC so he could get a run with the Marocees who came 8th in the Age 36- category. Thank you Emily and Dougal for welcoming him into your team.
Photographic evidence can be found on our Facebook page.
She’s a star!!
Have you seen the WOC 2024 trailer yet?
Email addresses
Are you receiving monthly newsletters from Zoe and information on event dates and officials from Paul?
These are sent, via a distribution list, to the email address we have registered in your membership details so if you’re not receiving these emails please
1. ask yourself if you’ve changed your email address in the last year or so and forgotten to tell us?
2. check your Spam folder
If the answer to 1 is “Oops! Yes, I did” then please email membership@grampoc.com with your new email address so we can update the records.
If the answer to 2 is “Aha! So that’s where they’ve been going!” please try to teach your email system to accept Zoe and Paul’s sender emails as valid so they’re unblocked.
If you’re not a member – yet 😉 – we still like to keep in touch with our drop-ins so you can subscribe to the Gramp website/blog using the link at the bottom of the home page and each time we post something new you’ll receive an email. 95% of posts are event-related so you won’t get swamped with “junk”.
On a related theme, you should be receiving regular email news from Scottish Orienteering too. If not then you can sign up to their newsletters here.
Balmedie Sun 12/5/24 Results
Many thanks go to Neil (Planner), Paul (Organiser) plus all the helpers and Drew Tivendale (Controller from MAROC) for putting on a great event today.
Templars Park 8/5 Forest Sprint + Yellow Results
Results
RouteGadget
Routes are going to look like spaghetti but the splits graph may make interesting reading for some. To access that use the red & white “Splitsbrowser” icon top right and select names of folk you want to compare. Ideally you’re looking for a pretty straight line diagonally showing you maintained concentration and effort evenly all the way round. Any sudden dips in gradient mean uh-oh!!
Congratulations to Tim G on shaking off his event weather jinx and organising a lovely warm spring evening for us to scamper round in circles. Thanks to Matthew and David for helping collect controls afterwards.
Tollohill 24/4 Forest Sprint Results
Many thanks to Lesley & Sam for planning and to Tim for helping collect the controls afterwards and David on keyboard.
Dunnottar Woods 10/4 Forest Sprint + Yellow Results
A fun event to kick off this year’s joint Forest Sprint Series with Maroc.
Courses provided by Ros, results by David, mud by this lovely spring weather we’ve been having.
AGM 2024 roundup, Gramp Champs and other successes
Click here for the full 2024 AGM minutes and reports. Or for those of you strapped for time here’s a summary of the headlines/highlights in no particular order:
- working around storm damaged areas and other limitations we still put on/assisted with 29 events in 2023 including our day at S6D in Moray, the GMC at Mar Estate and helped with the Scottish Universities Championships at Glen Dye. Gramps also took up/continued in posts as Mapping, Technical and Finance Directors for the Scottish 6 Days.
- started our celebrations of the club’s 50 year existence with a colour coded event at Balmedie in February and then our Club Dinner held at Park Café at Hazlehead Park in April. This was a fantastic success, where we invited many former members along to celebrate.
- the Gramp surplus is still keeping its head above water, largely thanks to the income generated by the GMC, and it was suggested that in light of higher current interest rates the club investigates a better deal on the savings account
- Ian, David and Zoe all indicated that they wish to step down/reduce their roles in some form next year and the club really needs to think about its future and how the members want it to be run. Orienteering membership/volunteering generally seems to be on a downturn sparked by numerous factors (including severe damage to prime forest areas making the sport less attractive to “trad” orienteers, lockdowns made many reassess their travel habits/environmental footprint, aging demographic etc.) so everything is pointing to the need for a major rethink.
- much discussion over finding and funding areas to map/extend. Tyrebagger, Scolty and Countesswells are all still closed while FLS carry out felling works and other privately owned areas are highly unlikely to be tackled in the next few years so the emphasis has been on urban areas such as a new map of Stonehaven. Pete is assisting the committee in identifying and applying for funds and it was suggested we could try crowd funding or similar. Any more ideas on areas or funds are always welcome…
- David Kirk reminded us that he is stepping down as GMC organiser and that if we’re going to put it on again in 2025 then approaches to estates need to be put in motion soon. Anyone wishing to find out more about what would be involved in taking this over should contact him directly.
We have 2 trophies, kindly donated by past members Margaret and Oliver Musgrave, and the Chairman’s Quaich which are awarded to members who have gone above and beyond in the service of the club in a variety of ways:
Musgrave Trophies
Neil Mclean – For truly outstanding results throughout the year (see above)
Ros Nicholson – For her Mapping duties. Not an easy gig at the best of times and she has really been putting in the hours investigating leads on possible new areas and building relationships with organisations like Haddo Country Park volunteers.
Chairman’s Quaich Zoe Griffin
Not only does she keep the Chairman in check, she organized the brilliant Club Dinner and also had the time to plan our day at Moray ’23 at Roseisle.
Gramp Champs 2023 Congratulations everyone!!
Junior Men – 1st Fergus Gallagher, 2nd Lennon Atchison
Senior Men – 1st Matthew Thompson, 2nd Lachlan Kirk, 3rd Calum McLeod
Veteran Men – 1st Julian Robinson, 2nd David Esson, 3rd Adrian Will
Super Veteran Men – 1st Ian Hamilton, 2nd Bob Daly, 3rd Dennis McDonald
Junior Women – 1st Samantha McDonald, 2ndOrla Gallagher, 3rd Joanna McDonald
Senior Women – None
Veteran Women – 1st Claire Gallagher, 2nd Emily Arthur
Super Veteran Women – 1st Oonagh Grassie, 2nd Lesley Gomersall, 3rd Helen Rowlands
Full Gramp Champs results to follow.
Jon Duncan Junior Deeside Cup
2nd Orla Gallagher W10
2nd Joanna McDonald W12
1st Samantha McDonald W14
1st Fergus Gallagher M10
3rd Logan Thompson M10
3rd Lennon Atchison M12
Other Successes
Scot Champs – 1st Neil Mclean plus 4 podiums
Scot Score – three 1sts – Tim Griffin, Bob Daley, Neil Mclean plus 9 podiums
SOL – two 1sts – Neil Mclean & David Esson plus 5 podiums
S6D – two 1sts – Sam Griffin & Neil Mclean – 7 podiums
Scottish Schools – 2nd Fergus Gallagher, 3rd Samantha MacDonald
Scottish Middle Champs – 3rd Tim Griffin plus 3 top 10s
JK – 5 top 10s
BOC – 3rd David Esson, 10th Duncan Grassie
DNC 22/23 – Ian Hamilton won best course + Helen Rowlands was 3rd Female + David Esson attended every event (6 years in a row)
DNC Glen Dye 14/2 Results
Thanks to everyone who ventured out in a rather misty Glen Dye tonight, Ros for planning, Hugh for helping collect controls, David for results and Rachel & Pete for checking the control tags were placed correctly (although the chance to use that as an excuse to swing by Finzean Farm Shop Tea Room may have been a big decider when they offered their help?) and guiding Ros through her first go at TD5 planning.
Don’t forget if you’re going to Tilquhillie next week and want to go to the meal and prize giving you need to let Andrew McMurtrie know your food choices asap. See the DNC Blog post for details.
GRAMPIAN ORIENTEERS 