New Lochaber Orienteering Hub

A SOA development initiative in Lochaber, linked to last summer’s 6-day event, has recently led to the formation of a new orienteering hub with an objective to facilitate wider opportunities for participation in orienteering in the Lochaber area. An enthusiastic group of interested locals met in Glencoe in January and agreed to work together under the umbrella of nearby club EckO to move plans forward. With strong support from EckO CDO, Jan Kersel, the hub is set to host its first event at Glencoe Lochan on Sunday 10th April.

The event on the 10th will be an informal ‘Come & Try It’ style event, especially welcoming to newcomers, which it is hoped will interest other local folk in getting more involved with the sport. Alongside the event, other opportunities for orienteering participation have also been created in the area with preparation of “Permanent” Virtual courses, using MapRun, at both Glencoe Lochan and Kinlochleven. Kinlochleven Active Schools has also been running a series of after-school orienteering sessions this term, with support from one of the drivers of the new hub, Chris Vind. A Facebook Group ‘Lochaber Orienteering’ has been set up by Laura Henshall as a place to promote and discuss opportunities for the sport in the area.

It is fantastic to see the development of the hub to this stage, in such a short period of time, and we hope that it is just the start of something bigger and sustainable that will grow the sport within the north west of Scotland and Lochaber area in particular.

Information about the event at Glencoe Lochan is available from the EckO website and pre-entry is strongly encouraged to reduce organisational effort on the day.