Christmas Orienteering Cup

Quality Areas and Good Courses in Central Scotland from Masterplan Adventure

2025

Welcome to the 5th edition of the Christmas Cup! We’re are hopeful to get permissions to present you with some newly mapped forest areas. You can expect tough orienteering of the highest technical standard. The new areas are a further part of Loch Ard Forest.

Final Details

Final Details Download

Results

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Winsplits

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Livelox

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Programme

Monday 29th December – Day 1 – Arndrum Hill
Tuesday 30th December – Day 2 – Drumore Wood (South)
Wednesday 31st December – Day 3 – Drumore Wood (North)

Courses

Long – D1 – 4.5km, D2 – 4.3km, D3 – 7.5km
Medium – D1 – 3.5km, D2 – 3.2km, D3 – 5.0km
Short – D1 – 2.5km, D2 – 2.2km, D3 – 3.4km
Orange – There will be an orange course each day – a 45min score with some easy controls and some harder ones from the more technical courses. Find as many as you can within the time limit. There are too few line features for a normal Orange. A safety bearing will be provided and there should be plenty of other runners around.

Day 1 – By Loch Ard standards, this is a fast area, with open woods on the higher ground, and low-viz but clean underfoot on the lower slopes. Navigation mainly by compass and contour, with a little bit of mazy young tree green for variety. There’s no advantage in bailing out to the paths, because there are none.

Day 2 & 3 – Note on course lengths – despite the beautiful terrain, times will be slow. The nice woodland occurs in patches separated by open and semi-open terrain and large seasonal marshes, all of which are much tougher, with deep heather and tussocks. Short and Medium courses will avoid these as much as possible.

On day 3, 7.5km and 5km will feel like a long way! You may opt to enter a shorter course just on day 3. We may be able to accommodate a limited number of people dropping-down at the last minute, depending on spare maps. There will be a strict, early course closing time to allow for the difficulty of carrying out a search-and-rescue in limited daylight.

IMPORTANT – There will be a longer-than-usual distance between parking at Aberfoyle and assembly areas. Up to 3km, which will add to the toughness of each day (the route is however an easy bike ride, and drivers should be able to drop off passengers 1.5km closer before returning to the car park).