This weekend’s orienteering

Sorry, folks, but there’s only Night-O on locally this weekend: Setanta’s “Dublin by Night” #3, near Ashford in Co. Wicklow (!) on Saturday evening, 26th January. There will be two courses (Long = 4.4 km, Short = 2.5 km) plus a novice course of 1.7 km open to all ages.  Details of there event are here. Start times 6 pm to 7.30 pm.

Last Saturday evening’s DBN event at Carrickgollogan stayed away from the crags and boulder fields of the Scalp and instead brought us onto the ridge between the Lead Mines chimney (the longest chimney in Ireland) and the open rocky cone of Carrickgollogan (or ” Kattie Gallagher” as the locals call it) itself. A bit like Trooperstown Hill, it has views which are our of proportion to its height: the Sodium lights twinkled all the way from Bray to Howth, from  swerve of shore to bend of bay, but unfortunately we were up to our knees in a heady cocktail of furze bushes and snow and views were the last thing on anyone’s mind. Carefully down the icy rocky paths with  metal-studded O-shoes click-clicking ahead, steam rising in the headlight, glasses fogging up … the Night-O experience!

Conor Short again won the Long course with 3ROC’s Eoin McCullough, Ger Butler and John McCullough taking 3rd, 4th and 5th, and Kevin Cunningham 4th on the Short course.