With the holiday period now approaching, it’s a good time reflect on the past year. It has been another busy year for Interlopers.  You can read the highlights in the club’s Christmas newsletter, which has also been sent out as a printed round-up via snail-mail (if you haven’t already received it, it’ll be on its way shortly, or make sure the Club Secretary has your current address if you’ve moved!)

The World sprint Orienteering Championships (‘WOC’) held in Edinburgh in July were of course a highlight, with a very large number of club members involved one way or another.  Much more on that in the WOC Special Edition newsletter from August.  Then of course there were all the other competitions, also with plenty of INT success along the way, here and abroad.  This year also saw our first foray into some structured and focused club development work, with a project developed to win grant funding and enable more outreach activity than we would otherwise have managed. The support of both the Orienteering Foundation and the Scottish Orienteering Association has been much appreciated.  

The past six months have seen considerable effort around raising the profile of orienteering in Edinburgh via social media as well as with local partners including the Council, Cub scouts and Parkrunners at Holyrood and Vogrie – so a good few hundred or so people have now heard about orienteering who would not have otherwise! Our local Saturday events series went well too, with good participation levels and some quality courses.  Work has also gone into updating our Edinburgh permanent orienteering courses, with new maps available at Braidburn Valley Park, and a re-invigorated set in the pipeline for next year, following re-mapping and grant funding to replace and extend the set of marker posts.  There’s more club development work on the cards for 2025, as well as all the usual things in the orienteering we look forward to each year – whether out in the forest, exploring interesting urban areas, training together or catching up with each other at a club social.  

Our events programme has now concluded for the year, and dates for the next one will be published soon, with our first local open-to-all event at Craigmillar Castle Park on Saturday 1st March. 

Thanks to everyone who has volunteered their time and energy, in whatever way, to make Interlopers the fun, successful and thriving club it is!  Happy holidays to all, whether or not you’re orienteering at any of the Christmas / New Year events (good luck everyone entering the Christmas Cup!), and see you for more fun in 2025. 

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