Scottish 6 Days 2025
Deeside
SC6 2025 Day 5 QO Contingency
Over 23 QO competitors took part in the Scottish 6 days 2025 in Deeside. There were also friends and family members that came along to support us.
The event, as always, was brilliantly organised, with great facilities and parking that wasn’t too distant. A great time was had by all and we were blessed with fantastic weather.
Credit: Mark Goddard
Following day 4, we had a social gathering at the Scott Skinners Restaurant and Bar in Banchory. They did us proud and we had a great evening.
Our thanks go to the Fieldhouse / Mudd contingency for bringing along and setting up the tent and banner each day. It was really great to have a base and a debrief at the end of some very tough orienteering.
QO buddies, you all made my trip up to Scotland the most enjoyable yet. See you at the next event.
Day 1, 27th July Glen Feardar East (thanks to Andy Rimes for the write up)
In a most atypical fashion for this bi-annual event (given it's summer- in Scotland), day1 dawned bright, sunny and warm at Glen Feardar between Braemar and Balmoral. The event arena was in an open area of fields with stunning views of the surrounding Cairngorm hills. Organisation today and throughout was exemplary as one would expect of this event which has been running for many years now with the major roles actually salaried full-time positions. A short walk (by some standards) of about 800m to the start area gave some indication of things to come with a large hill dominating the start, part wooded and open. Inevitably, having watched many course starters, begin their courses by a comfortable level traverse following a wall, mine began with a short but very steep climb to #1 straight up the open hillside to a deviously concealed crag amongst boulders and scree- not a nice start but without any navigational difficulty. The open terrain areas which were to become a feature on all subsequent days were a mixture of deep heather, bilberry and bracken with or without hidden mossy stones and boulders where it was very easy to fall or twist ankles etc so fast running (at least for anyone without Fieldhouse in their name and older than 30) was out of the question if you wanted to survive the week. This did allow better concentration on the technical navigation required as the courses were planned to maximize the technical difficulty in very complex ground with much contour and point feature detail.
As it transpired, the difficult nature of the terrain, combined with first day caution, and three days of hillwalking in the Southern highlands, enabled me to get round in a pretty reasonable time and position (top third in class) with nothing in the way of any significant errors: so, a good start to the week. Other QO contenders enjoyed varying levels of success and enjoyment on their various courses which were discussed at length during post-race socialising in the very nice new QO club tent (little Somerset).
Day#2 was back here again using the western part of the mapped area, untouched today, and another long event
Day 2, 28th July Glen Feardar East (thanks to Martin Fieldhouse for the write up)
Tough terrain was the order of the day, 2.2km before the start, over rocks, heather, and sphagnum moss in blankets, uphill, traversing steep slopes and avoiding being consumed by deep holes!, no paths to jog on, only the odd elephant track to lead you astray.
My highlight was nearly breaking my leg down a 3foot hole, going flat on my face and losing my boot at elbows depth, at the same instant my son Adam said from behind 'come on, getup , Dad, that's no way to get around, you need to keep moving!.
Some very tricky controls, I looked at at least 10 big rocks at one point. Overall, a big challenge but also satisfaction in meeting the difficulties.
Day 3, 29th July Creag Choinnich (middle distance) (thanks to Mark Goddard for the write up)
Day 3 saw the event move on to Creag Choinnich to the East of Braemar. A small but technical area providing lots of climb and route choice to avoid it, with a mix of mature woodland and rough open. Not to mention more heather to wade through. Again, the sun shone making for great conditions both on the course and in the arena and with 27 courses, the controls were packed in tight. This required some precise and confident navigation to avoid being drawn off point by a rogue but inviting kite. Twenty one of QO's finest from the youngest to the oldest members took on the challenge across 14 of the courses. Ollie Lewis providing a 1st place to add to the collection from day 2 and Robert Fieldhouse taking the sprint finish 1st place with 17 seconds. A well-deserved rest awaited the following day, for those that didn't take on the Ballater sprint.
Day 4, 31st July Balfour Forest (Karen’s write up)
Day 4 was a long distance event in Balfour Forest (middle distance for the Elite). The walk to the start was not too bad from car park B. The start was on a forest track. This, as far as I was concerned, was my most trying day. There wasn’t the boulder / hidden rocks hazard from previous days but there were brashings and fallen or felled trees criss-crossing the area. There was also a great deal of high heather that was extremely hard work to get through. I did not have any navigational issues, just physical challenges. The control description for number 3 had me foxed (not had that one before). I cannot do a write without mentioning the wall we had to cross. I could not for the life of me get over said wall and I am sure, if it had been captured, it would have made humorous footage. My mount and dismount was not elegant to say the least and unfortunately, I found out on day 5 – it was witnessed (YIKES).
Ollie took another 1st on his course today and for 21E - Adam Fieldhouse 38th and Robin 41st (less than a minute between them) did extremely well.
Day 5, 1st August Glen Dye (thanks to Ray Toomer for the write up)
The final day was a Long Distance event in Glen Dye. Everyone was hoping for less arduous terrain than had been encountered earlier in the week and on most courses that seemed to be the case, with a distinct lack of thigh high (for me) heather. Although underfoot was slightly less tricky, navigation was not straightforward, and most people got caught out at least once. The final few controls were in the area that was particularly problematic with lots of common features and many controls in close proximity. The refrain of the day in the after-race postmortem was “I was on the wrong mound”. Some QOers had struggled with various injuries throughout the week but at close of play everyone was walking and smiling, a testament to our warrior spirit.
Highest placed QO runner on the day was Ollie Lewis (2nd ) and with his Overall Position of 1st in class he deserves a round of applause. Well done Ollie!
The weather held up marvelously again to round off a dry and fulfilling week – how lucky we were.