Scottish 6 Days, Highland
2nd - 8th August 2015
Highland 2015 has finished! Thank you to everyone who entered – we hope you enjoyed the experience of watching the world’s best in action, and the opportunity to compete in the same forests.
We think we broke our attendance record – over 6000 entered for the week. This inevitably put some pressure on our largely volunteer organisation and we would like to thank everyone involved for the enormous effort they made to stage the event during their holidays. We would also like to thank the WOC organising team for staging a fantastic World Championships. It made Highland 2015 a unique experience for everyone who attended.
We had a few logistical challenges. Running a major sporting event in a Highland Glen at the end of an 8km single track with no communications isn’t easy. We would like to thank the volunteers who stepped in to help at the last minute. And we would like to apologise to anyone who was delayed by traffic or had to walk further than expected. Hopefully being able to run in unique world class terrain made it worthwhile.
The Scottish 6 Days will be back in Royal Deeside from 30th July to the 5th August. We would love to see you there. Please look out for further details on the Scottish 6 Days 2017 website.
Richard Oxlade - Central Organising Team
Anne Hickling - Scottish 6 Day Company
The Scottish 6 Days Orienteering event (“the 6-Days”) is a biennial event, first held in 1977, and taking place in a different area of Scotland each time. It is the largest orienteering event in the UK. The competition is designed to provide the highest quality orienteering over the week, in a relaxed holiday atmosphere, and aims to appeal to all ages and skill levels, from elite athletes to newcomers.
The 2015 event is being staged in conjunction with the World Orienteering Championships (WOC 2015), and is based around Inverness, with three of the days in Moray and the other three in the glens SW of Inverness. The venues for this year have been chosen to allow competitors to experience orienteering on World Championship areas and to have the opportunity to spectate at WOC2015 events.
Pre-entry closed at midnight on Tuesday 30 June
Event Centre
Eden Court
Registration for the Scottish 6 Days (as well as the WOC office) will be established at Eden Court, and this venue and adjacent facilities will be available for Team Officials’ Meetings and IOF Conference.
There will be a pick up and drop off point for event buses from the Event Centre.
The Areas
The areas being used will provide a wide variety of terrain, ranging from ancient Caledonian Forest to open moorland, birch and beech woodland, and complex moraine areas. This year, Scottish 6 Days competitors will also be able to compete in urban events. These events will not, however, count towards their overall scores for the 6-Days.
Location map
The area being used on Day 2, Glen Strathfarrar, is also new to orienteering, and gives a unique opportunity to orienteers to sample this beautiful glen, where car access is normally very limited.
Days 3 and 4 are being held at Darnaway Forest, seat of the Earls of Moray for many centuries. This extensive, well-managed forest has a mixture of woodland types on rolling terrain above the River Findhorn.
The final two days (5 and 6) will take place in Glen Affric, often described as the most beautiful glen in Scotland, whose forest is a mix of pine, birch and oak trees, set amongst mountains and moorland.
Apart from the Elite classes, for each competitor the best 4 races out of 6 will count towards their overall score for the Scottish 6 Days. For the Elite classes, however, the combined times over all 6 days will count in order to decide the winner.
Event Team
The Scottish 6 Days (S6D) would not happen but for the army of volunteers involved, just as with all UK orienteering events. The volunteers for S6D mostly come from Scottish orienteering clubs, with two lead clubs forming the Central Organising Team (COT), and other clubs providing organisers, planners, controllers and helpers for the individual days.
The COT gradually plans and shapes the event over the preceding three years. For Highland 2015 there has been the extra challenge, for core members of the COT, of working closely together with core members from the World Orienteering Championships (WOC) team. This has been enjoyable and challenging but a lot of work.
In 2015, more non-Scottish clubs than usual are providing volunteers to support the S6D day teams as the usual volunteer pool of Scottish club members is depleted due to a significant number being involved directly with WOC.
A small number of volunteers will put in a huge amount of work over the 3 years in advance of the S6D Event but the highest number of volunteers working at any one time is during the week itself. About 120 volunteers, from a combination of the COT and the individual day team are required each day for a wide range of jobs in the race arenas, parking fields, string courses, starts and marshalling road crossings. Almost all of these volunteers also run every day. The logistics are challenging to say the least.
This year, instead of a Rest Day there will be a Festival of Orienteering (the O-Fest). This, as well as the Forres Open Sprint and the Social Programme, involves another battalion of volunteers. Needless to say, many of the same volunteers, from COT and other forest days, are also helping at these extra events. There is much doubling-up!
More support is always welcome, and if you would like to help during the event please contact Margaret Dalgleish, Scottish 6 Days Day Coordinator:
Margaret, and the rest of the S6D Central Organising Team would like to extend a huge thank-you to all the volunteers. The event could not exist without your support.Thank-you!
Volunteers are not paid, not because they are worthless, but because they are priceless.