On Saturday 30 April people from all over the country are set to navigate their way to an exciting weekend of orienteering in Shropshire. British Orienteering and West Midlands Orienteering Association will be holding the British Orienteering Championships over two days on Brown Clee in the rural English county of Shropshire.  Brown Clee is in the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, making this a perfect setting for all to enjoy.

Orienteering is an outdoor sport whose aim is to navigate in sequence between control points using a map and compass, deciding on the best route to complete the course in the quickest time. It does not matter how young, old or fit you are because, as competition is divided into age classes, orienteering is for everyone.  Brown Clee is an ideal venue for orienteering as it comprises an elongated hill with two summits covered by woodland of varying age, runnability and complexity, plantations, rough open, marshy areas and exposed moorland.  There are well defined networks of paths, rides and tracks in some areas while mining on the two summits, old earthworks, pits, spoil heaps and parallel stream valleys and re-entrants have left tricky contour detail.

The Championships will feature the Long Distance event on Saturday (30 April) and is hoped to attract the UK’s top orienteers as they aim to compete to become the 2016 British Champion.  Sunday 1 May will see the Relay Championships taking place with reams of top orienteers vying to take home the trophies.

Sally Pygott from British Orienteering said, “We welcome spectators at the event and we will be providing taster courses, a Maze course and Xplorer activity over the weekend so that local people can try the sport for themselves. As a beginner you need no navigation experience and we have courses to suit all fitness levels. We encourage all to come and enjoy in the fun.”

Plase note: We regret that dogs are not allowed anywhere on the estate, including the car park.

For further information about the event please visit the event website.

For further information about the sport of orienteering please visit the British Orienteering website.

Item posted by Jennie Taylor, Marketing Manager.