Site Name: Avondale Forest Park

Location: Rathdrum, Co Wicklow

Click to view the Recreation site

All you need is:
Comfortable clothes that you don’t mind getting dirty
Walking or running shoes
A waterproof jacket if the forecast is poor

Not essential but may be useful:
A compass
A safety whistle (this will be compulsory if you attend a competitive event)
A plastic zip lock bag for your map to keep it dry

What’s Next?
Now you need to decide whether you will undertake the short (750m), medium (3km) or long (4km) course?  Then download and print your map through the links below:

Short Course  Medium Course  Long Course

Your control descriptions are all printed on your map.

The Map

For the short course, the map scale is 1:2,500 - that means that 1cm on the map represents 25m on the ground.

For the longer courses, the map scale is 1:7500 - that means that each centimetre of map represents 75metres on the ground. 

Try to identify some large features, can you find the car park?  The triangle symbol indicates the start of the course and the double circles indicate the end.  The start and finish are often in the same place.Work your way through the legend and try to identify the various roads, tracks and paths on the map.  Did you notice that black features on the map are made of rock or are man made, such as stone walls?  Brown features are made of earth, blue features represent water.  Now have a look at the contours, where are the steep parts?  Will you begin your course going up hill or downhill?  

It’s time to go orienteering!
Beginning at the triangle symbol, rotate your map so that the features on the ground and on the map are aligned, this is called “setting” your map.  You can use your compass to do this if you have one.   At each control point, you will find a wooden stake with a plaque on it depicting the international orienteering symbol and an alpha numerical code.  As you go around the course, you need to write the code on each plaque into the appropriate control box on the right hand side of your map.  When you finish the course, you can check your answers against the answer sheet linked here, but no cheating!

HAVE YOU BEEN BITTEN BY THE ORIENTEERING BUG?
Why not try a local orienteering event?  For a list of clubs and events in your area, check out www.orienteering.ie Everyone is welcome to come along to an event, most of which are run in a colour coded scheme.  White courses are the easiest (1.5km long with very simple navigation) and brown the hardest (7.5km+ in length and very difficult navigation) with 6 more steps in between.