Venue Castlewellan – Forest Park
Date Sat, 25th Jun 22
Starts 11:00 to 13:00
iCal file iCal
Event Description
This event is Day 2 of the Tollymore Festival of Orienteering which includes the Dundrum Urban race on Friday, camping at Tollymore and a BBQ after this race on Saturday and fun score and other activites on Sunday. For full details see the Festival page here
There are 8 courses to choose from for all ages and abilities.
White, TD1, and Yellow, TD2, are for junior orienteers and will stick to linear features, such as paths and fences.
Orange, TD3, is for improving adults and juniors – the use of a compass will be advantageous. There will be a good bit of route choice taking you away from paths and other linear features.
Light Green, TD4, is suitable for adults and Juniors who are comfortable taking and running on a bearing, so compass skills are expected.
Short Green, Green, Blue and Brown Courses are of the highest Technical Difficulty, TD5, so only suitable for experienced orienteers.
- Brown course 8.6 km
- Blue course 6.8 km
- Green course 5.0 km
- Short Green 3.2 km
- Light Green 3.4 km
- Orange 3.0 km
- Yellow 2.3 km
- White 1.7 km
Terrain notes and safety:
Castlewellan Forest Park is dominated by the park’s centrally located lake, the eastern end of which is mainly typical parkland with scattered mature trees, the forest carpark and visitor centre, and a large campground.
Most of the competition terrain will be in mixed hardwood/conifer forest that surrounds the lake and the hill of Slievenaslat. Large areas of the forest have recently been cleared and patches of rhododendron have been removed.
Remaining areas of forest are of good general run ability although there are many areas of undergrowth (brambles, nettles etc) especially along path edges and plantation margins.
Full leg cover is therefore highly recommended.
Castlewellan is a busy park which we will share with walkers, dog walkers, horse riders, cyclists and slow moving vehicles. Please give way to other park users. There is an extensive path/track network including many mountain bike trails – which we expect to be busy. Courses have been planned to avoid as much as possible the mountain bike trails although it is expected that runners will at times cross or use the tracks for short distances – please use extreme caution and be courteous to other forest users avoiding stopping, slowing or startling the riders. There are also kayakers and stand up paddle boarders, if you startle them, you are well off route – keep away from deep water!
Map: 1:10,000 with 5m contour intervals for all courses except for Yellow and White which is 1:4000 with 2.5m contour interval. The map was professionally updated during spring 2022. Descriptions will be in text on the map for Yellow and White.
How to get there:
Castlewellan Forest Park is located in the town of Castlewellan and the forest park is sign posted from the Main Street. From the direction of Clough, turn right at the start of the main street and follow the signs for the forest. From the direction of Kilcoo, drive nearly the full length of the main street and the park entrance is on the left.
Parking: Car parking and download will be in the main Car Park in Castlewellan Forest Park. There is a cost of £5 per car. Please allow 10 mins to get to the Start from the main carpark.
Toilets/facilities: There are toilets situated at the car park and the cafe is open. Adjacent to the car park is the Peace Maze, made up of 600 yew trees with a path length of over 3km. So if you didn’t get lost enough on your run, why not try this without the aid of a map. I’d advise not doing this before your run in case you can’t get out in time for your start! The mountain bike trail head and pump track is also next to situated beside the car park.
Entry: To enter this event and/or book camping and BBQ tickets click the entry button below
Location
Castlewellan – Forest Park
Forest Park View
Castlewellan
BT31 9BU
Volunteers
To volunteer at this event please email volunteer@lvo.org.uk. You can find information on each role here as well as the current list of volunteers.