Just a quick look at what is coming up for the Summer of 2007 -
1) We have our usual Thursday evening events for May and we will be trying out a new type of orienteering called 'Parks Orienteering' for June and July. We will be holding these events at new locations in Cork City.

2) Shamrock 3 Day event. Cork Orienteering Club are holding their bi-annual 'Shamrock' 3-day event near Bantry in West Cork on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of June. For more info and entries, check out this link  http://www.corko.net/shamrock
The official closing date is Wednesday, the 2nd of May with increased fees for entries after that date. If you are interested, send them a mail.

Just a quick look at what is coming up in the Spring of 2007....

BOC Sunday Events........We have an event every Sunday from now until the end of April. As well as the usual locations, we will be introducing 3 new areas in April. Knockawaddra Wood has only just been recently mapped and this will be the first orienteering event at this location. It is located just off the Clonakilty to Dunmanway road in West Cork. The 2nd area sees a return to Rathbarry but this time to Long Strand beach and the sand dunes there. This dune complex is about 1 km long and makes a nice contrast to orienteering in the woods. This again has only recently been mapped and is the only orienteering event in Cork that uses sand dunes for an event. And the 3rd new area is Slieveowen Wood near Coppeen in West Cork, about 45 minutes from Cork City.

Ballyhoura 2 Day...........This annual 2 day event is coming up in mid March in the very scenic Ballyhoura mountains in South County Limerick. These events used to take 75 minutes to get to from Cork city but now that the new Fermoy bypass is open, the journey time from the City should be about the hour mark.

Leinster Championships...........These are on the 1st of April. This year they are on in County Wexford which should be less than a 3 hour drive from Cork. Location to be decided. This event is pre-entry so look out for details in February.

Irish Orienteering Championships..........This year they are on at the end of April up in Fermanagh. Again, it is pre-entry so anyone planning to make the long trip up should keep a lookout for entry forms from February onwards.

Receipt from the Cork Children's Leukaemia Association.

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Bishopstown OC held a special event on Sunday, the 17th of September in Doneraile Forest Park to raise funds for the Cork Children's Leukaemia Association. The event was in memory of Cliona Callanan who was a former member of BOC and sadly passed away last year. All proceeds from the event and additional donations were given to the CCLA.
Information on the Cork Children's Leukaemia Association can be found at : http://www.cla.ie
The day turned out to be a great success with over 200 people taking part and in excess of €2,300 was collected. Thanks to everyone who turned up and donated.

Sean Cotter of BOC presenting the money collected to the Callanan family

The new fixtures list for Bishopstown Orienteering Club is now up on the website. We have an event nearly every week between the start of September to the end of July 2007. The new season gets going again with an event in Rostellan Wood in East Cork on the 9th of September. Note that this is on Saturday, not Sunday. This is followed a week later with an event on Sunday, the 17th of September in Doneraile Park. This really is a very nice spot with some magnificient trees from the old estate in a superb setting. This is one you should really try to get to.
As well as having all the usual regular spots for 2006/7, we also have a number of new locations. We have 2 new areas near Rathbarry near Clonakilty, very close to Castlefreke castle. Rathbarry is a very quaint little village and was a county winner of the Tidy Towns competition a few years ago. We have one event in Rathbarry Woods and one in the sand dunes on Long Strand which should be good. Staying in the same general area, we have 2 other new areas with Knockawaddra near the Clonakilty / Dunmanway road and Slieveowen near Coppeen.
In 2007, we will be trying a new format for the evening events. For the months of April and May, we will have our usual evening events with a choice of 2 courses. For the Summer months of June and July, we are introducing a new style of event called 'Parks Orienteering'.  These will be held in the Lee Fields, the Marina Park near Pairc Ui Chaoimh, the Glen Amenity Park, Curraheen, Murphy's Farm in Curraheen and in Clashduv Park in Togher. As an introduction, we will be holding a 'Parks Orienteering' event on Wednesday, the 27th of December if you want to see what it is like.

Cork City Council have recently announced the launch of 3 additional Permanent Orienteering courses. The first one in the Glen Amenity Park was launched some time back.  Now, the addition of these 3 new courses brings the total to 4. These couses are ideal for families, groups or individuals who would like to try orienteering in their own time. Maps and course details are available free of charge to the general public. Just call into Abbey Court House on Georges Quay and look for the Sports and Community Facilities Development Officer (SDO) on Floor 1.

The courses are described as follows on the Cork City Council website............"Following on from a successful number of introductory sessions to orienteering in the Glen Amenity Park- Cork City Council’s first permanent orienteering course, an additional three courses have been marked out for use by the general public, schools, youth groups, clubs etc. in the City. Information packs and maps are available free of charge from the Recreation, Amenity and Culture Dept. For further information or to receive maps contact 021-4924741. The three additional locations are Clashduv Park - Togher, Murphys Farm Park - Bishopstown and The Marina Park next to Pairc Ui Chaoimh."

If you visit their webpage at http://www.corkcity.ie/ourservices/rac/sports/recent_events.shtml, you will also see links to the 4 maps which you can download in PDF format. Note that they are a little on the large size (330kB - 850kB) and may take a few minutes to download unless you are using broadband.