What is Orienteering?

Orienteering is an exciting and challenging sport that combines running with navigation. The aim is to navigate between marked point on a map at different levels of difficulty to suit your ability and age. At competitive levels of orienteering, the aim to to complete the course in the fastest possible time.

Is it for me?

Orienteering will bring you to exciting new places throughout Ireland that are both off the beaten track and in parklands. You can take part and walk the course to simply enjoy the surroundings, or you can take up the challenge at some of our competitive levels to push yourself even further. We have orienteers in Ireland who range in age from eight to ninety, and we also provide some Trail-O events where people of all levels of physical ability.

How do I start?

You can also try orienteering at one of the Permanent Orienteering Courses around the country, use MapRun (a phone based app), or can join one of our clubs located throughout the country. Events run year round across the country, with different types of terrain on offer to offer unique challenges to each event.

You can also find more information in our How to Start Orienteering from our FAQ, while we also offer an Intro to Orienteering course twice a year to help you on your way to learning more about our sport.