Orienteering markers left in Wicklow mountains

loobylou

A few weeks ago I was coming down the Glenmacnass side of Scarr and came across one of those red/white flags used by orienteers in a reasonably remote place. No other flags around or evidence of an orienteering event so assumed it had been "forgotten".
Then last Saturday came across another one, at the coffin stone between Djouce and War Hill. Again no evidence of an event on so got to wondering, are these left in situ permanently? Is there a giant course set out through the mountains? Anyone else come across them?

Alun

I've seen plenty of them around and wondered the same thing.

Slogger Jogger

Could have been left (inadvertently) from an imra nav event. I'll check it with the race organiser and they'll be cleared if thats the case. Cheers for the heads up.

canon20

There is another one on the lefthand side of the large Brockagh mt.looking east down beside the fence.I think that they lose the grid bearing and cannot find them afterwards.

fergalr

loobylou wrote: »

A few weeks ago I was coming down the Glenmacnass side of Scarr and came across one of those red/white flags used by orienteers in a reasonably remote place. No other flags around or evidence of an orienteering event so assumed it had been "forgotten".

Its not safe to assume, in general, that just because theres no other ones nearby, that they aren't been used.

In large events, like the Rogaine, markers will be very well out of site from each other (sometimes by kilometers).


Maybe there was an event, and someone might have not bothered to collect them - could have happened, does happen from time to time. In general, its more likely that there's an event coming up.

canon20 wrote: »

There is another one on the lefthand side of the large Brockagh mt.looking east down beside the fence.I think that they lose the grid bearing and cannot find them afterwards.

That is very unlikely - orienteers are pretty good at finding things*, and generally, the grid references, or maps, have been given to a lot of people.

Seems much more likely to be some kind of administrative mess up, where each person thinks someone else brought that particular control in.

Could be lots of different groups putting out orienteering controls. Scouts use them, think the army use them on orienteering exercises too, dunno.

Alun

Slightly OT, but one thing that puzzles me about these markers is how easily visible they are from quite a long way away.

Maybe things have changed from when I was doing competitive orienteering (in England) back in the 70's (yes I am that old!) but then you'd barely know a marker was there until you were almost on top of it, and could be wandering around looking for it for ages when it was literally right under your nose.

fergalr

Alun wrote: »

Slightly OT, but one thing that puzzles me about these markers is how easily visible they are from quite a long way away.

Maybe things have changed from when I was doing competitive orienteering (in England) back in the 70's (yes I am that old!) but then you'd barely know a marker was there until you were almost on top of it, and could be wandering around looking for it for ages when it was literally right under your nose.

I think in proper orienteering, the rule of thumb is that if the orienteer has found the correct feature, the control should be easy to find. So, if its on a re-entrant (and the control description just says 're-entrant'), and the orienteer correctly identifies that re-entrant, then the orienteer shouldn't have to run around for too long looking for the control.
Because otherwise it would just come down to luck, and that's bad.

So I think the idea is to make them bright and visible, but put them somewhere they will easily be seen by an orienteer at the feature, but ideally not by an orienteer approaching the feature, some distance away.


However, if its a really long distance event, where the orienteers are using standard hill walking maps, the map features won't be nearly as detailed.

A re-entrant, or a spur, on such a map can cover quite a large area of ground.

You don't want a situation where 2 competitors identify the spur, but 1 finds the control 5 minutes before the other. So, in situations like this, they typically put markers in prominent locations, on the big feature - like on the top of a spur.
This can mean you can see the visible kite from quite a distance off - but its better than being on top of it, on the map, and frustratingly running around unable to find it!

So that might be what you are seeing out there.