Wednesday 24/09/2025 – Evening MapRun – The Dowards 2025

Extensive Forestry England and Woodland Trust deciduous forest, with some conifer plantations, on the slopes up the the Dowards from the river Wye, with an extensive network of tracks and residential lanes around the top of Great Doward, and running down its Eastern slopes into Symonds Yat West.

The going is generally very good, with little in the way of undergrowth on any of the footpaths. The lanes are most extremely quiet, serving no more than a handful of houses scattered through the woodland and adjacent fields.

Comprising two main hills in a fairly narrow bend of the Wye, you can expect more than average climbing and descending, but the course is designed to allow those unable to manage this still to garner a decent score around the higher levels of Great Doward.

Starts from 18:00 to 18:30. As evenings are starting to draw in a little, we have reverted to our more typical 18:00-18:30 start window. You will, however, be able to start from about 17:30, or earlier, as the organiser will be there and ready to let people start by then. If you are likely to be late arriving please let us know in advance. Note that the cafe will not stay open very late, so do try and run early so that you have time to support them.

A head torch is advisable as there is extensive tree cover, but shorts are fine.

To guarantee a map, you will need to pre-enter via Fabian4: entries are open, and will stay open until midnight on Tuesday 23rd September. A few extra maps will be available for entry on the day, but don't rely on this, and ideally bring cash, although we do now have an available card reader.

Entry fees: £5 seniors, plus £1 for unaffiliated (to British Orienteering) runners, £2 juniors (no added fee for unaffiliated juniors). Competitors aged under-16 must be accompanied. The fee covers third party liability insurance, a map printed on waterproof paper, and post-run cake!

This is a 60 minute score event using the MapRun app.

The Start and Finish are adjacent to parking.

• Checkpoints 1-10 are worth 10 points.

• Checkpoints 11-20 are worth 20 points.

• Checkpoints 21-30 are worth 30 points.

Score as many points as you can in 60 minutes. If you’re late getting back, there’s a 10 point penalty per minute over.

You'll be issued with a waterproof map, A4, scale 1:10,000, before you start.

Please make sure you’ve installed MapRun before the event. If installing MapRun for the first time, select the MapRun app from your app store, and not MapRunF or MapRun6. MapRun, which is in practise Maprun v7, is now the standard app. If you haven’t used MapRun before, don’t worry – it’s easy to use, and we have full details on getting started.

You should download the course to your phone ideally before coming to the event, as sometimes there is little or no phone signal once there.

You can download the course by scanning this QR code

 or by tapping this link on your MapRun phone, or by using the Select Event button in MapRun and navigating to the UK/Gloucestershire/Current Series folder.

MapRunG (Garmin) and MapRunA (Apple) users: you do not need the event PIN number to download the course to your watch. This means you can download the course before your arrive at the event, in case there is no phone signal there.

Under 16s may run the course unaccompanied, but under 14s should be accompanied. The roads are very quiet, but narrow, so traffic will be moving slowly, but runners must get off the road if a vehicle approaches.

Some paths are very 'gnarly' roots and rocks abound, so great care is needed in some places. If you are late starting it would be wise to run the woodland controls first, whilst there is some light, but in any case take particular care in fading light.

A first aid kit will be available at registration.

Orienteering is an adventure sport, and you are responsible for your own safety.