If you are new to Orienteering or want to know more about the sport, the links below should be useful.
Category Archives: Resource
Colour Coded Courses
The table below lists the courses which are normally offered at Northern Ireland Colour Series Events. However if the terrain is particularly challenging the white course may not be available.
Club Colour events will usually offer fewer courses.
| Colour | Approx. Length | Description |
|---|---|---|
| White | 1-1.5 Km | along paths with few route choice decisions. Aimed at primary school aged newcomers. |
| Yellow | 1.2-2.5 km | along paths with more route choice decisions. Appropriate for newcomers and younger juniors with some experience. |
| Orange | 2.5-3.5 km | skills needed to navigate away from paths and more route choice decisions, some compass skills are expected. Aimed at novice adults and improving juniors. |
| Light Green | 3.0-4.0 km | this course requires confident map reading and basic compass skills. |
| Short Green | 3.5-4.5 km | this course is set at the highest technical difficulty but shorter to attract those who may struggle with a longer physical course. |
| Green | 4.0-5.0 km | technically and reasonably physically demanding course. |
| Blue | 5.5-7.0 km | technically and physically demanding course. |
| Brown | 6.5-9.5 km | technical and very physically demanding course. |
Please note that the estimated distances are measured along straight lines between the control points. These lines will almost never be possible routes on the ground. In practice runners may cover 50% to 75% greater distance than the quoted “course length”. Combining this extra distance with the rough terrain running on the top courses means that winning times will be much longer that those for road or cross country races of the “equivalent” distance.
Control Description Symbols
See link below for a handy reference card for all the special symbols used for orienteering control descriptions:
events_2004iofcontroldescriptionsymbols