1. Find a great area No surprise here but this can be surprisingly difficult even in Scotland. As Dave Chapman says in his report we initially looked at the Trossachs in summer 2023 but rewilding and unrelenting steep slopes were always going to make this a very tough area. We knew the area to the east (home of the Stuch A’ Chroin hill race) was more runnable, likely to be drier and had potential event centre locations previously used for the Scottish 6 Days orienteering event. It looked promising but it was deer stalking country.

2. Get permission This is never easy but we were lucky. The area is a gem with its great mix of terrain and the Drummond estate is at the heart of it. Fortunately Strathearn is a small community and local orienteers Allan Downie & Grant Carstairs were able to help Dave with contacts. Michael Aldridge and the Drummond Estate team (especially Head Stalker Alastair Chalmers) were incredibly helpful even though the event would have an impact on them as it would be at the start of hind stalking. As a bonus they also let us use the fields at the heart of the estate for the overnight campsite. Dave & the team did a great job of also getting permission to use the fields at Dundurn for the Event Centre and all the pieces started falling into place.