Event overview

Welcome to the 2026 British Night Orienteering Championships, a Major event.

More details will be added to this page as they become available. Final details will be available on 1 February 2026. Any changes after that will be marked in red and summarised here; for critical changes all entrants will be informed by email.

Saturday 7 February 2026

Competitors must have headtorch and spare, whistle, plus appropriate clothing for the weather conditions eg cagoules may be compulsory. There will be a kit check on leaving the event centre field.

The event starts from 18:16 to approximately 19:45, allocated for all classes based on rankings. We aim to have the prizegiving at about 21:30.

Event Location

Egypt Woods, near Beaconsfield Buckinghamshire.

The Event Centre will be based near Beaconsfield SL1 8PH. There is good motorway access from M25, M40 or M4 and public transport links to Beaconsfield or Slough. Heathrow airport is half an hour's drive. There are many options for  accommodation and food in the area. We plan to have the usual catering van(s) in the event centre.

Terrain

Egypt Woods is a mixed commercial woodland on either side of a broad valley, with a variety of contour features. It is mostly very runnable, though with bracken and brashings in some areas. There are relatively few paths, and at night, many of them will be less distinct.

The later part of courses will be in Hangings Wood and Jennings Wood, which are steeper sided, with a narrow field separating the two.

Note that the published embargoed area is slightly too large; we will not be using the Southern part.

Map

Pre-marked maps for all courses on waterproof paper. For a previous event see Routegadget.

Control descriptions will be on the map, there are no loose descriptions.

Area remapped 2025 by Simon Errington using LiDAR data. Map scales 1:10000 for all except M/W65+ classes who will have 1:7500. 5m contours.

Courses

All classes and estimated winning times as for British Night Orienteering Championships rules section 5.

Parking

Harehatch Lane, Egypt, nearest postcode SL1 8PQ, OS Grid reference SU948872, What3words care.punks.cone.

Beginners

We welcome beginners at almost all of our events, but not this one! There are no courses of lower than the highest technical difficulty achievable on the area, and at night things are worse.

Safety

Orienteering is an adventure sport. You take part at your own risk and are responsible for your own safety. A full risk assessment has been carried out.

Facilities

TBA

Dogs

Sorry, but no dogs are allowed in either the car park or Egypt Woods.

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The small print

This event is registered with British Orienteering, number 83894.

Orienteering is a great sport for youngsters. If you bring children, please help us to keep to our safeguarding policy and British Orienteering’s photography policy.

Your personal data is used for results and insurance, see our privacy policy.

Sunday 8 February 2026

We welcome you to our biggest event of the year, the Ace of Herts, a National Middle-distance event which is a round of the South East Orienteering League. It’s not just for experts; there are courses suitable for everybody and help for newcomers.

  • Starts 10:30-12:30, choice of start times, courses close 14:00. Punching start. No GPS tracking nor part-way results published.
  • Courses from White to Black including Very Short Green. Shortest technical courses will have 1:7500 maps, most courses 1:10000.
  • Online entries stay open until 30 minutes before last start.
  • Kit as normal for a forest event. No kit check.

Further details are available via this link