Saturday 7 February 2026

Starts from 18:16 to approximately 19:45. We aim to have the prizegiving at about 21:30.

Event Location

Egypt Woods, near Beaconsfield Buckinghamshire.

The Event Centre will be 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; there are areas of recent forestry work and a number of fenced-off pheasant pens.

There are large areas of dead bracken in some places (the weather this winter will determine what remains by February) and brashings.  Where this significantly reduces running speed in what would otherwise be white forest or open areas, widely spaced green stripes are used (60-80% of normal speed).  Brambles are shown with closely spaced green stripes (20-60% of normal speed).  Areas of holly and thicker vegetation are shown with two shades of green.  At night, in particular, some minor paths may be not be easy to follow where covered with fallen leaves or affected by bracken and are mapped as intermittent.  Much of the area is relatively dry, although seasonal streams and marshes are expected to be wet or very wet in February.

Earth features such as earthbanks, dry ditches and knolls tend to be small and are easily missed at night.

There is one road crossing; for BNOC this will not be timed-out but competitors must be prepared to give way to any vehicles. The later part of courses will be in Hangings Wood and Jennings Wood, which are steeper-sided, with a narrow field separating the two.  Fences may only be crossed at gates/stiles indicated by the purple )( symbol.

Note that the published embargoed area is slightly too large; we will not be using the Southern part.  There is also a recently cleared area which, by the time of the event, may or may not have a deer fence around it.  Either way, it will be marked as out of bounds on the map.

Map

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

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 although course 1 may be slightly shorter than recommended to avoid too much repetition.

Course lengths are indicative at this stage.

Parking

Harehatch Lane, Egypt, nearest postcode SL1 8PQ, OS Grid reference SU948872, What3words care.punks.cone. We strongly recommend you enter from the A355 2km S of the M40, other routes include narrow lanes, some width restrictions.

Start and Finish

Start is within 500m of the event centre and parking. There is ample room to warm up in the field so please do so there rather than in the woods.

All entrants will have a timed start. Callup will be xx minutes. Late starts will be available in accordance with the Rules.

Finish is adjacent to the event centre and is 'flyby'. You must go directly to Download to confirm your safety.

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.

This is a night event in the middle of winter with consequent risks of exposure and hypothermia.  Please be realistic about your ability and fitness when selecting your course.  We recommend that you have experience of night events in technical terrain to enter. The middle-distance event the following day has courses for all abilities including first-timers.

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.

Facilities

Professional first aid will be available.

Others 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

Make a weekend of it and come to our Ace of Herts, a Middle-distance national level event, the following day. Starts from 10:30-12:30. It will all look different in the daytime.

If you enter both the British Night Championships and the Ace of Herts there is a £5 discount.

Further details are available via this link.