Knole Park KOL

This is one of the events that will be included in a British Orienteering Participant Satisfaction Survey. Participants will be invited to share their views and comments by completing a short questionnaire  after the event that should take no more than 8mins to complete.

Location

Nearest town: Sevenoaks

• Grid Ref:
• Postcode: TN15 0SR
• Latitude: 51.25872
• Longitude: 0.22230
• Google Map
• Streetmap (OS 50k)
• Bing Map (OS 50k)
• OpenStreetMap

Directions / Parking

Parking will be on St Julian Road and Fawke Wood Road - see map. Space will be limited, so please share transport if possible. Assembly will be just inside the Park through the gate at the junction of these two roads.

Please park carefully, allowing other traffic to pass. If it is not possible to park at this location, there are two further pedestrian gates into the park 400 and 700 metres SW along St Julian Road. Park, enter Knole through one of the gates and head north-east along Chestnut Walk to assembly. You will be in the competition area, so please keep to the main path.

There is also a small car park at One Tree Hill at the eastern end of Fawke Wood Road. This is a 10 to 15 minute walk from assembly.

Public Transport options

Sevenoaks is the closest station but is 4km from assembly, either walking through the Park or cycling on the roads around it.

Registration & Start Times

Registration from 10:30 to 12:00

Start times from 11:00 to 12:30

Courses close 14:00

Course Information

Five courses available:

Yellow. Controls (checkpoints) are very easy to find, mostly on main paths, ideal for younger children and complete beginners. Approximately 2 km

Orange. Moderate, controls are on or near paths with more route choice. Good for progressing juniors and beginner adults who are reasonably confident reading a map. Approximately 3km.

Light Green: Harder. Controls away from paths giving more challenging navigation. For those with some experience. Approximately 4km.

Short Blue. As technically hard as we can make it, for experienced orienteers. Approximately 6km.

Score. No set distance, but a 60 minute time limit. Find as many controls as possible in the hour. Good for adult beginners, those progressing from orange to light green, and those that want to be back in a set time.

Explanation of colour courses

• White are very easy with all controls on paths. They are mainly used by 6-10 year olds and family groups.
• Yellow use simple linear features like paths, walls and streams. They are mainly used by under 12’s and family groups.
• Orange progress to basic use of the compass and route choice. They are ideal for novice adults or experienced youngsters.
• Light Green are ideal for improvers as the navigational difficulty begins to increase and uses simple contours and point features.
• Green are used mostly by experienced under 18’s and adults wanting a short but challenging course with a very hard navigational difficulty.
• Blue are a longer, more physically demanding course in comparison to the green. The distances are more varied between controls and the course attracts experienced orienteers.
• Brown & Black are very physically demanding and have a very hard navigational difficulty. They are for experienced orienteers only.
• Score means visiting as many controls as possible in any order in a specific time, like 45mins.

Entry Details

Entry on the day.

Adults: £5 (members of an orienteering club) £7 (non members)

Juniors: £3 (members of an orienteering club) £5 (non members)

Groups: £10 (club members and non members), includes 1 dibber hire.

This price includes loan of electronic timing equipment (aka dibber) if required, and a waterproof map per competitor (yours to keep after the event). Dibbers are expensive and a £35 charge will be due if the dibber is lost.

Juniors are registered separately, compete in a group containing at least one adult, or be ‘shadowed’. Shadowing is explained below.

Juniors and Shadowing:

Whilst many juniors will initially complete a course as part of a group, some juniors may want to progress to be able to run on their own. We understand that many parents/guardians will want to ensure their child’s safety by completing the course with them, or following a short distance behind. We call this ‘shadowing’ and there is more information here. Parents shadowing juniors will be given an extra map at no charge. The entry fee will be the junior entry fee. Alternatively, juniors are also welcome to compete in twos or threes, and will be entered individually.

Terrain Description

Knole is a beautiful open deer park surrounding the historic National Trust Knole House, with areas of largely runnable woodland and a good ride/path network. There are many knolls in the area. Only the most significant ones have been mapped. Rootstocks, which often have the appearance of small knolls, are not mapped.

1:10,000 map with contours 5m.

Facilities

There are toilets in Sevenoaks town centre or at Knole House (2km walk from assembly).

Dogs allowed?

Dogs must be kept on a lead in the park.

Contacts / Officials

Organiser/ Planner: Alan Hickling