Friendly and active Dorset Orienteering club!
With members from Dorset and Wiltshire, with orienteering taking place in the New Forest, Isle of Purbeck, Cranborne Chase, Weymouth/Portland & Bournemouth, Poole & Christchurch conurbation.
WESSEX O.C. is a friendly and active Dorset orienteering club, with members from Dorset and Wiltshire, with orienteering taking place in the New Forest, Isle of Purbeck, Cranborne Chase, Weymouth/Portland
& Bournemouth, Poole & Christchurch conurbation.
Our members have a range of abilities from local orienteers to national/international orienteers. Find out more about orienteering at
NEW TO SPORT, and do join us at: JOIN WESSEX O.C.
Orienteering is an exciting outdoor adventure sport that exercises mind and body. The aim is to navigate between checkpoints or controls marked on a special orienteering map.
You make your own route through the terrain so the skill comes from trying to navigate the best way to go. In competitive orienteering, the challenge is to complete the course in the quickest time. Orienteering takes place on mountains, woodland, heathland, sand dunes and on urban streets.
It is the ultimate multi-terrain sport and takes you places off the beaten track, and there are also orienteering courses (and Mapruns) in many urban areas.
Don’t Miss out
Click To Explore
Stay up to date
Questions new and old members ask us a lot!
Orienteering is a navigation sport where you use a map (and sometimes a compass) to find a series of checkpoints, called “controls,” in the fastest time possible. Courses can be set in forests, parkland, moorland, or even towns and cities. It’s as much a mental challenge as a physical one — the winner isn’t always the fastest runner, but often the smartest navigator.
Orienteering suits a huge range of fitness levels because you choose your own pace and route. We offer courses ranging from short, easy walks suitable for families to long, technical courses for competitive runners.
Every event has courses for complete beginners, and Wessex can offer plenty of guidance or shadow you on your first event. Whatever help you need to get going.
We welcome families, including children of all ages, who are usually accompanied by an adult.
The best way to try the sport is to come along to an orienteering event and try a course. There is no need to have any coaching or practice beforehand – first-hand experience is the best way to try out the sport. There are various types of event on offer, but all will have courses suitable for beginners.
For details of upcoming events see the EVENTS pages. This includes details of forthcoming events organised by Wessex. In addition you can go to the British Orienteering Events listings, which includes all Wessex events, plus those of other clubs too.
Any newcomers to the sport are welcome to come along to a few orienteering events before joining the club – come along and try out the sport and see if it is for you. If you enjoy your first few events you should look into club membership, which contains many benefits – full details about WESSEX and how to join the club can be found on the NEWCOMERS page. Wessex offer a minimum of a years free membership to anyone joining for the first time.
Just suitable outdoor clothing and footwear (trail shoes or trainers are fine to start). Full leg cover is a requirement for courses in woodland or undergrowth. Initially you won’t need a compass, and if you do the club can lend you one.
Courses are typically colour-coded by difficulty and length, from White/Yellow (easiest, shortest) through Orange, Red, Light Green, Green, Blue, and Black or Brown (hardest, longest). You choose based on experience, age class and fitness.
Beginner courses might take 20–30 minutes, while the longest courses can take well over an hour, depending on terrain and navigation difficulty. Also sprint courses are much shorter.
Well, we might be a bit biased, but Wessex is a small friendly club. We all get involved in different parts of running our own events, and members can participate as little or as much as they want. We have a wide range of existing members, with a total mix of orienteering ability.
Plus, anyone joining for the first time, whether an individual, couple or family, gets at least their first years membership absolutely free. So if it isn’t for you, you’ve lost nothing. See our NEWCOMERS section on how to join.
