Verulamium GLOSS, 4th July 2026
Welcome to Verulamium for one of our Saturday events. They are particularly aimed at first-timers and less experienced orienteers, although there are courses for all levels. This event is also part of the GLOSS series of races for clubs around London.
This event was originally planned for Croxley Moor near Watford, but due to a late change in access, it will now be in Verulamium, easily accessible by main line train to St Albans from London.
Beginners
First timers are very welcome. Look for our greeters in hi-vis jackets.
You can go around individually, in pairs or in a larger family group. From an entries perspective, pairs and groups are treated as a single runner – it’s one entry, you get one map, one timing chip (“dibber”) and one finish time listed in the Results. We charge per “entry” not per person and it’s easiest to enter in advance – see Entering for the first time for more info on how to do this.
If you’ve not orienteered before, we suggest most people start with the yellow course. Young juniors, say primary school age, and family groups are better on white. People confident with a map and compass may start on orange. If you find your course too easy, club policy is to offer you a run on the next course up at no cost, provided there’s enough time and there are maps available.
Don’t forget to download between runs!
Location
Sea Scouts Hut, Westminster Lodge, St Albans AL1 2DJ w3w ///ports.gallons.tops
Parking
Westminster Lodge Pay & Display – free for 2 hours, then chargeable. The closest car parks are the western ones. If all car parks are full, use street parking opposite the entrance to the park, or shop in Sainsbury’s or one of the other stores there. Please note: Westminster Lodge is very well signed, so there won’t be any O signage on the main roads.
Public Transport
St Albans City rail station is just over a mile away. St Albans Abbey station is adjacent to the park entrance. Buses from City station and Heathrow via Watford stop nearby.
Terrain
Open parkland with some woodland and contour detail. Much of the area is the ancient monument covering the Roman town of Verulamium, although all you can see is a few fragments of walls that were left after the townsfolk had raided the site for building materials.
The paved area around the lake can be flooded if there is heavy rain the day before so clothes should be appropriate. Full leg cover is mandatory.
Map
1:7500 pre-marked maps for all courses on waterproof paper.
Course Timing
Sportident punching will be used.
For those with ‘contactless’ dibbers, SIAC will be enabled for controls, but you must punch the Start; the Finish will be “fly-by”.
Facilities
Limited toilets on site. More toilets and cafe at the leisure centre 200m away.
Dogs
Please keep dogs under control and clear up behind you.
Safety
By participating in this event, you acknowledge that you do so at your own risk and are responsible for your own safety.
Members of British Orienteering—which includes those who have joined an affiliated club such as HH—are covered by the organisation’s public liability insurance. Please note: If you are not a BOF member, if you accidentally injure someone or damage property during the event, you are not covered by this insurance.
A full risk assessment has been carried out.
Officials
| Planner | Alexander Lines |
| Organiser | |
| Controlling |
Courses
Courses for everybody from beginners of any age to experienced orienteers. Provisional course lengths below. It is expected that most with orienteering experience will enter the GLOSS course, and may decide on the day whether to continue with the extension on the other side of the map.
| Course | Straight line Distance | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| White | 1.2 km | Easy – all along paths. Control flags when you need to decide whether to turn. |
| Yellow | 2.2 km | Fairly easy – navigate along line features such as paths, walls, streams. Some turns with no control flags. |
| Orange | 2.7km | Moderate – start cutting across country, some controls a bit away from line features. |
| GLOSS (Light Green standard) | 4.2 km | Harder – a range of navigational skills needed to find controls on any mapped feature. |
| GLOSS + Extension | 6.0 km | As hard as we can make it on the area.
NB Enter GLOSS and you can decide on the day whether to do the extension. |
Course Notes
TBD
Starts
When you enter, you can choose a 15 minute start block between 10:00 and 11:30. If entries for GLOSS increase, we may adopt 30s intervals for starts.
Courses close 12:45. Please choose a start block to allow yourself plenty of time to finish before then.
Entry & Fees
Entries are now open via SI Entries. You must enter on line. Online entry will remain open until 11:15 on the day, while maps and start slots are available.
A guide to navigating our entries system is here.
Entries up to midnight on Sunday 28 June:
|
Entries from Monday 29 June :
|
Dibber hire £1. Charge for lost dibbers £35.
Dibber Collection: from the Event Centre. Please collect before going to the start.
If you cancel more than 7 days before the event we will refund your fees less an amount for admin and transaction costs. There is no refund for cancellations less than 7 days in advance.
If we have to cancel the event we will try to reschedule it. We will transfer your entry to the rescheduled event unless you ask for a refund.
Results
Interim results will be published direct to the club website every few minutes during the event. There will be no printed results (apart from your own splits) or WiFi available.
Full results will be published to the same location and to Routegadget; we aim to do so on the day of the event.
The small print
This event is registered with British Orienteering, number 87510.
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.
