Gala Hill, Galashiels

It will be good to be back on Gala Hill after clearance of Storm Arwen damage, and a chance to enjoy the lovely runnable section of beech wood on the north side of the Hill – very unusual in the Borders!

Registration and Assembly is in the car park of St Peter’s Primary School off Parsonage Road. 55°36’38.9″N 2°48’08.0″W

Parking Please do not park in Parsonage Road or at St Peters school. Parking is possible on the streets off the A7 Abbotsford Road, NW of the Fire Station, and there is a Pelican crossing at the front of the school across the main road. 

Starts:  1 – 2 pm.  Registration open from 12:30.   

Courses: Yellow (easy), Orange (medium difficulty), Light Green (medium/hard difficulty).

Timing:  Sportident electronic timing will be used.  If you don’t have your own timing dibber (i.e. chip) you can hire a manual one for free or a contactless one for 50p.

Entry fees: Senior member £4, Junior member £2, Senior non-member £5, Junior non-member £2.50.  Contactless dibber hire +50p,  older manual dibber free hire.

Pre-entry:   Pre-enter to guarantee the map of your choice, it also helps us gauge how many maps to print. No upfront payment needed, only pay if you turn up on the day. The entry form is HERE. Please pre-enter by no later than bedtime on Sunday 8/9/24 after which you’ll need to email Robin direct to check on availability. There are usually a few entries available on the day though.

Map There will be a new map, 1:5,000 and 5m contours on A4 paper.

Start and Finish There is quite a steep walk up to the Start and Finish, which are very near each other, and about 500m and 60m climb from Registration. There will be a little bit more climbing on the courses – this is Gala HILL after all! Courses close at 3pm.

Terrain Mostly commercial plantation, but a good network of paths and tracks. Contractors have created a few rough trails for extracting the timber from wind-blow areas. The old quarry workings are becoming quite overgrown, but there are still some crags to be wary of, and are marked on the map as thick black lines. Courses are designed to avoid these being on likely routes. There are also many unofficial mountain bike trails and these come and go depending on use, so please be aware of other activities on the hill. 

Organiser:  Robin Sloan

robinsloan1526@gmail.com