20 Oct 2026
By Fiona Hirst
Now that we are in to October, I finally found the time to take a moment, to reflect on the Summer season. What a busy one it was!
The Inter Area was introduced this Summer and was held by the Northern Area at Moray Archers in Elgin. The idea for this event was to give the Areas a chance to look at team and mixed team practice before the County Championships. I can definitely say that this was a huge success with the Eastern Area winning by 1 point! It brought together all three Areas in not only competition but socially too. Thank you to Andrew and the team at Moray as well as the Northern Area, especially Joshua and Hamish for their help with this event.
The three tour stages held at Balbardie, Ayr and Moray were very well attended and the weather was mostly kind. I cant begin to thank the clubs and their volunteers who helped with this years Tour. Without you, they would be very difficult to run however your time invested in the sport does not go unnoticed and I am sure that all the archers will join me in thanking you all.
The highlight of the Tour was the finals that were held at Glamis Castle. After ‘the best pitch that they had seen’, Glamis allowed us to have our finals on their front lawn at a much reduced cost. Along with the rest of the Scottish Archery and Glamis staff, the event was a great success bringing in all aspects of archery with the inclusion of a come and try ( Lasswade Archery), Ready Steady Shoot (RSS) Festival (Soft Archery) with the Summer of Sport ran by Scottish Archery, a stand by Links Archers showing off a variety of bows, Nathan Maqueen signing autographs and showing off his medals, Horse Scotland with their mechanical horse Duke and also Edinburgh Mounted Archery who joining with Horse Scotland gave our archers and public a taste of what horse back archery is. Yes, I know it was a little on the windy side but we cant have everything !
Thank you to all of our volunteers and officials /Judges who gave up their time to support the event. Huge congratulations go to the athletes who battled that wind and still came away smiling!
August saw two events take place apart from the Tour.
The Outdoor championships was held at Balbardie in August and thank you to Gilbert and his team for all they did to help make the event a success. Congratulations to all our new Scottish Champions!
The Home Nations was hosted by Scotland this year and was held on the pitches at Stirling University. Thanks goes out to Ainsley Ward who went above and beyond not only before the event organising the teams as well as om the day. I was great to see all of the Home Nations in one area competing and having fun.
What next?
Behind the scenes we have already been looking into 2027 and 2028.
The Indoor weekend is on the 27th and 28th of March at Stirling University which again will include the Scottish Archery Awards night.
The Tour is already set with:
Stage 1 - Bathgate on 22nd/23rd May
Stage 2 – Mull and Iona on 24th/25th July
Stage 3 – Moray 28th/29th August
Finals TBC
The Outdoor Championship weekend and Inter Area Championships are in the final stages of being arranged and once the venues have been finalised, we will let you know.
Currently, we are looking at how we can expand our Junior and Novice intake - watch this space!
Another new revamped event for the Summer of 2027 is a new Disability festival which will include the Scottish Archery Disability Outdoor Championships. We have listened to the memberships’ comments and are making this event more inclusive for all.
These events could not go ahead without the advice and time from the Events subgroup who are there behind the scenes helping to evolve the events with Scottish Archery.
Also , the team expands to Malcolm, Curtis and Kenny who each play a big part in the preparation and running of these days to ensure they run so successfully.
Here’s to next year and all it brings!
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