CLARO is the Orienteering Club for North Yorkshire.  We exist to provide good local Orienteering and to improve our member’s enjoyment of the sport. Our members range from complete beginners to international competitors, so whatever your ability you’ll find a place in our club.

Our Orienteering Areas are mainly to the West and North of Harrogate, for example near to Swinsty reservoir or at Brimham Rocks.

We belong to the regional orienteering organisation (Yorkshire and Humberside) as well as the National  body for the sport (British Orienteering Federation) and most of our members attend many events put on by other local clubs, as well as some further afield !

Orienteering depends primarily on volunteers to plan, co-ordinate and run events and we depend very much on all our members to help out.  This helps to foster a good club spirit and we’ll be only too pleased to welcome you into our club.

Although we’re only a small club, we like to offer our members as much as we possibly can – this includes:

• 4 District (Colour Coded) events each year

• A badge event bi-annually

• Summer,  member-only informal events

• Training Sessions

• Social summer footpath runs

• Attendance at all the major UK competitions

• Relay Teams

• Social events

• Club Championships

• Participation in the National Clubs Competition (The Compass Sport  Cup)

• Help and advice from friendly and experienced orienteers

• Friendly colleagues with plenty of opportunity to get involved

Claro is the orienteering club for North Yorkshire west of Dere Street, across to the line of the River Wharfe. The main centres of membership are the spa town of Harrogate and the city of Ripon, along with the smaller towns of Knaresborough, Boroughbridge, Masham and Pateley Bridge extending northwards to Swaledale and Wensleydale.

Formed in 1990, Claro is the youngest club in the north of England, and has grown rapidly to the current total of just over 100 active members, ranging in age from 8 to over 60 and in experience from recent beginners to international athletes.

The club puts on a regular programme of open events as well as competing in those put on by neighbouring clubs and further afield. Other activities include regular Thursday evening running training, coaching, social events and schools development, the last based around the Harrogate District schools league which the club organises each summer.

And just in case you were wondering....Claro is not, as is commonly supposed, an acronym, but the old wapentake name for this part of North Yorkshire. Wapentakes were the old Norse divisions for raising taxes and men at arms (similar to hundreds in southern counties). Claro Hill, the old gathering point, is immediately adjacent to the A1 just north of its junction with the A59 for Harrogate and York. The club's name is simply 'Claro', which must be one of the shortest names around for an orienteering club. Although not commonly recognised further afield, it is a familiar name in Harrogate and the surrounding area, although the increasing prominence of the club on the national orienteering scene, has helped raise the profile of the name and of the Harrogate district.

For further information about club membership, go to our membership page. The rest of the the site will hopefully answer most of your other questions about orienteering with Claro. However, if you need any further information, please contact the membership secretary.

Good orienteering!

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