The Border Navigation Trial Championship, sponsored by the Squealing Pig Bar & Restaurant Monaghan comprises of 5 rounds held in counties Monaghan, Cavan, Longford, with Donegal motor club hosting the final round on March 22nd 2025 in the Cranford Community centre.
Navigation trials take place under the cover of darkness & involve plotting time points on an ordinance survey map using a 6 figure grid reference. Each time point is manned by volunteers and will have a specific approach & departure direction.
Competing crews will be penalised for wrong approach / departure or for arriving early / late. Timed to an average speed of 30mph, competitors are allowed 2 min for every one mile travelled and the use of “Road Goes” plots – mucky lanes through farms, bogs or fields, help the organisers slow the competitors down with the aim of crews accruing penalties. At the end of the event it is the crew which accrues the least penalties who wins.
Donegal Motorclub have historically ran extremely successful navigation trials over the years, and have recently began to revive the discipline within the county.
COC for the March event, Milford man Aidan Friel has laid out a tricky 75 mile route. The addition of the border navigation championship will see competitors from all over Ireland compete to claim points to help their championship goals.
Currently Longford/Monaghan pairing Packie Duffy/Evin Hughes lead the championship overall. Letterkenny men Shane Laverty/Ciaran Coyle are joint 3rd in the Semi-Expert class and are hoping local knowledge will earn them a spot on the podium. Aidan Mcdevitt/Aidan Sweeney from glenswilly are 4th and 5th in class respectively. Once again hoping a solid finish will net some points towards the championship.
Leaving Cranford Community Centre at 8:46 the first car will start the event after the maps are plotted and drivers briefing has taken place. Donegal Motorclub members have been out preparing for the event by calling into residents on the route to make them aware of the event and asking permission for various lanes and roads to use.
COC Aidan Friel would like to thank everyone for their assistance, while he is currently putting the final touches to the event, and in particular the wider Cranford Community for welcoming the event back to the area where the very first Donegal Motorclub event was headquartered almost 55 years ago. The group of founding members ran a night event called “The Hills of Donegal” out of Logues of Cranford on 24th July 1970. H.P Johnston was Clerk of the Course and the inaugural winners were Mervyn Johnston/ C.B Curley in a Mini Cooper ‘s’.
With thanks to Lorna Kennedy for providing pictures
