Ranger Day 2025

Saturday 10^th May was a beautiful spring day in Bray, Co Wicklow and the grounds of the Kilruddery Estate were a fantastic setting for our Ranger Day. This year the Rangers had wanted to do something different, they wanted to challenge themselves and they wanted to have fun. What better place to do both, than at the Hell & Back course in Alive Outside on the grounds of the estate.

Rangers from the Northern, Eastern and South Eastern regions attended the day; unfortunately due to GCSE examination dates in the North and the clash with the Darkness into Light walks around the country, this did impact our numbers, but not enough for us to cancel the day.

The fun began after we checked in with a short briefing by Oisin and his team of activity leaders and then the girls were split up into three separate groups to work through the bases. The got to do some archery, some backwoods cooking and crack the code which was a collection of small games that culminated in the girls being able to crack the code and open the lock. The main event, the Hell & Back course after lunch would be run with all the girls together again in one group, which is what they had wanted, and they were very excited to be taking on the obstacles that they had seen so often on television. The course is 5km of muck, water, obstacles, and fun.

For our morning activities the group were split into three smaller groups and each undertook a different challenge and then they rotated through until everyone had completed all activities. The activities on the day were Crack the Code, Archery, and Backwoods. Crack the Code is a great exercise in building teamwork skills as the girls had to work together to build puzzles, and work as a team to complete their mental challenges, and of course they had to communicate effectively to see who could open the code fastest. At the archery site the competition was fierce and the laughter was raucous, some of the girls had clearly done this before and were amazing shots, but everyone enjoyed it. Backwoods is always a winner with our girls and this time was no exception; however the trek to get to their cooking station in the woods was quite far away, up a hill, in the sun, some of the girls were displeased by this; but once they got there and got into the spirit of things, they rallied and all had fun.

When the girls had completed their smaller challenges we all came together for lunch at basecamp and they prepared for the run; the team gave the girls a safety briefing and again reiterated that the aim is not only to get around the course yourself, but to make sure that nobody is left behind, and the girls really embraced this team-building aspect of the day. It was great to see so many of the girls lifting, pushing, pulling and hauling one another up and over, under and through any number of obstacles. Quite a few of the Rangers commented on one of the Alive Outside activity leaders, Ellen, who was a big hit, the girls said that she was really supportive, shouting encouragement to them all the way around and making sure nobody was left behind, guiding the girls on the best path and reminding them of safety precautions to take.

We were so proud of them all on the day and their Guiding spirit really shone through as they came down the home stretch all together, Ellen cheered them over the final hurdle and then they lined up and took turns to try make it up the wall to the finish line. There were two routes they could take; either straight up the wall and see if they could make it, or a slightly easier (but still difficult) run halfway up the wall where they could grab onto a cargo net and help pull themselves to the finish. As the girls lined up and began to tackle the wall, everyone else cheered them on and it was great to see them smiling and shouting encouragement to one another.

It was especially great when we had our three Guiders who took part, Yvonne, Mary and Rachel, come to the end and each of them complete the climb to the cheers of all of the girls and the other Guiders; congratulations to them all and well done for keeping up with the Rangers and doing all of us Guiders proud.

The girls knew in advance that they would get dirty and would need to change their clothes for the journey home, but actually due to the fantastic weather we had been having over the past couple of weeks there was nowhere near as much muck and mud as we had expected, and in fact in their feedback some of the girls remarked that they’d prefer to come back when it was muddier because they didn’t encounter nearly enough mess, and nobody even lost a shoe, apparently that’s a bad thing! On the plus side, luckily there were no major injuries to report either.

Thanks to all the Guiders who were there on Saturday, giving up their time so the Rangers could have a wonderful day out, and a very special thanks to those Guiders who aren’t even Ranger Guiders but stepped in and gave a dig out on the day.

A final thanks again on behalf of the girls and Guiders’ to the team at Alive Outside, Oisin, Ellen and their crew who were a lovely bunch of young people that put the girls at ease and were so helpful throughout the day; and to the CGI team who organised the day, from the office staff who took the bookings, designed the badge and helped in the background, to the National Ranger Support Team, and of course a very special thanks goes to our Chief Commissioner who was definitely the first one of us out of bed in the morning so that she could make it all the way from Cork to Bray to visit with us for the day, it was great to see you there on the day alongside the Regional Commissioner. The day could not have gone ahead without each and every one of you, so thank you all.