A report by Maud de Elsynge…
The announcement ran along the lines of:
“Hear Ye, Hear Ye, the Shire of Glen Rathlin is proud to announce that it is once more hosting Flaming Arrow. We are running it again as a full weekend full of fun archery shoots, good food and merriment.”
Which sounded pretty good so off I went. Glen Rathlin is a Shire in Lough Devnaree (Ireland) and they were holding the event in Clara. After quite a few strange looks at getting to Heathrow on the tube with a 7ft plastic tube with ‘Bazuka’ written on the side and mimimal shenanigans in getting archery equipment flown over, I arrived at the site and settled in.
The activities started on Saturday with individual groups switching between target archery on the field and disappearing into the woods for a field shoot. I started off with the target shoot and it was great to get a chance to shoot with my new longbow for the target archery. Work still needed on where my sight points are.
In the afternoon, it was off to the field shoot. A field shoot was new to me but great fun. You aim at different sized targets in different locations and at different distances, all with the requirement that your leading foot is against a marker. Given obstructions by walls, rivers, trees and other features, this means you have to take rather awkward positions in order to shoot.
After all of the archery, there was a lovely court outside in the walled garden followed by an excellent (as always) feast by Lord Aodh.
Sunday saw some more target archery and the opportunity for some individual coaching.