Active Outdoor Pursuits have 20 years experience and a proven track record facilitating and supporting groups and individuals achieve The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. Our aim as an Approved Activity Provider is to deliver quality, exciting and adventurous expedition training, supervision and assessments throughout Scotland.
DofE Expedition Training & Assessment
“The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is so much more than a ‘pat on the back’ for completing a programme of activities. It is recognition of a person’s successful journey of self-discovery and development, renowned by employers and universities alike for the qualities young people have who’ve achieved a DofE Award”.
Our DofE Silver and Gold expedition criteria. “Journey to Gold”.
- To be accepted onto a Silver or Gold Expedition all pupils must have uploaded on to their eDofE all relevant sectional information as soon as possible.
- To participate on a Silver Qualifier Expedition all pupils must have completed TWO sections.
- To participate on a Gold Qualifier Canoeing or Cycling Expedition 6th year pupils must have completed a minimum of THREE sections. ie Residential, Physical, Skill or Volunteering. (Gold is a two year programme)
- To complete the expedition section of the Award all pupils must give a presentation to their school co-ordinator no later than the September weekend school holiday.
PDF links
Gold Expeditions
Training/Practice Dates: 15th – 19th June – taking place on Loch Laggan
This is a 4 day and 4 night package. Two nights will be camping with two nights Self Catered at Cairngorms Adventure Centre.
Assessment Dates: 15th – 19th July – taking place on the Great Glen Way
This is a 4 day and 4 night Gold Dofe qualifying expedition package.
Training/Practice Dates: 1st – 5th July – Cairngorms National Park around Aviemore area
This is a 4 day and 4 night package. Two nights will be camping with two nights Self Catered at Cairngorms Adventure Centre.
Assessment Dates: 3rd – 7th August – taking place around Ben Alder
This is a 4 day and 4 night Gold Dofe qualifying expedition package.
Silver Expeditions
Training/Practice Dates: 30th June – 4th July – taking place on Loch Insh & Loch Laggan
This is a 4 day and 4 night package. Two nights will be camping with two nights Self Catered at Cairngorms Adventure Centre.
Assessment Dates: 3rd – 5th August – taking place on Loch Tay
This is a 3 day and 2 night Gold Dofe qualifying expedition package.
Training/Practice Dates: 10th – 14th August – Cairngorms National Park around Aviemore area
This is a 4 day and 4 night package. Two nights will be camping with two nights Self Catered at Cairngorms Adventure Centre.
Assessment Dates: 11th – 14th September – taking place around Ben Alder
This is a 3 day and 3 night Gold Dofe qualifying expedition package.
Frequently Asked Questions
In order to complete the expedition section of your award, you will need to undertake some training in your chosen mode of transport followed by a practice expedition. Once that has been done, you can then complete your Qualifying Expedition, during which you will be assessed against the 20 conditions of the DofE expedition.
By signing up for your DofE expedition with South Ayrshire Council, you will receive a training day followed by a 3-day and 2-night practice expedition. At a later date, your group will then embark upon the qualifying expedition which is 3 days and 2 nights for the Silver Award and 4 days and 3 nights for the Gold Award. The training and both expeditions will be facilitated by Active Outdoor Pursuits.
The training and practice expeditions will normally be carried out in the Cairngorms National Park, not far from Active’s base in Newtonmore (Cairngorms Adventure Centre). For the canoe groups, the training day will be on Loch Insh and the practice expedition will normally take place on Loch Laggan. For the mountain bike groups, the training day will be on local trails and the Practice Expedition will be a circular route beginning in Aviemore and taking in Rothiemurchus, Abernethy Forest, Nethy Bridge, Boat of Garten, Kinveachy Forest and the famous Burma Road before heading back to Aviemore.
This depends on the mode of transport you have chosen and the award that you are working towards. Generally, the Gold canoe groups will complete the Great Glen Way from Fort William to Inverness. The Silver canoe groups will journey around Loch Tay, beginning and ending in Kenmore. The Gold mountain bike groups will complete a circular journey that begins in Newtonmore and heads South past Dalwhinnie before taking in Loch Rannoch, Loch Eigheach, Loch Ossian, Loch Laggan, Lochan na h-Earba, Loch Pattack and Loch Ericht before finishing in Dalwhinnie or Newtonmore. The Silver mountain bike groups will complete a similar journey to the Gold groups, finishing a day earlier at Loch Laggan.
Cairngorms Adventure Centre is Active’s outdoor centre in Newtonmore which sleeps up to 75 people in dormitory rooms. There is a self-catering kitchen, dining and lounge area which you will use for preparing meals, there is a Coop in the village only 5 minutes walk away. For the training and practice expedition, you will arrive at Cairngorms Adventure Centre the evening before the training day and stay at the centre that night. On arrival at Cairngorms Adventure Centre, you will be met by one of our instructors who will show you around the centre, tell you which room you will be staying in, provide you with a briefing about your stay at Cairngorms Adventure Centre and chat through the plan for your training / expedition. We provide bed linen, but do not provide towels or toiletries.
The following day, you will head out for the training day and you will return to Cairngorms Adventure Centre that evening for a second night’s stay. The following day, you will head out for your 3-day and 2-night practice expedition which will be wild camping.
During your stay at Cairngorms Adventure Centre, there will always be a member of staff on duty. Our Duty Instructor lives on-site and will be available if you have any questions or require help during your stay. The Duty Instructor mobile number is posted in a number of different locations around the centre.
Yes. On your practice expedition, one of our instructors will accompany the group throughout and will offer guidance and support when required. On the qualifying expedition, a Supervisor will be assigned to each group. For the canoe and kayak expeditions, the Supervisor will remain in visual contact at all times. For the mountain bike groups, the Supervisor will always be in the area and will meet you several times each day. A separate Assessor will visit each group at least once a day to observe the group, ask a number of questions and ensure that the group are meeting the 20 conditions of the DofE Expedition.
Please refer to the kit lists that are available for you to download as PDFs on this page. These lists will tell you exactly what you need to bring and what Active will provide you with for the expeditions.
We recommend that each candidate brings water containers that can carry 2 litres of water and that these are filled up before setting off for the expedition. Drinking water can be taken from certain streams / burns during the expedition and your instructor will provide training on what those streams look like and where they can be found. Water taken from other streams or lochs must be boiled using gas stoves before it can be used for drinking or cooking. This will be covered during your training.
We will issue you with at least one barrel and one large dry bag per canoe. The barrel is completely watertight, and we recommend that you use this for kit that absolutely needs to be kept dry (e.g. sleeping bags and spare clothes). How to pack effectively for the expeditions will form part of your training.
The expedition section of the DofE Award requires participants to come up with an aim for their qualifying expedition (see condition 4 of the 20 conditions). This aim is then presented following the expedition, usually to the DofE Leader who can then sign this off. There are a huge number of potential subjects to choose from. Typing the work ‘aim’ into the search section on the DofE website brings back a load of useful information and ideas. Our advice is to make sure some thought goes into this at an early stage. Once a subject has been chosen, you need to think of how this can be structured and what activities need to be carried out during the expedition in order to complete the aim and have something to present once the expedition is complete. A few ideas of aims might be:
- Documenting the changing geological landscape throughout the journey
- Global warming issues and effects on the Cairngorms
- A study of biodiversity in the Cairngorms National Park
- Looking at the human impact on the land along the Great Glen Way