Carnethy Hill Running Club is a running club for those who love to run in the hills and race in the hills. Its members need not have serious ambitions towards national or international standard competition. Many members are regular competitors; others prefer the non-competitive runs organised by the club; most do both! Membership is £5 per annum. The club has no more linkage to the national hill running governing body than Penicuik Bingo Club has. You will get a regular Journal, social events, regular club races, a website, a valuable list of members with like interests with whom you can indulge your eccentricities, and other spin-off benefits too numerous to list. You can compete in all hill races except the scottishathletics championship race but if you enter a race which has a scottishathletics "permit" (and most currently do), you will have to pay an additional levy of £2 per race. You will be eligible to compete in the annual SHR championship series.

Carnethy Hill Racing Club, the younger sister club, is affiliated to scottish athletics, the Scottish governing body for national and international competition for hill runners. If you wish to be eligible for the scottishathletics championship race, selection to a national squad, or eligible for public or lottery funding, then under the present scottishathletics Articles, you must be an individual member of scottishathletics and also a member of a scottishathletics affiliated club. Affiliation to scottishathletics allows you to support the promotion and development of athletics in Scotland more widely; including for instance support for our national track & field athletes. In the case of Carnethy Hill Racers, your annual club membership fee is £10 (this includes your membership of Carnethy Hill Runners). In addition, you will have to become an individual member of scottishathletics at £15 (these are the figures for seniors – see application form for juniors, unwaged etc). Thus your total cost will be £25 per annum. This will allow you all the membership privileges of both Carnethy Hill Runners, Carnethy Hill Racers and scottishathletics. It is also worth being a member of scottishathletics and an affiliated club if you wish to compete on other surfaces, such as cross country and road, where scottishathletics affiliation can sometimes be mandatory.

Members decided that they wanted to have the freedom not to have to pay scottishathletics’ fees if they so chose, whilst other members wanted the freedom to be eligible for national and international competition, grant aid etc. that membership of a scottishathletics-affiliated club makes available. By having two closely associated clubs (but quite separate for the purpose of linkage with the national governing body), we can satisfy most of our members most of the time, if not all of our members all of the time. Casual racers don’t have to pay extra fees for affiliation. More serious racers pay the extra and get the privileges of scottishathletics affiliation and membership.

The choice is yours. If you’re now more confused than when you started reading this, speak to a member of the committee.

No! There is also Scottish Hill Runners, an independent Scotland-wide organisation providing services for hill runners in Scotland. SHR publishes regular newsletters and the only comprehensive calendar covering all Scottish Hill Races (including Highland Games races). It also holds a 4-from-6 race championship series open to all, and organises social events. Membership is £8 p.a. The objectives of Scottish Hill Runners are;
1. To foster and improve Scottish hill running in the widest sense.
2. To keep Scottish hill runners informed of issues relevant to the sport, by producing appropriate material.
3. To promote or organise (or assist others delivering) events for Scottish hill runners.
4. To consider, and if appropriate, act upon any other proposals from hillrunners in Scotland in respect of activities not catered for by other organisations.