Welsh Castles Relays 2026

The Welsh Castles Relays took place over the weekend of 6th and 7th June. After a 23 year absence it was time to return to this iconic event and what a weekend it turned out to be.

The event starts in Caernarfon and covers 209 miles finishing in Cardiff. The first 10 stages take place on the Saturday with a stop over in Newtown and the final 10 stages take place on the Sunday. 6 stages were classed as mountain stages with 3 on each day. We had a great mix of runners with males, females, juniors and vets all mucking in to field a team. A special mention to the reserves who were ready to step in and came down to support the runners on, it really was hugely appreciated.

There were many fantastic performances over the weekend, special mentions go to Michael Holness who finished a superb 4th on the first stage and 1st vet taking home the iconic bright yellow stage winner t-shirt. Also winning her stage as a vet was Katie Kay on stage 6 having a great run.

Our ECH juniors (AKA Junior Elite) stole the show with some incredible performances from Brandon Kenyon-Betts (4th stage 13), Marshall Fleet (7th stage 17), Oliver Walker (10th stage 4), Nathan Dunn (11th stage 19), James Rook (13th stage 9) and Ben Dale (20th stage 5).

Full results of each stage can be found here: Welsh Castles Relay Results — East Cheshire Harriers (2026)

A huge well done to all runners. A massive thank you to Callum Parkinson for his brilliant oganisation; a lot goes into this logistically to support runners and ensure everyone is at their start and collected at the end. Thanks to Gavin Browne and Hayley Simpson for assiting Callum and our amazing drivers (Callum, Hayley, Sean and Ste). A final highlight was ECH legend Wade Cooper supporting the team all weekend and passing on his knowledge to our junior athletes. Bring on next year!!