UK and Ireland Tree Climbing Competition: organiser, entry route, events and results page

This page reports what the Arboricultural Association says on its competition pages. The ISA world final and the other national events are in the table of championships. The Association also runs a second, differently formatted event, the ARB Show Open, which sits in that table.

Who runs it and where it was held

The Arboricultural Association (AA) runs its climbing competitions with a team of volunteers, and its competition index says they are open to members and non-members. The UK and Ireland competition page says the 2026 edition was held at Pittville Park in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, on September 5 and 6, 2026. It also marks 30 years since the first tree climbing competition in the UK. In 2026 the Association split the competition from its annual conference, which it says opens the way to host it in new trees. The page asks for volunteers and says no booking is needed to watch.

The page offers a free children's climb near the main competition, for children aged 6 and over, with limited spaces and booking required.

Rules and the route to the finals

The competition runs under the ISA climbing championship rules, with working practices that follow the UK and Ireland technical guidance on tree climbing and aerial rescue. The page adds that the event is held under, and in the spirit of, the ISA rules. It says winners go forward to represent the UK and Ireland at the European and international tree climbing championships, and the competition index words this as the top placed eligible competitors. The ISA page for the European final says its winners represent Europe at the world final.

The events

Competitors complete five preliminary events and the top men and top women finishers go to a Masters' Challenge. The AA page describes the five: the ascent, the throwline, the aerial rescue, the work climb with five workstations and a 5 minute limit, and a speed climb to 18 metres on a belayed climbing system. The Masters' Challenge is judged on knowledge, use of equipment, poise in the tree and safe working practice.

What the results page publishes

The AA publishes a results page for the competition, separate from the event page. For 2026 it carries the preliminary table for 36 men and 6 women, with a score for each event: aerial rescue out of 50, speed climb out of 10, ascent out of 25, throwline out of 35 and work climb out of 80, and a preliminary total out of 200. It also lists speed climb and ascent times in seconds, per-event tables and the Masters' winners. Earlier years sit further down the same page, and the event page lists winners by year from 1995, with no competition in 2020, 2021 and 2022. The page says a training company ran the 2016 event and that the ISA United Kingdom and Ireland chapter ran earlier ones. These pages name competitors, so this site links to them and repeats no name: see the UKITCC results page.