Hillwalking, climbing and mountaineering aren't the only things the club has to offer (however, each is an interesting sport with its own history and advantages, in excel homework help you can request a table with various characteristics on this topic): there is also a very active social side to the club. We meet every Wednesday evening in our usual pub - see the "get involved" page for details. This is an ideal place to catch up, swap stories, have a pint (or more) and find out what is happening at the weekend.

The club also organises a number of social events throughout the year, from meals to ceilidhs and weekends away. All in all a good mix for everyone, and if you think there's something missing, we're always open to suggestions!

The exact social calendar varies from one year to the next but we usually put on the following events:

Autumn Celidh

This is normally held every October at The Friary Hall in Dundee. Come and join us for a night of Scottish dancing and fun early in the term.

Christmas Dinner

We usually kick off the Christmas season with a themed restaurant dinner in Dundee after which celebrations tend to continue well into the night!

Christmas Meet

Not satisfied with one Christmas Dinner, the club likes to bring a Christmas theme to the last full-weekend trip of the year. This means that along with our mountaineering gear we bring all of the ingredients for a Christmas meal with us to the mountain hut we're staying at - and have another Christmas Dinner there on the Saturday night - along with some suitable festive drinks of course!

Burns Night Supper

The club does it's bit to celebrate the Scottish poet Robert Burns each January in a night of tradition with a meal of haggis, neeps and tatties before the ceilidh begins. This is typically at a Dundee hotel (often the Queens Hotel) but we've moved it around a few times and once or twice we've even had it on board the Frigate Unicorn down at City Quay!

Annual Dinner Weekend

This is the highpoint of the club's social calendar each year. We end the academic year in style with a weekend of walking/climbing and and partying into the night. It's usually in May and is the final official trip before the summer break. Arrangements vary from year to year but we tend to go away for the whole weekend (as with a full-weekend meet) but also have a restaurant meal at a hotel near where we're staying, followed by a ceilidh and sometimes manage to take a keg with us too! It's always great fun and there is a tradition of speeches being given during the meal where we hand out awards to club members for the year's achievements.

For a write-up of the 2012 Annual Dinner Weekend see the DURC blog: part 1 | part 2.

Other Social Events

Each November the Rucksack Club runs a refreshment stand between films and presentations at the Dundee Mountain Film Festival as a fundraising activity. Helping out at this refreshment stand is actually great fun and is a chance to put something back into the club so that it can continue to offer all the opportunities to get out to the hills at an affordable price. Volunteers also get the chance to see some of the films and presentations for free, and there's usually a great post-festival party!

Sometimes we arrange yet more social activities, such as a Hogmanay trip, where we go away to a remote mountain hut, bunkhouse or bothy for a few days and see the new year in, or a Midsummer meet where we go to the far north and camp out enjoying the long midsummer days.

Throughout the year there are also usually good handful of random, spontaneous parties in Dundee plus many a social weekday evening down at the climbing wall, as well as our regular weekly gathering at the pub. Join our announcements mailing list and Like our Facebook page to keep up to date with everything that's going on. Additionally, we also have an informal Facebook group, DURC Chat, for all things social.