The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency of the UK. It produces maps for the entire UK and you can buy OS maps at different scales. The most common OS maps used for walking, cycling and general exploration are at 1:25,000 scale, which means that each 1 unit on the map represents 25,000 of the same unit on the ground. Regardless of what scale the map is at, each grid square on an OS map shows an area that is 1 km by 1 km on the ground, helping you to estimate the distances between places on a map.
OS maps use symbols to provide information about what can be found in an area, and these are shown in a key. The symbols are the same on every OS map and so learning the symbols for features such as a car park, visitor centre, nature reserve and walking trail can be useful when reading these maps. Naturally, most of these symbols relate to human features of the landscape, and so when looking at physical features, you don’t use the symbols as often. For more information about reading OS maps of urban areas, look at WIDEWORLD Vol. 35, No. 1, September 2023.
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