Advice on current road maps of Scotland.....

Post by **SarahND** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 7:15 pm

Hello all,
My husband and I plan to spent 2 or 3 weeks in Scotland in October/November and were wondering whether any of you could recommend a good detailed map book. Although we will visit the cities (for research!) we also want to do a good bit of driving around on small roads in the middle of nowhere, so it needs to have as much detail as possible. I see there are several on amazon.co.uk, but was hoping to get some feedback from those of you who use the maps regularly.
Thanks for any suggestions!
Sarah

Post by **emanday** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 7:21 pm

You'd probably find that the Ordnance Survey maps are your best bet. They have a lot more detail.

Have a look at their site...

http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/

Have a great visit

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 8:27 pm

Hi Sarah
I like the Ordnance Survey "Explorer" maps (orange cover) - 1:25 000 scale, thats 4cm to 1km or 2½ inches to 1 mile. They are pretty detailed and I find them good for family history type stuff as farm names & etc are included.
http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsi ... ?shop_ID=1

I don't think you can buy them in book form though - it would have to be individual maps for each of the areas you were interested in, I think, and perhaps buy just a general smaller scale road map for getting from A to B.

Best wishes
Lesley

Post by **SarahND** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 10:10 pm

Hi Lesley and Mary,
We have used the Ordnance Survey maps for walking in England before and it is true that they are very useful. Since we will be covering a large amount of territory, I was hoping I wouldn't have to buy stacks of them... Do you know anything about this one I found on Amazon? Philip's Navigator Road Atlas Britain. It is supposed to be 1 1/2 miles to the inch-- not as detailed as the walking maps, but good for driving? Does anyone use this or a similar map book?
Thanks,
Sarah

Russell · Post by **Russell** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 12:15 am

Hi Sarah

The Philips is the one we use all the time. It is good for general navigation and appears to be regularly up-dated as we have two versions.
Our most recent one is 2005 but there has not been a major road re-shuffle since then so it is quite adequate.
It lacks local detail so we buy whatever is best to cover the area we are working/searching in. They usually have a bookshop in the larger towns but sometimes the local newsagent has just as wide a selection.
We only resort to Ordinance Survey maps if if the hamlet or farm we are looking for is not mentioned on the larger scale ones.
Knowing the general area beforehand we sometimes cruise a road looking at the nameboards for farms as we pass and have identified them without first finding them on a map. (Old-maps.co.uk can give a general location but road and name changes make it difficult to pin-point.)

Several times we have found the road leading to the farm or steading only to find a 'Private. No entry' sign a mile or two along the road. Usually this means that the premises are now converted to a select private dwelling. If you have the brass neck to go on you would probably find that the building bears no traces of the pre-existing structure. We just turn and come back out satisfied that we know where it is.
Hope this helps.

Russell

Post by **SarahND** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 8:22 am

Thanks, Russell. Looks like I will have to get the big one for general driving and the detailed ones for specific areas of interest. Not that I'm complaining

I've found you can never have too many maps when doing genealogy, and since we'll be in a car (although, coming from France, with the steering wheel on the "wrong" side for Scotland

) I won't have to worry about fitting them all into a suitcase!
Looking forward to it!
Sarah