Simple Map Skills for Beginner Hill Walkers

Why the Paper Map Still Earns Its Place

Phones are wonderful until the battery flattens, the rain gets into the charging port, or you find yourself in a cloud on a featureless plateau with no signal. A laminated Ordnance Survey map and a baseplate compass weigh very little and never run out of power. The skills below take an afternoon to learn and a lifetime to sharpen, and they will keep you honest on everything from a Lake District fell to a Cornish coast path.

Start by buying the right map. For most UK hill walking you want the 1:25,000 Explorer series, where every grid square is one kilometre across and field boundaries, walls and paths are clearly drawn. The 1:50,000 Landranger covers more ground but hides smaller features. A waterproof or laminated version is worth the extra few pounds.

Setting the Map: The Skill Beginners Skip

Setting the map means turning it so that the features on paper line up with the features on the ground. It sounds obvious, yet most people walk with the map pointing whichever way they happen to be facing.

• If you can see a landmark — a trig pillar, a church tower, a distinctive tarn — rotate the map until the symbol sits in the direction it appears in front of you.
• Without landmarks, place the compass flat on the map and line the edge of the baseplate along a north–south grid line, with the direction-of-travel arrow pointing to the top of the map.
• Turn your whole body and the map together until the red compass needle sits inside the orienting arrow, with the red end pointing to the N marking on the bezel.

Your map is now set. North on paper matches north on the ground. Re-set it every time you stop to check, and you will find navigation becomes far less of a puzzle.

Taking a Bearing From the Map

A bearing is simply the direction you intend to walk, expressed as a number of degrees from north. To take one, lay the compass on the map with the long edge of the baseplate joining your current position to your destination, and the direction-of-travel arrow pointing towards where you want to go.

Hold the compass still and rotate the bezel until the orienting lines inside it run parallel to the map's grid lines, with the N on the bezel at the top of the map. Ignore the needle entirely at this stage — you are only reading the map.

Now pick up the compass, hold it flat at waist height, and turn your body until the red needle sits inside the orienting arrow. The direction-of-travel arrow now points along your route. Choose a distant feature on that line — a boulder, a fence corner, a distinctive crag — walk to it, then take a fresh bearing.

One word of warning: grid north and magnetic north are not quite the same thing. In the UK the difference, called magnetic variation, is currently small and easterly, but it is printed on the map margin. For short legs in lowland terrain you can often ignore it; on long featureless legs in Scotland it pays to add or subtract it as instructed.

Reading Contours Before You Trust Them

Contour lines are the closest thing a flat map has to a hillside. Each one joins points of equal height, and the vertical gap between them — the contour interval — is printed in the map legend, usually ten metres on Explorer maps.

Lines packed tightly together mean steep ground. Widely spaced lines mean gentle ground. Concentric rings shrinking inwards mark a summit; rings growing outwards from a point mark a valley or re-entrant. Where a stream crosses a contour, the V of the contour points uphill.

Practise on a hill you know well. Stand at the bottom, look at the map, and trace the shape of the slope in front of you with your finger. After a few outings you will start to read the land in three dimensions before you even set off.

Putting It Together on a Countryside Walk

Before leaving the car park, spend two minutes on a rough plan. Note your grid reference, identify the nearest escape route back to a road, and mark two or three catching features — a wall, a stream junction, a forestry edge — that you cannot miss if your bearing drifts.

Walk on a bearing for a set distance, count your paces on the steeper sections, and check the map every fifteen minutes or whenever the terrain changes. If the ground underfoot does not match what the contours promise, stop. Trust the map over your memory; the map is usually right.

A Few Habits Worth Building

• Carry the map in a clear case around your neck so you can glance at it without stopping.
• Keep the compass on a short lanyard and check the needle swings freely before you rely on it.
• Fold the map to the section you need, so the whole sheet is not flapping in the wind.
• Tell someone your route and expected finish time, and text them when you are down.
• Practise in good weather on familiar ground, so that the skills are already there when the cloud comes in.

None of this replaces experience, and none of it is difficult. A little time with a map on a quiet afternoon will give you the confidence to head out onto the bigger hills — and the quiet satisfaction of knowing exactly where you are.