Least Bought Map

[crb11]

The one I really want to do soon is called Boring Field. It's the Historic County Top for Huntingdonshire and is quite literally, a pasture of little interest.

I was a bit miffed last weekend when I found out that one top I'd done had been downgraded in favour of a top 200 yards away. I've got to go back to Swindon and go up Liddington Hill again.

I haven't been to the top itself, but I've walked and cycled within a few miles, and it's attractive and varied countryside compared to the rest of Huntingdonshire which is mostly featureless fenland.

[steve618]

Who knew that there are 20-odd counties with tops lower than Norfolk?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... hest_point

puts Norfolk 57th out of 62

[Halmyre]

Who knew that there are 20-odd counties with tops lower than Norfolk?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... hest_point

puts Norfolk 57th out of 62

Fair enough; the Hill Bagging site has various interpretations of 'County Tops'.

[owen b]

The one I really want to do soon is called Boring Field. It's the Historic County Top for Huntingdonshire and is quite literally, a pasture of little interest.

I was a bit miffed last weekend when I found out that one top I'd done had been downgraded in favour of a top 200 yards away. I've got to go back to Swindon and go up Liddington Hill again.

I haven't been to the top itself, but I've walked and cycled within a few miles, and it's attractive and varied countryside compared to the rest of Huntingdonshire which is mostly featureless fenland.

Boring Field is a boring field. Been there, done that. There's not many more boring county tops, but Racecourse Road (county top of the Soke of Peterborough) is a strong candidate, as it's on a minor road close to the A1 near Stamford at the border with Northamptonshire so there's not even a walk to get there. The county top of East Suffolk is out of bounds as it's within RAF Wattisham, so I got as close as I could without trespassing. The county top of Lincolnshire (Parts of Holland) is an absurdity, as it's the high point of a man-made dyke reaching a heady 8 metres above sea level; there's a public footpath within about 50 metres but on the other side of Vernatt's Drain, I considered that to be close enough, and by standing at its highest point, high enough. I can't be bothered with all the new county high points arising from post-1966 changes.

[Nwallace]

I've a feeling there's a part of Scotland (island or region) that requires four Landrangers for complete coverage, and only three Explorers, but I can't recall where it is.

That has Mull written all over it!

[owen b]

I've a feeling there's a part of Scotland (island or region) that requires four Landrangers for complete coverage, and only three Explorers, but I can't recall where it is.

That has Mull written all over it!

Don't think so. Mull is covered by Landrangers 47, 48, 49, and by Explorers 373, 374, 375.

Explorers are more efficient at covering the land than Landrangers, as Landrangers are always 40km square, whereas Explorers vary the shape and size of the area covered and are often double sided, so they can be better tailored to the shape and size of the area to be mapped. Because of the 40km square design, some Landrangers have huge overlaps with other Landrangers eg. sheets 11/12 (Caithness area), and some Landrangers cover large areas of sea alongside relatively small amonts of land eg. sheets 123 (Llyn Peninsula), 46 (Coll and Tiree), 31 (Barra and South Uist). Which makes me wonder if the Landranger series was ever revised so that they didn't have to be 40km square, how many Landrangers we'd end up with.

[Nwallace]

The Shetlands are over 4 Landrangers and you need 5 Explorers
The overlap means Skye is on 3 unless you also want Raasay in which case 4; and it takes 5 explorers to get Skye and Raasay
Harris and Lewis needs 4 with massive overlaps on them; but you need 6 explorers

Mull needs 3 Explorers.

The Uists and Barra chain of islands is 3 Landrangers or 3 Explorers

[Halmyre]

This is maybe what I was thinking of - the Black Isle is covered by one Explorer, but you need three Landrangers for complete coverage. Similarly, Ardnamurchan really needs two Landrangers for completeness, as opposed to one Explorer. And the Kingdom of Fife is horribly served by Landrangers, needing four but by moving 58 south and east, you could probably do it in two...

[Altnabreac]

This is maybe what I was thinking of - the Black Isle is covered by one Explorer, but you need three Landrangers for complete coverage. Similarly, Ardnamurchan really needs two Landrangers for completeness, as opposed to one Explorer. And the Kingdom of Fife is horribly served by Landrangers, needing four but by moving 58 south and east, you could probably do it in two...

Collectively Ardgour, Morvern and Ardnamurchan also need 4 Landrangers but only 3 Explorers. I did my gold Duke of Edinburgh award expedition in that part of the world and the Ardgour and Strontian Explorer would have been a much more useful map then the available Landranger options of the 1990s.

[Ruperts Trooper]

I think it depends how well you can adjust to the scale - I was brought up with 1" maps in the house when I was young so they were never a problem, nor were 1/4" maps once I started driving - the change to 1:50,000 was straightforward but I've never been able to get comfortable with 1:25,000 - it's all a mindset I'm sure.

[Graham]

I think the specific issue with Explorer 440 Glen Cassley from a hillwalkers perspective is that there's no Munros on it, so no reason for Munro baggers to buy it. There is a Corbett on it, but only one (Ben Hee), and it's right on the edge of the map and it's also on Explorer 447. So even the small subset of hillwalkers interested in Corbetts (usually hill walkers who have already finished the Munros) are unlikely to buy sheet 440. And there's a very tiny population in the area, it's very remote and not so obviously of interest to tourists as more mountainous, coastal or historically significant parts of Scotland. So all in all I can see why it isn't bought much.

On reading the newspaper article, my first reaction was to get my copy of sheet 440 out and pore over it. As you say, there is only one Corbett (and no Munros), but the map does also cover most of the main approach route to Beinn Leoid (another Corbett). Looking at Walkhighlands, Beinn Leoid appears to be a cracking walk, and I have added it to my would-like-to-do-one-day list. However, the entire route is also on Explorer 442, so this still does not justify owning a copy of sheet 440! Maybe a trip to Glen Cassley is in order....

[Graham]

Incidentally, in pre-Explorer days, there were several pathfinder maps in northern Scotland which suffered from the same issues as Explorer 440, but more so - some of these sheets sold only a handful of copies each year. Having to keep these sheets in print (and the disproportionate costs this entailed) was one of the main arguments the OS made when it attempted to make the case (in the 1990s) to drop nationwide coverage at the 1:25,000 scale.

[owen b]

I think the specific issue with Explorer 440 Glen Cassley from a hillwalkers perspective is that there's no Munros on it, so no reason for Munro baggers to buy it. There is a Corbett on it, but only one (Ben Hee), and it's right on the edge of the map and it's also on Explorer 447. So even the small subset of hillwalkers interested in Corbetts (usually hill walkers who have already finished the Munros) are unlikely to buy sheet 440. And there's a very tiny population in the area, it's very remote and not so obviously of interest to tourists as more mountainous, coastal or historically significant parts of Scotland. So all in all I can see why it isn't bought much.

On reading the newspaper article, my first reaction was to get my copy of sheet 440 out and pore over it. As you say, there is only one Corbett (and no Munros), but the map does also cover most of the main approach route to Beinn Leoid (another Corbett). Looking at Walkhighlands, Beinn Leoid appears to be a cracking walk, and I have added it to my would-like-to-do-one-day list. However, the entire route is also on Explorer 442, so this still does not justify owning a copy of sheet 440! Maybe a trip to Glen Cassley is in order....

When and if I get round to Beinn Leoid and Ben Hee, I should be able to rely on Explorer 442 (which I've already got) and Explorer 447 (which I expect I'll buy as it covers some other good hills on my to do list). Only if I ever get round to the more obscure Marilyns in the area will I need Explorer 440. And in any case, I've already got the hard copy Landranger plus the 1:25,000 on subscription on my phone. There's certainly a lot of fantastic hills in Scotland which aren't Munros; I've been fortunate enough to have bagged a good number of them in the last couple of years .

[Nwallace]

Incidentally, in pre-Explorer days, there were several pathfinder maps in northern Scotland which suffered from the same issues as Explorer 440, but more so - some of these sheets sold only a handful of copies each year. Having to keep these sheets in print (and the disproportionate costs this entailed) was one of the main arguments the OS made when it attempted to make the case (in the 1990s) to drop nationwide coverage at the 1:25,000 scale.

A large part of the problem with Pathfinders was the format; the coverage was based on exactly one 10km x 10km square of the map
Two were required for Dundee, East and West with line right through the middle of the town centre; this has also made it a pain for me trying to collect the East (40 to 50) and West
(30 to 40)maps before and after the Marketgait was completed.
I'd need to dig them out to check how the Northings were split as if that was also on the 100km squares then Dundee's waterfront area would be on the Pathfinder with Newport-On-Tay

The Explorer series is much more sensible and fits the town and surrounding hills into a single map issue (380).

[Fenlander]

The county top of Lincolnshire (Parts of Holland) is an absurdity, as it's the high point of a man-made dyke reaching a heady 8 metres above sea level; there's a public footpath within about 50 metres but on the other side of Vernatt's Drain, I considered that to be close enough, and by standing at its highest point, high enough. I can't be bothered with all the new county high points arising from post-1966 changes.

I can see Vernatt’s Drain (or rather a bridge over it) from my bedroom window, we often walk along it and last winter we took the kids sledging down its bank.

[wrinkly]

A large part of the problem with Pathfinders was the format; the coverage was based on exactly one 10km x 10km square of the map

The series with 10km x 10km dimensions was 1:25000 First Series with blue covers. Then came Second Series with green covers which was 20km x 10km. Only after that was the name Pathfinder introduced, without further change in dimensions.

[Halmyre]

I was in my local Waterstones yesterday and had a look; they've got all three lowest sellers in stock. I was buying Lake District North West, which is probably one of the best sellers.

[Bertiebus]

Same here. 1:25000 maps show things like field boundaries which is absolutely essential when walking on poorly signed rights of way although this isn't so much an issue in Scotland. I don't use Landrangers for this purpose.

Bear in mind that the field boundaries may not always be correct.

There are three large fields next to my house and the boundaries shown on the OS Explorer map bear absolutely no resemblance to what's there. A little local research found that the current map still shows the alignments of what were dry stone dykes... which were taken down over 50 years ago and replaced with fences on completely (and I mean completely - the fields are divided in a totally different way!) different alignments.

Bizarrely, other local features which have changed in that time have been updated on the map.

[owen b]

Lovely article here about the charms of Explorer 440 and the area it describes, including some interesting historical detail about 16th century explorer and cartographer Timothy Pont who first surveyed the area.
https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/news/wh ... s/0018781/

[Halmyre]

I noticed the article said that OL17 (Snowdonia and Conwy Valley) is the best-selling map; I had thought it would be one of the Lake District quartet. I assume she's referring to the Explorer series sales figures.