In recent weeks mountain rescue organisations have been appealing to walkers to go out better prepared into the hills. In particular they have called for people to stop over-relying on technological gadgets (phones or otherwise) with digital maps and GPS. There is nothing wrong with this type of technology. We provide an image link to a popular model here and it can be helpful for many purposes, but GPS does not yet replace traditional map and compass when walking in what can be very dangerous hill country.
Lake District mountains can change from benign to malign in minutes. Unless you want to become yet another mountain rescue statistic go out with the essential equipment. That includes a good map – and the ability to read it. The Ordnance Survey produce maps for many purposes. We need to ensure that we’re carrying the appropriate one for our activity.
Lake District maps come in many varieties. The map here, an Ordnance Survey “Travel Map” is not what you need if you’re going far from the beaten track. It is excellent for finding your way around the Lake District roads, but is only a little larger in scale than one inch to two miles. Keep this one handy in the car, but for serious walking it simply will not do.
Next up in scale is the “Landranger” series. Since going metric these replace the old one inch to a mile maps that many of us knew in our youth. For low-level walking they can be very good. Roads and tracks are marked clearly, and if you are mainly going to walk the lanes they will do fine. A set of four covers the Lake District (Nos. 89, 90, 96 & 97) while another (No. 91) extends eastward to Appleby and the Eden Valley.
We must go much larger in scale to help with walking over footpaths and bridleways, and to be able to navigate our way over open fells and mountainsides. This is where the “Explorer OL” series comes into its own. At two and a half inches to the mile (4cm to 1km for those who prefer metric) these are an essential companion for the fellwalker. Don’t go out without the one for the area in which you’re walking. Four maps (OL4, OL5, OL6 and OL7) cover the Lake District National park and more. OL19 covers the Howgills and the Eden Valley.
The sometimes uncomfortable fact is that the Lake District’s rivers, streams, tarns and meres rely on water coming down from the heavens. And it does come down, often in considerable quantities and unexpectedly. We must be prepared for wet weather walking. The map links above are all to paper editions. For serious outdoor use the Ordnance Survey also produce the OL series in laminated waterproof versions
and these are strongly to be recommended.
Other Lake District Maps
There are other map publishers in addition to the Ordnance Survey but we’ve emphasised these here as the most comprehensive range for our purposes as walkers. It would, however, be remiss of us to omit mentioning the maps of Alfred Wainwright. In addition to the widely known “Wainwright Guides” there is a map series based on the small snippets of sketch mapping in his guides. At the same time it must be emphasised that these are for enjoyment only, and not to be used in the field. Link here to the “Wainwright maps
“.
See also the Lake District Maps section in our store.
