How to Use a Map and Compass for Hiking and Camping in the UK

A map and compass will get you home when your phone will not. Learn to read an Ordnance Survey map, give a grid reference, and walk on a bearing, and you can navigate any hill in Britain in cloud, at dusk, or when the battery is flat. These are simple skills, they last a lifetime, and you can learn the basics of each in an afternoon.

This guide walks you through the lot, step by step: the two OS map types, contour lines and symbols, four and six figure grid references, the parts of a baseplate compass, setting the map to north, and taking and following a bearing. It sits alongside our guide to camping along the UK's national trails, where a paper map earns its place in the rucksack.

It comes from Camping Sites in Britain, where you can find and compare campsites, caravan parks and glamping across the UK before you set off.

Reading an Ordnance Survey map

Ordnance Survey is the national mapping agency, and its maps are the standard for walking in Britain. You need one of two series, and the difference is scale.

Series	Scale	Cover	Best for
OS Explorer	1:25,000	Orange	Walking and camping. Shows field boundaries, footpaths and access land in fine detail
OS Landranger	1:50,000	Pink	Planning longer routes and driving between areas. Less detail, more ground per sheet

For hiking, buy the orange Explorer. At 1:25,000, one grid square on the map is one kilometre on the ground, and you can see the wall, the stream and the path junction you are standing next to. Full detail on the two series is on the Ordnance Survey site.

Contour lines

Contour lines join points of equal height, and they are the single most useful thing on the map. On an Explorer map they are drawn every 10 metres of height, with a thicker line every 50 metres and the height printed along it.

The spacing tells you the steepness. Lines packed close together mean a steep slope or a crag. Lines spread wide apart mean gentle, easy ground. Learn to read the shape of a hill from its contours and you can pick a sensible line up it before you leave the tent.

Symbols and the legend

Every map carries a legend, or key, printed on the cover or the sheet, and it explains every symbol. Blue marks water, green marks woodland and access land, black and red mark paths, roads and boundaries. The symbols worth knowing early are the green diamonds and dashes for public rights of way, the blue tent for a campsite, and the bracken and marsh symbols that warn of slow, wet ground.

Scale and measuring distance

The grid squares are your ruler. On a 1:25,000 Explorer map each blue grid square is one kilometre across, and the diagonal is roughly 1.5 kilometres. To measure a winding path, lay a piece of string along it, then hold the string against the grid squares. As a rough guide on foot, allow 12 to 15 minutes per kilometre on the flat, and add one minute for every 10 metre contour line you climb.

Grid references and the National Grid

A grid reference is a set of numbers that pinpoints any spot in Britain, and it is how you tell mountain rescue exactly where you are. Ordnance Survey divides the country into a National Grid of numbered blue squares, and you read a reference in a fixed order every time.

The rule to memorise is along the corridor and up the stairs: you always read the numbers going left to right first (the eastings), then bottom to top (the northings). Get them the wrong way round and you will point at the wrong place.

A four figure grid reference

A four figure reference identifies one whole grid square, one kilometre by one kilometre. Read the number of the vertical line on the left hand edge of your square (two digits), then the number of the horizontal line along the bottom (two digits). A square with its left edge on line 21 and its bottom edge on line 05 is grid reference 2105.

A six figure grid reference

A six figure reference narrows that square to a 100 metre box, close enough to find a person. Imagine each grid square divided into tenths. Take your four figure reference, and after the eastings add how many tenths across the square you are (0 to 9), then after the northings add how many tenths up. A point four tenths across and seven tenths up in square 2105 becomes grid reference 214057. Ordnance Survey has a full walkthrough in its beginner's guide to grid references.

The parts of a baseplate compass

A baseplate compass is the type every walker should carry, and it does far more than point north. Learn its parts and the rest of navigation makes sense.

• The baseplate: the clear plastic base you lay on the map. Its straight edge is used to draw and follow lines between two points.
• The magnetic needle: the red end always points to magnetic north, sitting in a fluid-filled housing.
• The housing, or bezel: the rotating dial marked with 360 degrees.
• The orienting lines and orienting arrow: printed inside the housing, used to line up with the map's grid lines.
• The direction of travel arrow: marked on the baseplate, it shows the way you will walk.
• The index line: where you read your bearing off the housing.

The phrase to remember is getting the red needle "in the shed", meaning the red needle sits neatly inside the outlined orienting arrow. Ordnance Survey covers the anatomy in its beginner's guide to using a compass.

Setting the map to north

Orienting the map means turning it so it lines up with the real world, and it makes everything easier to follow. Lay the compass flat on the map, hold both level, and turn your whole body, map and compass together, until the red needle points to the top of the map. The map is now set: the hill on your left on the ground is the hill on your left on the paper. Do this every time you stop to check where you are.

Taking and walking on a bearing

A bearing is a direction measured in degrees, and it lets you walk a straight line to a target you cannot see, through mist or over featureless ground. There are three clear steps.

1. Set the direction on the map. Put the straight edge of the baseplate along your route, from where you are to where you want to go, with the direction of travel arrow pointing the way you want to walk.

2. Turn the housing to grid north. Keeping the baseplate still, rotate the housing until its orienting lines line up with the vertical grid lines on the map, and the orienting arrow points to the top of the map. Read the number at the index line: that is your grid bearing.

3. Add the magnetic variation. The compass needle points to magnetic north, not the grid north on the map, so adjust for the difference. Add the current magnetic variation shown on your map's margin to your grid bearing. The variation across Britain is now small and changes over the years, so check the figure printed on your sheet or on the Ordnance Survey guide to the three norths rather than guessing.

Now lift the compass off the map, hold it flat in front of you with the direction of travel arrow pointing away, and turn your whole body until the red needle sits in the shed. The direction of travel arrow now points exactly where you need to go. Pick a feature ahead on that line, a boulder or a lone tree, walk to it, and repeat.

Magnetic, grid and true north

There are three "norths" and it helps to know them apart. True north is the direction of the North Pole. Grid north is the direction the map's grid lines point, which is what you set on the compass. Magnetic north is where the compass needle actually points, and it drifts slowly over time. For walking you only ever convert between grid north and magnetic north, using the variation on the map margin.

Why you should not rely on a phone alone

A phone is a brilliant backup and a poor primary. Batteries drain fast in the cold and can die without warning on a winter hill. Mobile signal disappears across most of upland Britain, which stops maps loading and stops you calling for help. A dropped phone on rock is a cracked screen and no navigation at all.

Carry the phone, by all means, but carry a paper map and compass too and know how to use them. A map does not run out of charge. That backup mindset runs through our advice on mountain safety and on how to plan a multi-day hike, where a navigation error on day one costs you the rest of the trip.

what3words for emergencies

The free what3words app splits the world into three metre squares, each with a unique three word address, and the UK emergency services accept it. If you are hurt and cannot give a grid reference, a what3words address will put a rescue team on your exact square. Treat it as an emergency aid, not a replacement for the map, because it still needs a working phone.

Practise before you need it

Learn these skills on easy ground first, not halfway up a mountain in cloud. Take your map and compass to a local park or a low, gentle hill on a clear day, set the map, take a few bearings to things you can see, and check that they lead where you expect. Once the moves feel natural you can trust them when the weather closes in.

For a proper grounding, book a course with the National Navigation Award Scheme (NNAS), which runs beginner Bronze awards through providers across the UK. A day with an instructor teaches more than a season of guesswork. The national parks are ideal practice ground, as our guide to backpacking in the national parks sets out, and you can base yourself at a campsite from our directory of UK campsites and walk out from the tent each morning.

Frequently asked questions

What map should I use for hiking in the UK?

Use an OS Explorer map at 1:25,000 scale, the orange one. It shows footpaths, field boundaries and access land in the detail walkers need. The pink OS Landranger at 1:50,000 covers more ground per sheet and suits planning longer routes.

How do I give a six figure grid reference?

Read along the bottom first, then up the side: "along the corridor and up the stairs". Take the four figure square, then estimate the tenths across and up within it. Add the across tenth after the eastings and the up tenth after the northings to make six figures.

What do close contour lines mean?

Contour lines packed close together mean a steep slope or a crag. Lines spread wide apart mean gentle, easy ground. On an OS Explorer map each line marks a 10 metre change in height, so counting them tells you how much you will climb.

How do I take a bearing with a compass?

Put the baseplate edge along your route on the map, turn the housing so its lines match the grid and the arrow points to the top, then add the magnetic variation. Lift the compass, turn your body until the red needle sits in the shed, and follow the travel arrow.

Can I just use my phone to navigate?

No, not on its own. Batteries fail in the cold, mobile signal vanishes across upland Britain, and a dropped phone can crack. Carry a phone as backup but rely on a paper map and compass, which never run out of charge.

Where can I learn to navigate properly?

Take a course with the National Navigation Award Scheme (NNAS), which runs beginner Bronze awards through instructors across the UK. Before that, practise setting the map and taking bearings on easy, low ground on a clear day so the moves feel natural.

The short version

Carry an orange OS Explorer map and a baseplate compass, and learn three things: read contour lines, give a grid reference along the corridor and up the stairs, and take a bearing by setting the housing to grid north and adding the magnetic variation. Practise on easy ground, keep the phone as backup only, and consider an NNAS course.

Get those sorted and you can navigate any hill in Britain with confidence. Next, plan where to pitch up with our guide to camping along the UK's national trails.