Can you read an os map?

[Gone2far]

I always thought it was something everybody could but today I asked the manager of a pub in was in (a youngish man) to show me where we were on the map and he couldn't - said that he used sat nav instead. So perhaps map reading isn't taught, or learnt, any more. Which seems a shame.

Yes learnt on DOE many years ago. Can't say I've looked at one recently though. I always argue with DH when we're driving in Europe that I'd like a map as back up to sat nav

I could manage well enough using one, though would be a little rusty on some of the specific symbols etc. (without a key).

I can read os maps, used to hike a lot.

An OS map is the first thing we buy when we visit a different area of the UK.

I did DofE as a teen and desk based research using maps formed a massive part of my university course too. The old six inch to the mile OS maps are a thing of beauty.

Yes, learnt in Scouts. Perhaps map reading is one of the things they can highlight as a benefit of joining.

Yes, I still remember distinctly learning it in year 6.

In DD's school they do orienteering as part of PE so learn it there too, from preschool onwards.

I can. We didn't learn at school but my dad taught me. I bloody love maps, and I've been known to spend all morning with OS maps spread out all over the living room floor planning a walk then not bothering to actually go because the fun part is over.

DH was never taught growing up and tends to panic when faced with anything more complicated than the tube map. I'm trying to teach him but it's a slow process; I think coming to it as an adult for the first time it's really hard to link reality to lines on paper.

Yes, of sorts. I don't claim to be an expert but have a good understanding and could certainly find my location in the situation you describe. I also hill walk so need to have a good understanding, and a map reading course of some sorts is on my to do list - unless you are already an expert, there's always useful tips you can pick up.

But complete reliance on sat navs is a thing for some people. We travel around for work and one of our younger trainees commented that he couldn't believe I could find my way to a site 100 miles away without using a sat nav, even though he knew I had been to the place a few times before and it was a fairly simple route - couple of changes of motorway and remember which motorway junction you needed, follow signs for X town and it's on the sign posted industrial estate and then it's a huge factory that you can't really miss. He was gobsmacked when we drove through the gate.

Another colleague used to go everywhere by sat nav, even the place that was 2 miles from her house with only 1 change of direction. It would take longer for her to set up and put away the sat nav than the journey itself.

Sat navs are useful, but it's always a good idea to know the basics without them, sometimes they fail, or send you a stupid route for example.

taught at school many moons ago had to make our own maps of the school grounds plus we also had to learn all the symbols on a map such as church hospitals etc a very useful skill

My DH can, I can't. I love maps and looking up all the symbols, and I know what everything means, but I have a real problem converting what is 2D on a page to 3D in real life. He always used to navigate if we went on a walk with an OS map. I'd rather have some detailed written instructions of the walk. Or some kind of virtual reality 3D map projected in front of me!

My brain just cannot imagine what something will be like in real life from a plan or map, it just doesn't make much sense to me. A-Z and streetmaps I am better with, but satnav (used carefully) is an absolute godsend to me.

With any new local route I probably have to drive it four or five times to remember it properly without satnav.

In part of my career, I did real estate work, and people would show me development plans and room plans, and say what things were and it always just looked like a bunch of random boxes and lines to me with very little reference to what it looked like in real life.

Absolutely

As a keen walker from tiny it's a skill I was taught by my DF.

I have the most amazing children's OS map skills book from 80's I lent it to Dp

I do have OS online now, incidentally it's free when you subscribe to Country walking.

Still really important to be able to stand with the paper IMO

I can. Teaching dd to although she is doing it in geography anyway.
I actually have a lousy sense of direction and dd has , fortunately, inherited a better one from her dad. We've been giving her maps to look at since she was a baby.
I now use ddnav for a particular journey I do with her in a car once a week. She's 11.

Yes, it should still be taught (geography teacher until recently).
It’s one of those things that some children pick up really quickly and others find really difficult.

Yes, I have my Gold DoE and it was a pretty basic element of teaching my subject

It is much easier to learn in a practical setting. With y7, it was easiest to start by giving them an OS map and getting them to find school, their house and pick some local features to connect it with what they are familiar with. Starting with textbook exercises on specific skills was always painful.

Sat navs are great for dealing with the final detail as you approach your destination, but I hate to follow them blindly. I like a sense of where I am and how places connect. I'm good at learning routes and recognising by landmarks.
DH has become a slave to Sat Nav and his sense of direction has deteriorated in the last 10-15 years.

I also like "spontaneous exploration" extending slightly beyond my local territory. I do a lot of rural running and edge out deeper on footpaths. I may need to check on an OS map at home or get my phone out as back up, but I love that feeling of pushing out solo.

No.
I am 60 and didn't do geography at school past 14. However I am planning to learn....I love hiking and need to be able to understand them.
I have a box full of them!

I can't remember if I learnt at school, but I did at Guides and am now a Guide leader. I also did bronze DofE. I grew up with OS maps. My dad had the pink OS map of almost all of the UK on a bookshelf, and I was a strange child who used to just get one out and spend a while looking at it even though it was somewhere I had never been.

I'm in my 60s and year 7 was all about reading OS maps. Can still remember my drawing of a estuary and all the symbols. Never knew what 'glasshouses' meant though, assumed it was some sort of housing estate.

Yes.
I'm 53. I cant remember learning g it at school but learned through my over the years.

I vaguely remember learning to read them at school

We’ve used them a lot the past few years for bridle ways, but generally I use the sat nav on my phone

I'm glad map reading isn't a dying skill. When we travel abroad I always miss not having good maps and find it astonishing that other countries don't seem to have decent maps.

I wasn't taught at school. Damn I'm still cross about how crap that place was!

I'm interested to learn though. Could anyone link to a good resource?

I studied Standard Grade (GCSE equivalent) geography is 2005/2006 and we were taught to read maps. Note I didn't say "I learned to read maps" because that would suggest I could

yes.
learnt at school and also through my parents. our holidays were usually road trips. so we had a navigator (whoever was in the passenger seat) and a tourguide to show/explain the sight seeings.

margareta
www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/resources/map-reading/

Here is a good resource.