Well I never, that’s where that town is!

[CormoranStrike]

I have spent fifty years - okay, cumulatively probably just fifty minutes - being utterly convinced Exeter was near Cambridge.

Today I had to check it in a map! Who knew? It’s kind of a Torquay/Plymouth way.

My world is tilting in its axel.

Anyone have other random finds like this?

Watford Gap is named for the VILLAGE Watford, not the town.

I've not RTFT, so apologies if this has been pointed out already - but those doubting wingingIts double Bangor day trip, a quick look at google maps shows a Bangor on Dee/Bangor is-y-Coed (not sure if they're the same place or adjacent) near Wrexham - in Wales. An hour and a half from the uni town, so presumably that's where they accidentally got to.

Richmond Castle is obviously in Richmond.

It is.
OTOH, I recently had to order a spare part for my binoculars, and was slightly surprised that the supplier was in Richmond - still, why not have a niche business in North Yorkshire - good thing I wasn't still living in Thirsk, I might have tried saving the postage by picking it up on a day out.

Thirsk is near Omsk, isn't it?

I have no difficulty with geography as I like reading maps.

But when I was a very small child I thought China was nearer to England than Switzerland.

And the fact that Edinburgh is further west than Cardiff still confuses me.

Dungeness is on the north facing Kent coast no it's on the south coast near Rye

I always thought Billericay was in Ireland? It sounds Irish to me

In my last job I had two colleagues from Billericay. I always thought it was Billercray - somehow I'd just read it wrong. So now I know how to pronounce it. I did know it was in Essex though.

Without googling, where would you say Rutland is

Rutland is famous for being flooded by a reservoir and disappeared as a county for many years. I have never been, but I did pass signs to it on the A1 last year - it's next to Leicestershire?

Brunei is SE Asia, on Borneo along with parts of Indonesia and Malaysia. It does have a sultan and is Muslim and much of its wealth is from oil.

The one I didn't know was Connah's Quay. Their football team made it to a European competition last year and as a family we thought it was in Ireland. Hadn't realised it was (just) in Wales until we looked it up.

Funnily enough a few months later we were staying in Ellesmere Port for a few days, and ended up, on a day trip into North Wales, having an ice cream in Wepre park - in Connah's Quay!

It's amazing how many people think Leeds castle is in Leeds!
Could make a small fortune out of foreign tourists by taking them to Armley prison ( in Leeds ) 😂

Yes, three Bangors: Bangor-on-Dee (near Wrexham); Bangor (near Anglesey), and Bangor (County Down, NI).

I think the only reason I knew Leeds castle was in Kent was seeing signs to it off the M20. It's a reasonable assumption to make that it's in or around Leeds, really.

I think I confused it with Castle Howard until I found out where it was.

I always thought Bolivia was in Eastern Europe until my mid-twenties 😬

There are a lot of places I hadn't heard of, but have now, because of parkrun.

So both Rutland Water and Wepre park have parkruns - at the opposite ends of the hilly scale - as do such interesting sounding places as Conkers, Ally Pally (Alexandra Palace in London), Valentines, Gunpowder etc. And there is a Beeston in Leeds, but that isn't where the parkrun is. My ds learnt his UK geography from football teams, if I were his age now I'd be learning it from parkruns.

Aden used to be on the coast of Somalia (or actually, African country with no particular name), on the Indian Ocean.

Then a few years ago it moved to the coast of Yemen (the north side of the coincidentally-named gulf of Aden).

Amazing.

I knew about Brunei because we went on holiday once to Brunei, Borneo and Malaysia. That makes me feel a bit better about not knowing that Leeds Castle is in Kent.

I found out the other day that the cruise companies have built new islands in the Caribbean

There are several ones all owned by the various companies

So the people who go on cruises might be taken to original islands, but also a "new island" with water sports and activities

I can't remember the names but think they are all either quay or cay in the names

I am incredibly embarrassed to learn that there is a county called Rutland. I never knew it existed.

Clearly there aren't enough map anoraks on MN

Just laughing at Pontefract being in Wales . Is it purely the ponte part of the name? If you ever visit you will find it’s the farthest thing from Wales imaginable.

I feel rather smug tbh, I’m usually shit at geography but I knew the majority of these.

Tbf, Veronicat, Rutland might have not existed when you were learning your counties.

I always thought that Harrogate was on the coast and that Liverpool was on the east coast.

When the Argentinians invaded the Falkland Islands I wondered what their interest in Scotland was.

For years I though Billericay was in Ireland. It sounds like it ought to be Irish....

Friend of mine was insistent until quite recently that Gibraltar was an island.