Unusual question about compasses

[biser]

I'm designing a wedding motif for a couple who are into the great outdoors, including the water; it will be based on a compass. In your opinion, should it point true north or magnetic north?
It's a surprise so I don't want to ask the couple themselves.
I hope that someone is around to answer this and you aren't all outdoorsing at the moment!

Magnetic.

Sounds like a fun project!

Magnetic. But keep in mind magnetic north changes depending on where you are in the world.

I realised after I asked the question that I'm not totally sure which way I should tilt the compass. Is this correct for UK?

Depends where you are here is website to look it up by U.K. place name
www.magnetic-declination.com/locations.php?cc=GB

I didn't realise that it was so complicated! They are only about one degree of magnetic inclination so I think that I might as well stick with true north after all.

Thanks for the info.

On OS maps the grid lines (the equivalent of a compass marking) are aligned with true north. The map user has to correct for the deviation of true north from magnetic north if they want to use a compass. It's done this way because the difference between true north and magnetic north is not a constant, and is slowly varying over a period of years.

What this means is that for a person holding a map by its edges in front of themself, true north is vertically upwards and away from themself. Does that answer your question?