So - having read the blog from last week you know which map you need - now you need to know what it is telling you.

When our cartographers were creating the maps they couldn't write in words what everything was - if they had have done it would have been very hard to read and would have looked quite messy. So instead what they have done is used symbology to depict what is there on the ground.

Every Ordnance Survey map has it's own legend - the legend is unique to the map that it is on and will help you deicpher what's what on the map. Each legend is split into sections, grouping together similar items so we have:

• Roads and Paths
• Railways
• Public Rights of Way
• Other public access
• Access land
• Boundaries
• General features
• Archaeological and historical information
• Vegetation
• Heights and natural features
• North points
• The National Grid system
• Tourist & Leisure information

By looking through these features you'll be able to decipher that the red triangle is actually a Youth Hostel, the yellow shaded area is in fact open access land and the blue duck is a nature reserve.

A great place to learn more about map symbols is on the Ordnance Survey website where we detail out all of the symbols or by watching the Simon King map symbols film.

In addition to the map symbols - you'll also notice some orange lines that swirl around the map. These are contour lines and depict land of an equal height above sea level.

Somewhere long the line you'll find a number - this will tell you the height in meters. Often there is a 10m interval between the contour lines although in some cases this will be reduced to 5m - you can easily tell this though by checking to see at what increments the spot heights on the contour lines increase / decrease by. the number on the line is written so that the top of the number is at the top of the hill - so if you are looking at a number upside down you are looking down the slope.

The important thing to remember with contiur lines is - the closer together the lines are - the steeper the slope. So if you are walking with young children or are looking for a gentle walk - you need to check the contours! If you are using a route planning tool, such as our getamap portal - you will also be provided with an elevation profile so you can see for yourself what the shape of the land is that you plan to walk on.

If you want to find our more about contour lines - have a look at this Simon King film on contour lines.

So that covers what a map is telling you - next week we'll look at grid references.