How to Use a Map and Compass: Easy Beginner’s Guide

What Do You Need?

You only need two things to start learning: a walking map and a basic baseplate compass.

For walking in Britain, we normally use Ordnance Survey Explorer maps. These are the orange 1:25,000 maps and they show plenty of useful detail including public rights of way, rivers, woodland, buildings, field boundaries and contour lines.

A simple baseplate compass is ideal. You do not need an expensive or complicated one to learn the basics.

We usually carry an OS map on our walks as well as using digital navigation. You can browse Ordnance Survey maps and compasses on the official OS website here*

First, Forget the Compass

This might sound strange in a guide about using a map and compass, but the easiest way to learn is to understand the map first.

Start somewhere you already know. A local park, woodland or familiar walk is perfect.

Find where you are standing on the map. Maybe you are in a car park, beside a road or next to a bridge. Once you have found yourself, look around for something else obvious. It could be a river, woodland, building or hill.

Now find that same thing on the map.

That is really what map reading is about: matching the picture on the paper with the landscape around you.

If there is a river to your left in real life, you should be able to find that river beside your position on the map. If the path bends around a wood ahead of you, you should be able to see that bend and the wood on the map too.

The more often you do this, the easier reading a map becomes.

Turn the Map the Right Way Around

One of the easiest things you can do to make a map understandable is turn it so that it matches the world around you.

This is called orientating the map, but the name makes it sound far more complicated than it is.

Find your position and look at something obvious nearby, such as a road, river or woodland. Turn the map until that feature is pointing in the same direction on the map as it is in real life.

Imagine you are standing on a straight road. If the road disappears into the distance in front of you, turn the map until the road printed on the map also runs away from your position in front of you.

Suddenly everything around you should start making more sense.

This is one of the first navigation skills we would practise because you can do it without even touching the compass.

Understanding the Most Useful Map Symbols

You do not need to memorise every symbol on an OS map. There is a key on the map for anything you do not recognise.

Start with the obvious things.

Rivers and streams are shown in blue. Woodland is normally easy to recognise by the green colouring and tree symbols. Roads, buildings and other major features are clearly marked.

Public rights of way are particularly useful for walkers. On an OS Explorer map in England and Wales, public footpaths are shown with green dashed lines. Rights of way are not shown in the same way on OS maps of Scotland.

Be careful with black dotted or dashed lines. They can show paths or tracks that physically exist on the ground, but they do not automatically mean you have a public right to walk along them.

If you are ever unsure what a line or symbol means, check the map key rather than guessing.

What Are All the Blue Squares?

The blue lines running across an Ordnance Survey map form the National Grid.

The vertical lines run roughly north to south and the horizontal lines run roughly east to west.

They are used for grid references, which allow you to describe an exact location on the map. You do not need to master grid references before learning basic navigation, but the vertical blue lines become useful when you start using your compass.

For now, just recognise them as the regular blue squares covering the map.

What Are Contour Lines?

Contour lines are the thin brown lines running around hills and valleys. They tell you about the shape of the land.

The easiest way to understand them is to imagine looking down on a hill from above. Each contour line joins places that are at the same height.

You do not need to calculate anything complicated to make them useful.

When the contour lines are spread well apart, the ground is generally more gradual.

When the contour lines are packed tightly together, the ground is steeper.

That means you can look at your map before a walk and get an idea of whether you are heading towards gentle ground or a steep climb.

Now Pick Up the Compass

A walking compass looks complicated because it has several different arrows and markings, but you only need to understand a few of them to begin.

The red end of the magnetic needle points towards magnetic north.

The large arrow printed along the base of the compass is the direction-of-travel arrow. This is the arrow that eventually shows you which direction to walk.

The round part in the middle rotates. This is the compass housing. Inside it is another arrow called the orienting arrow.

If you remember nothing else yet, remember this:

Red needle = north.

Big arrow = where you are heading.

That is enough to begin understanding how the compass works.

The Easiest Compass Exercise

Before trying to take a proper bearing, practise something much easier.

Stand somewhere familiar and hold the compass flat in your hand.

Watch the red end of the needle. Turn yourself around slowly and you will see that the compass body moves with you while the magnetic needle continues pointing towards north.

Now look north.

Turn east.

Turn south.

Turn west.

You are simply getting used to the idea that the compass gives you a fixed direction to work from.

Once that feels obvious, using it with the map becomes much easier.

How to Take a Compass Bearing

This is the part that often scares beginners, but the basic idea is very simple.

You are standing at one place on the map and want to travel towards another place. Your compass is going to help you work out the direction between those two points.

Imagine your position is A and your destination is B.

Place the compass flat on the map with one of its straight edges connecting A to B. Make sure the big direction-of-travel arrow points from where you are towards where you want to go.

A really easy way to remember this is:

Me → Destination.

Keep the base of the compass in that position. Now turn the round compass housing until the straight lines inside it run in the same direction as the vertical north-south grid lines printed on the map.

The orienting arrow inside the housing should point towards the top of the map.

At this point, the compass has captured the direction between where you are and where you want to go.

What Does “Red in the Shed” Mean?

Once you have set the compass on the map, pick it up carefully without turning the dial.

Hold it flat in front of you.

Now turn your whole body until the red end of the magnetic needle sits over the orienting arrow inside the compass housing.

This is where the common navigation phrase “red in the shed” comes from.

The red needle is the red.

The orienting arrow is the shed.

Once the red needle is sitting correctly over the orienting arrow, look at the large direction-of-travel arrow on the front of the compass.

That arrow shows the direction of your bearing.

So the whole process can be remembered as:

Me to destination. Match the grid lines. Red in the shed. Follow the big arrow.

That is the basic idea behind taking a compass bearing.

But There Are Two Different Norths

There is one extra thing you need to know if you are going to use bearings properly.

The north shown by the grid lines on your OS map is called grid north.

The north your compass needle points towards is called magnetic north.

They are not always exactly the same direction.

The difference between them is called the grid magnetic angle, and it changes depending on where you are and over time.

For simple practice somewhere familiar, the most important thing is understanding that this difference exists. When you start using accurate bearings for real navigation, especially over longer distances or in poor visibility, check the current magnetic information for the area and make the required adjustment.

Your OS map contains magnetic information, and current figures can also be checked through Ordnance Survey or the British Geological Survey.

Do not let this put you off learning. You do not need to understand magnetic variation perfectly before you can start practising with a map and compass.

How Do You Actually Follow a Bearing?

Once you have your bearing and the red needle is lined up correctly, do not walk along staring down at your compass.

Instead, look in the direction shown by the big direction-of-travel arrow.

Find something obvious ahead of you that lies on that line. It might be a tree, gate, wall corner, rock or another easily recognised feature.

Walk towards that.

When you reach it, check your compass again and choose another feature further ahead.

This is much easier than trying to constantly watch the needle while walking.

Remember that a compass gives you a direction. It does not tell you that walking in a perfectly straight line is safe or permitted.

There might be a river, wall, cliff, bog, private land or another obstacle in front of you. You still need to use the map, follow appropriate routes and look at the landscape around you.

How Do You Know Where You Are?

One of the biggest mistakes beginners make is putting the map away and only looking at it after they become confused.

It is much easier to keep track of where you are as you walk.

Suppose your map shows that you will cross a bridge, pass a wood on your right and then reach a path junction.

As you walk, look for those things.

Cross the bridge and check it off mentally.

See the woodland appear on your right.

When you reach the junction, find that junction on the map before carrying on.

You are constantly proving to yourself that you are still where you think you are.

This is sometimes called keeping in contact with the map, and it makes navigation much easier than trying to work out your location after you have already become unsure.

How to Practise Without Getting Overwhelmed

Do not make your first proper attempt at navigation somewhere remote.

Choose a walk you already know.

Take the map with you even though you do not need it.

Start by finding the car park or your starting point. Turn the map so that it matches the landscape. Find the path you are walking along and predict what feature should appear next.

Then have a go at using the compass.

Take a bearing towards something obvious that you can already see and check whether the compass points towards it.

Try another one.

The fact that you already know where you are means you can concentrate on understanding the map and compass without worrying about getting lost.

After a few sessions, it starts feeling much more natural.

Teaching Children to Read a Map

Children do not need to start with bearings or magnetic north.

Give them the map and make it part of the walk.

Ask them to find the car park.

Can they find the river?

Where is the woodland?

Can they work out whether the path turns left or right after the bridge?

Ask them to tell you what they think you will reach next.

Once they understand that the map is simply showing the place around them from above, introduce the compass.

Show them the red needle and let them work out which way north is.

You can then practise orientating the map and taking very short bearings together.

Turning navigation into part of the adventure is much easier than trying to teach everything as a lesson.