Ordnance Survey Maps

Ordnance Survey Outdoor Leisure and Explorer maps at 1:25,000 are recommended. Although the outlay is considerable at £7.99 each, (minimum of nine required), most are double sided. The latest edition was especially timed to show all public access land, and are better value than the 1:50,000 Landranger maps, which do not show enough detail and are all single sided. The 1:250,000 map of Wales gives the whole picture and is useful for planning and distant view identification.

Outdoor Leisure and Explorer Maps 1:25,000 Scale
Map Type / No.	Title
Explorer 151	Cardiff & Bridgend (see note 1 below)
Explorer 152	Newport & Pontypool
Explorer OL 13	Brecon Beacons National Park Eastern Area
Explorer OL 12	Brecon Beacons National Park Western Area
Explorer 187	Llandovery
Explorer 213	Aberystwyth & Cwm Rheidol
Explorer 214	Llanidloes & Newtown (see note 2 below)
Explorer 215	Newtown & Machynlleth
Explorer OL 23	Cadair Idris & Bala Lake
Explorer OL 18	Harlech, Porthmadog & Bala
Explorer OL 17	Snowdon

Note 1 Explorer Map 151 is required for the nine miles from Cardiff Castle to the Rhymney Valley Ridgeway at Rudry. Alternatively there is a free online Getamap service provided by the Ordnance Survey where the missing section can be downloaded and printed.

Note 2 Explorer Map 214 is required for less than 3km of the route, just past the summit of Plynlimon. This could be walked using the guidebook only. A grid reference of SN820890 in the Locate field of Getamap gives most of the missing section and SN820875 will give the rest. If you are already a registered user of Getamap Login Here.

Grid Numbering on 1:25,000 Maps

Ordnance Survey maps have grid numbers printed at 10km intervals along each axis. This means that a folded map in a map case has only about a 30% chance of having grid numbers visible on both axes. To avoid having to remove maps from the map case whenever a grid reference is required, it is recommended that repeat numbering is marked on the maps close to the route wherever necessary, before commencing the walk.

Free Maps from Ordnance Survey Getamap Website

The Ordnance Survey online Getamap Service has been updated (Spring 2011) to allow customised maps to be viewed and printed as well as routes to be plotted and saved. This allows larger areas of map to be covered than the old service did, though it does not allow map images to be saved to a PC, though the old sevice is still available to do this if required.

There are three levels of access to the service giving different facilities as follows:

1. Guest Access - Free but with limited facilities to view maps and to view routes emailed by other people or imported from GPS files.
2. Registered User - Wider range of facilities including drawing and saving routes online, exporting to GPS either directly or to local files, and printing map sections. A charge is made of £1 per A4 page at the time of printing, but half page maps can be printed FREE.
3. Subscriber - Access to the full range of facilities and unlimited A4 printing for a £30 annual subscription (often offered to registered users at a discounted price).

For those planning to walk the Cambrian Way, this could be a more economical way of obtaining maps of the route than buying paper maps and it may be worth paying the subscription fee for the convenience of printing larger sections of map per page than are obtainable free. It must also be remembered that printer consumables add to the cost, and some printers are considerably more expensive to run than others. There is also the disadvantage that prints from inkjet printers can be ruined if they get wet, whereas those from laser printers are more durable.

A set of GPX files of the Cambrian Way Route are available to download, and these can be imported into Getamap or used in other mapping software or compatible GPS devices.

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