OS Map - 'Orienteering Course'

[DavidJ]

Perhaps someone can explain this. I happened to be looking at the OS Get-a-map web site and by chance came across a hill in Scotland which was labelled 'Orienteering Course' on the 1:50,000 version (it does not appear on the 1:25,000 version). The Grid Reference is NJ355113. It is near Strathdon, North of Ballater. I can't find a permanent course listed for this site. So what is it?
Thanks. David

[andy]

no idea, but here it is...

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=33 ... &A=Y&Z=120

[AndyC]

Looks like a recce might be in order to see if there are any markers in place.
Only place on the map extract that looks like it might have an association is the hotel?

[rebbid]

Hey, isn't the word "orienteering" copyright? Someone ring up the OS and ask for our money.

[Mr Chips]

Interestingly, it is not far from...

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=334935&y=813287&z=115&sv=334935,813287&st=4&ar=y&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf&dn=674&ax=334935&ay=813287&lm=0

Maybe this belongs on the "Lost areas" thread?

[EddieH]

There definitely is an orienteering map of the area - I went to an event there once. It was one of the most featureless forests in Scotland as I recall.

[AndyO]

The area is called Coulick Hill - one of MAROC's areas.

Not one of the best and hasn't been used for a while.

[Knee Deep Mud!]

I can't find a permanent course listed for this site. So what is it?

Well the list of POCs on the BOF website lists a permanent course in the wood on the other side of the valley to the north. Maybe the OS have got their map wrong?

That said, in the details for that course, BOF link to the MAROC website which makes no reference to this POC, so maybe its a figment of everyone's imagination?

[IanD]

Perhaps it's one of the deliberate mistakes with which the OS litter their maps, for the purpose of catching anyone replicating them without paying a copyright fee?

[greywolf]

Perhaps it's one of the deliberate mistakes with which the OS litter their maps, for the purpose of catching anyone replicating them without paying a copyright fee?

The "OS deliberate mistakes to protect copyright" line is a great piece of spin to cover up shoddy workmanship - sometimes you get the impression the surveyors just sat in the pub and made it up.. and of course much of what is on their maps is not the result of survey, but taking at face value information passed by other agencies, e.g. Forestry Commission. I can think of several plantations that are blatantly mapped as the wrong shape, and one or two that are on the wrong hill....

[geomorph]

Perhaps it's one of the deliberate mistakes with which the OS litter their maps, for the purpose of catching anyone replicating them without paying a copyright fee?

The "OS deliberate mistakes to protect copyright" line is a great piece of spin to cover up shoddy workmanship - sometimes you get the impression the surveyors just sat in the pub and made it up.. and of course much of what is on their maps is not the result of survey, but taking at face value information passed by other agencies, e.g. Forestry Commission. I can think of several plantations that are blatantly mapped as the wrong shape, and one or two that are on the wrong hill....

I've had many instances over the years of 'reference standard maps' being no such thing; its not confined to the UK. In one western country we had a rail track crossing a dirt road on the map, and according to the locals they never had done and certainly didn't when we were there. Apparently the original rail alignment was changed during construction such that by the time it reached the next settlement it was back in the original line, and therefore looked ok to subsequent mappers who did not check the whole.

In the UK the problem is self-perpetuating. OS feeds crap to LA who then add on new development stuff adjusted to fit in with the OS rubbish which in turn is picked up by the next lot of developers in the adjacent lot and they then feed it back to OS. One site we were working on had boundaries out by 150m in places, the result of hedges 6 fields away being improperly mapped way back in the annals.....

[EddieH]

I was really astonished way back in the 70's when I met an OS surveyor on Carn nan Conbhairean by Cluanie. He had an aerial survey plot to check, hewas not interested in the hills but had climbed the highest to get a look clearly with the view to accepting the plot. For company he decided to come along with me to Carn Gluasaid where he noticed that the wide north north ridge did not actually exist and proceded to simply cross it out. I guess that had I not been there that day there'd have ben not a few Munroists scratching their heads.

[Big Jon]

Coulick Hill has been largely clear felled - after a bad storm about 3 or 4 years ago. The map is probably unusable and the permanent course has certainly not been checked by anyone I know of for many years.
Try Cambus O'May permanent course if you want some good orienteering.