UKC

Has anyone else been astonished at the utter uselessness of the foot paths marked on OS maps in green dotted lines?

The black dotted lines (which are a remnant from older versions of OS maps) are much more accurate but obscured by the thick dotted green lines which plunge of cliffs and go places no one in their right mind would walk.

What is the point of these green lines? They don't mark paths that are on the ground. Is the OS trying to move where people walk in the hills.

In reply to Julian:

the dotted green lines are not paths, they're rights of way, most of which are paths. the black dotted lines are the true, definite paths on the ground.

In reply to jude:

If you look on an OS 1:25k Explorer or Outdoor lesuire map in the key the green dotted lines are marked as footpaths. The black dotted lines are called paths.

In reply to Julian:

they're rights of way...im not gonna budge on this one

In reply to jude:

Sorry....Off topic but....

Whilst trying to find a crag in Lancs.....My mate once navigated us for 5 miles up a crease in the map.....

....he never held the map again......

PaulJ

In reply to PaulJ:

LMAO!!!!!!

In reply to Julian:

Get the Snowdonia map out and look at the Beddgelert area. On Moel Hebog there is a bridleway going straight over a 200 foot high cliff!

Mind you the path makes a lovely parabola on the map. As do the horses (sorry!)

Bob

If you want to try the horse's mouth. the OS are very good with answering queries:

http://www.ordsvy.gov.uk/

In reply to Julian:
As Jude & other have said, the green line is the public right of way - public footpath (little dashes) or bridleway (longer dashes). And as you've noticed, these can bear little resemblence to what you actually find on the ground.
The paths marked in black are the 'real' paths found on the ground, and are generally pretty accurate. Not always, though, as much of the mapping is done from aerial photos, and just occassionally a broken down wall, or a ditch, or some other feature gets marked as a path.

I'm not sure why the marking of the public rights of way is so strange. I assume the OS maps are faithful reproductions of the definitive map. Again, I assume the public rights of way were recorded along the lines of 'there's a right of way from x to y' - and this was then drawn on the map as a straight line. I don't know for sure, and if anyone does, then I'd be interested to know.....

Anyhow, once you know to look for the black paths, it all gets a lot more straightforward. I once had a guy ask me if all the brown lines on an OS map were the paths. I told him they were very good for circular walks...... then relented, and explaind.....

In reply to Julian:

It's also worth noting the OS introduces deliberate errors into their mapping to combat plagirism. Ref: a recent case against the AA.
That aside you should consider the scale of the map you're looking at, the width of the drawn line and what you're trying to show. What this boils down to at (particularly at 1:50000) is that everthing tends to be in it's correct relative location but not it's correct geographical location. Hence differences.