Ooh, Harveys come in 25K too?? I will definitely take a look!

I've only used OS maps, uaually 1:25000. Now I use Memory Map with OS maps. Are Harvey's available for any mapping software, particularly MM ?

I'm used to 1:25000 OS maps. I've just used them extensively and am pretty good with them now. Will give Harveys a look if I see any in town but with the type of navigation I do most of the time, extra field boundaries are pretty useful. Plus its just interesting to know what's around you, even if you cant actually see it!

Bill - Anquet use harvey's for some of their maps.

Anquet do the Superscale Versions of:- The Lake District, Selected Scottish Maps and The Yorkshire Dales.

I use the following maps if I can for

Tent trips: OS 1:50000 (2cm map) + occasionally OS 1:25000 (4cm map) blowups of bits that look tricky.

Day trips: 2cm map or 4cm map depending on how daring the route looks.

Skye trip(s): Harvey 8cm map + OS 4cm for walking in/out.

1:25K OS map For more technical and finer navigation and for more general i use 1:50K OS map. I find them easy to understand and easy to work with and also easy to convert from one to another whilst on the hill.

I use the Harvey 1:25000 for most days on the fells. And an OS 1:25k lowland walks.

I also just got a Harvey's atlas that covers the whole of the lake district at 1:40000 in one handy, wire-bound book. Particularly useful for finding carparks at the ends of remote tracks. As a former Londoner, it's nice to have an equivilent to the A-Z for the lakes :)

I like the added detail of the OS 1:25k maps at low level, but the Harvey 1:25k maps for clarity at higher levels. Personally, I find it easier to build a 3D mental picture of the land from the Harveys than the OS.

For any walk, i'll have the full 1:25k map in my rucksac. Then there will be, more than likely a printed copy of the route at same scale. I tried the 1:50k, and got lost. Was too lazy to get other map from 'sac, where the info on walls would have easily directed me in the proper direction (OK, i was only 100m or so off, but i had to clamber and stagger to get back on trail!).

1:50k are brilliant for planning.

Harveys??? Well, i have the Snowdon one, and it looks a little mickey-mouse, like a free map in a leaflet. But, all the info is on there, with extra paths to the OS ones. I can imagine they'd be of more use in untrodden areas as opposed to relatively civilised areas as North Snowdonia. I'm waiting for the new Rhniog one to come out and i can imagine, or hope, in that sort of terrain, they'd come into themselves.

Definitely not Mickey Mouse! And I would have thought Snowdon would be just the sort of place that Harveys would be great for just like Glencoe, Ben Nevis etc.

I said "looks a bit mickey mouse", as a first impression.

As someone who's used OS maps for so many years it's difficult to adjust to a different format.

I'm confident they have the full quota of information on them, I personally don't have the condfidence to use them instead of OS at the mo (would feel like going up sonowdon wearing slippers!). Around Snowdon, i don't find the advantages so strong as i know the area relatively well. That's why i;'m looking forward to the new Rhinogydd map, so i can test it out next spring.

Any shortcomings about the Harvey maps are wholly on my side, and how i can make use of them.

Hope this clears up any misunderstanding.

p.s. if i'm reported lost forever in the Rinogydd next easter, then ignore everything i said above and re-instate 'mickey'mouse'. :-))

Dave - sorry didn't mean it sound like I was arguing with you! As I said earlier I would admit to being very wary of them when I first saw them, but they are honestly much better than OS at 1:25,000.

Good luck with the Rhinogydd map! ;-)

I'm surprised to hear about a "new" Harveys map of the Rhinogywotsits.

I've got one here, 1:40,000 scale, published in 1992 according to the blurb.

AHA that's the 'old' Rhinogyddau.
They built new ones...

For small one day treks I often use the internet now printing off my routes from either Multimap or even the new OS website from both of these sites you can print of a 1:25000 map, they can often be limited to size but all you need to do is print out each bit which is usually for me about 3 A4 pages...Major Lightweight, Free and it doesn't matter if it gets damaged just print it off again!

I think I would prefer OS Explorers in most cases as the detail is vital in navigation, ecspecially when requiring linear objects etc in bad weather, although Harveys do come in useful when your somewhere like Cullins and Glencoe where theres no walls etc I can see why both are useful but will never go to the hills without a version of OS mapping at 1:25000 with its detail.

I've got the Anquet version of the 1:25k Harvey for the Lakes. I'd been pretty satisfied with it until this week, when I used it for trying to navigate in thick cloud around the Scafells, and I found it was much less helpful than the OS 1:25k, which I also had with me. By way of illustration, the Harvey 1:25k doesn't even have Foxes Tarn on it! In a situation verging on dangerous, where two of us were doing everything we could to try to establish precisely where we were, so that we could get to a safe place to make a camp, I found the Harvey's map inadequate, and I won't be relying on it again.

In fact, it wasn't until I read this thread that I realised it was meant to be 1:25k: I thought it was 1:40k. I've just checked the software, though, and it does say 1:25k. Does anyone out there know whether they actually re-drew the maps, or simply blew them up?

Apologies - now that I look again I see that Foxes Tarn is actually shown. Exhaustion must have obliterated it temporarily. It's still the case, though, that the Harveys map seemed inadquate to me in a micro-navigation situation, in comparison with the OS 1:25k. I'd be interested to know what the rest of you think?

Jamie - to quote the Harveys Legend: "On moorland, walls, ruined walls and fences are shown. For farmland, only the outer boundary wall or fence is shown". So Harveys do show fences where they exist high up, just not at low levels so if you are mainly walking at low levels OS 1:25,000 is probably better.

Despite peewiglet's reservations I would still argue that OS 1:25,000 are far too detailed for use anywhere except low flattish areas - the contours are virtually unreadable. In fact I would much rather use the OS 1:50,000 - it really is amazing how much information can still be obtained from the contours from the 1:50,000 - something I only appreciated having done an ML training course.

Are you sure the problem is with Harveys rather than Anquet? I have the Harveys Superwalker 1:25,000 Western Lakeland map (dated 1992) and it has Foxes Tarn marked and named on it.