Tour of the Lake District - A Walker's Guidebook

• Location
• Description
• Contents
• Introduction
• Sample Route
• Maps
• Updates
• Reviews
• Further Reading

The Ordnance Survey extracts in this guidebook show the route of the Tour, but inevitably cannot cover much more than 100m or so either side – not much use if by intention or accident you go off exploring the surroundings! To put the walk in context, it is recommended you carry also the four 1:25,000 OS Outdoor Leisure sheets that cover the Lake District, in a waterproof map case, along with a Silva or similar compass. The four OS maps you need are:

•    OL4
•    OL5
•    OL6
•    OL7.

Do make sure you can use the compass at least for basic navigational tasks – orientating the map and taking compass bearings. You may not need to use this knowledge on the Tour, but it may give you some reassurance should the cloud descend on a more exposed section.

The 1:25,000 scale ‘Superwalker’ series by Harvey Maps includes five maps covering the Lake District, and offers an alternative to the Ordnance Survey sheets. You will need all five maps for the Tour:

•    South East
•    Central
•    South West
•    West
•    East.

These durable, water-resistant maps are less than half the bulk of the laminated OS equivalents; some walkers also prefer Harvey maps for their clear colour shading, making relief features more obvious – the choice is yours. Recently, Harvey and the BMC have brought out a 1:40,000 Mountain Map of the Lakes – the best map currently available to cover the entire national park in a single sheet. The Mountain Map is a viable alternative to carrying the four separate OS sheets (or five Superwalker maps) and includes useful 1:20,000 enlargements of some mountain summits such as Scafell and Great Gable.

More accessible information on mountain navigation is available in Map and Compass by Pete Hawkins (Cicerone Press), www.cicerone.co.uk.