So, did anyone notice the difference between the two halves of today's map? Here's the story of an unlikely collaboration between me and Steve Smirthwaite. When Chris first asked me if I wanted to help make the maps for Coast & Islands, the first thing I

Another two parks for Pendle Forest Orienteers, supporting their efforts with the Find Your Way project and following on from Corporation Park which I mapped in January. Bold Venture and Whitehall are both Victorian style parks in Darwen, near Blackburn. They're separated by about a mile and have

In July 2024, the World Orienteering Championships are coming to Edinburgh, which is not only incredibly exciting, but represents a massive opportunity to promote and develop orienteering in the UK, particularly Scotland. So, when my friends at Edinburgh University Orienteering Club asked if I could make a map for them,

Instinctively, updating a map feels like it should be an easier and smaller job than creating a new map, but that's often not quite how it turns out. I've heard good mappers say that if they're asked to update a map, they will actually

The Find Your Way project is an initiative to get more disadvantaged and hard-to-reach communities involved with orienteering. Pendle Forest Orienteers are actively engaging with it and are keen to get new maps made to support the project, particularly in places where there traditionally are not so many orienteers. The

I've always wanted to make an orienteering map of the nature reserve close to home and in summer 2022 I decided to commit to doing it - my first forest map. It's a very small area, around 0.5 km2 , but full of contour, vegetation and

Updated 11th July 2023: This was my first professional mapping project, and this write-up was done after making the map in October 2022. So, it's written with more of a beginner's eye. I've added some bits in italics to reflect my current thoughts, after