07-06-2010, 11:05 AM
Quote:I have heard nothing but complaints about the new Antonine Wall map -- particularly the impenetrable khaki background colour --, so I naturally refrained from shelling out my hard-earned fiver for a copy. I hope the Hadrian's Wall version is more legible.
Hmm, don't build up your hopes then - if you didn't like that you won't like this (I think that is an inverse Mellorism, but don't let it detain you). They have greyed the OS base in the same way and the background shade on the Cumbrian coast end is pretty much the same. The difference is that, as you get higher, the colour changes, so that by the time you're in the central sector, it is a pale toasty-warm orange. I would certainly never have it as my only map for a visit to the Wall (so you need to lug four OS 1:25000s and possibly a walkers' map too to cover the whole length) simply because the conventions tend to obscure vital bits, but to be honest, the most dinky (and, it has to be said, nerdy) thing I take is a copy of the Per Lineam Valli map in Google's My Maps Editor on my Android phone, which gives me the various Wall components superimposed on aerial photos as I go and doesn't flap about in the wind. On the new map, the change of sides comes near MC56, so refolding is probably best done in the pub (the Centurion Inn) at Walton with a pint, a sarni, and the odd muttered curse.
Mike Bishop
