The 1:25,000 Iconic Paper and Digital Versions

Published By Categorised as Methodology

The best and most up to date digital maps are a premium service and suitable for light use. There is a very generous initial £1k worth of views free, which renews monthly, so £12k annually.

(In theory one could use multiple personal accounts to stay under the limit, but still requires careful monitoring to avoid surprises. So each mapper could have access to their own pages).

While there are similarities the paper 1:25,000 map is not the same as the 1:25,000 premium digital product. The paper map I purchased May 2025 looks to be around the 2008 period (although it is actually marked copyright 2015.)

This should not really a huge problem., but a little confusing, the version available for download is much less flexible than I had hoped. First up, it looks like a later date – 2015 and the download is only available for the OS app, which is available for a phone or ipad.

The free app download that comes with the paper map costs £12 and the same iconic high quality OS mapping. Cheap enough for all reseaerchers to buy one for themselves1.

In conclusion, using the slightly dated 1:25,000 paper map version would surely be satisfactory for the project and everyone would be working from the same.

Optionally the download has other field uses, otherwise only available if you buy the app.

The following presentations are for illustration only to show you the premium map data in action.

In the first we are using a text file with a simple list of field data created in Excel (see below).

https://ourlocality.org/fieldnames/files/2025/05/ELFANS-Pilot-violet.txt

In the second presentation we have taken snapshots of the data stored in the QGIS mapping software (previously digitised) and saved them separately as “keyhole markup” files (kml).

https://ourlocality.org/fieldnames/files/2025/05/Tyninghame.kml

The most important thing to do at this stage would be to agree a preferred excel format and run a training workshop session, to make sure all are comfy using the Excel and ensuring the grid refs are captured as easily as possible.

this uses the premium service (OSDATA HUB), which we can employ for lite use and possibly display
Ipad app, web and paper map are different editions
the paper map is excellent too – only £12 and some areas look like they were not updated since 2008
the web app is the most versatile – through the browser but for the latest map requires an annual subscription
zoomed out we get little field detail
zoomed in we get more detail – the fields have actually been built on
the map is not quite as up to date as the digital version
the free digital version is less detailed than the annual subscription service – very good for volunteers and lowest cost
Verification checks should use the most up to date version

  1. If needed the full OS maps app can also be purchased for £33/year (it covers the whole of GB and beyond) but this uses the most up to date mapping – as far as I can see post 2024 too. Each person would install it on their phone, ipad via the app. ↩︎

By philip aye

is an environmental consultant