So here’s a puzzle. I was wandering around in the snow in the Sidlaw Hills, back in February when random wandering around was still a thing people did, when I noticed an odd placename on my 1:25000 Ordnance Survey map: “Lundiecra Wood”. I’ve been nigglingly half-aware of it before, but on this occasion its … Continue reading Sidlaws: The Mystery of Lundiecra Wood
Tag Archives: Geography
Ordnance Survey OpenData In QGIS 3: Part 4
At the end of my previous post on this topic, I left you with this map of the area around the mountain of Blaven (Gaelic Bla Bheinn) on the Isle of Skye: That concluded a three-part tutorial on using Ordnance Survey OpenData products in QGIS mapping software. (To go to the start of the series, … Continue reading Ordnance Survey OpenData In QGIS 3: Part 4
Michael Palin: Erebus
They might have had monogrammed dinner plates and personalised silver cutlery, but the didn’t have very good maps. Michael Palin needs no introduction from me. He rose to fame with Monty Python in the 1970s, and then in 1989 began a career as a presenter of more-or-less gruelling travel documentaries, starting with Around The World … Continue reading Michael Palin: Erebus
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Ordnance Survey OpenData In QGIS 3: Part 3
I finish my last post about using Ordnance Survey OpenData in QGIS having produced this map of the area around Blaven, on the Isle of Skye: It’s tinted for height, shaded and marked up with contours to emphasize landforms, and has features such as surface water, coastline, roads and buildings added. Now it needs some … Continue reading Ordnance Survey OpenData In QGIS 3: Part 3
Ultima Thule: Part 1
ˈʌltɪmə ˈθjuːliː ultima Thule: a distant, unknown region at the extreme limit of travel Years ago I talked with Knud Rasmussen, the great Danish explorer, who in the early twenties had made a trip by dog team from Greenland around the Arctic rim to Nome, Alaska. In our library here at Bluie West Eight [Sondrestrom … Continue reading Ultima Thule: Part 1
Ordnance Survey OpenData In QGIS 3: Part 2
So, by the end of my previous post on this topic, I’d used Ordnance Survey OpenData products in QGIS to produce a nice smooth depiction of the topography of Ordnance Survey grid square NG, tinted to show height and shaded to show relief. It looked like this: A detail, showing the region around the mountain … Continue reading Ordnance Survey OpenData In QGIS 3: Part 2
Ordnance Survey OpenData In QGIS 3: Part 1
Recently, I’ve been preparing my UK walking maps using the Ordnance Survey’s free OpenData products, which I’ve rendered into maps using a free, open-source Geographical Information System, QGIS. I thought I’d write a little bit about that, now that I’ve got my maps looking more or less as I’d like them. For this first part, … Continue reading Ordnance Survey OpenData In QGIS 3: Part 1
Two Books About Longitude
A review of “Greenwich Time and the Longitude”, by Derek Howse, and “Finding Longitude” by Richard Dunn & Rebekah Higgitt.
Territories That Crossed The Date Line: Part 2 – 1900 To Present
The Date or Calendar Line is a modification of the line of the 180th meridian, and is drawn so as to include islands of any one group, etc, on the same side of the line. When crossing this line on a westerly (true) course, the date must be advance one day; when crossing it … Continue reading Territories That Crossed The Date Line: Part 2 – 1900 To Present
Territories That Crossed The Date Line: Part 1 – Up To 1900
Constrained by extreme necessity, we decided on touching at the Cape Verde Islands, and on Wednesday the 9th of July, we touched at one of those islands named St. James’s. […] In order to see whether we had kept an exact account of the days, we charged those who went ashore to ask what day … Continue reading Territories That Crossed The Date Line: Part 1 – Up To 1900