Dave Hewitt wrote:More generally, when people say they don't know where boundaries etc are, I fear it's an extension of the now-common thing of lots of folk going to hills without looking at maps beforehand for planning purposes and also often not having a map with them on the hill for navigation purposes. It's all downloads and pre-determined routes and (increasingly in Scotland, which is worrying) people following other walkers on the assumption that they're heading for the same place and will stay in sight. There's a fairly widespread opinion - with which I agree - that the standard of hill navigation has declined quite markedly over the past decade or more. Go back 25 years, say, and Highland pubs on Friday evenings were full of people poring over maps, making their own plans for the following day, and it was really rare to encounter someone on a hill who didn't have a map (usually well-worn) with them. I know times change and things move on, but the current situation in terms of navigation skill seems to be a regression.
Knowing areas isn't easy. I've no idea of my NHS area. Just because someone challenged my impeccable knowledge of Edinburgh council boundaries I looked, and heavens, I was very wrong. It's the bypass for a bit but really collapses to exclude Musselburgh. On the other hand it takes to the ridge of the Pentlands and at the Borestane, you can step out to Borders and Midlothian. The frontier with the Borders runs on for a kilometre to West Cairn, from where you can see loads of areas and Northumberland, but I wander.
Dave's right about the lack of map obsession and its consequences. Trivially, I retrieved an electric biker in summer. He was following a route above Lauder and when his bike broke, he could neither fix it nor improvise a new route. More seriously, a few months ago a young friend had moved off the steep path on Stuc a'Chroin to scramble up the face and two lassies followed her. She'd to go up and get her less experienced companion to the top then go down and talk them to the summit.
I'm not condemning any of the behaviour, because my learning has mostly been through cocking up, but the general level of competence seems to be lower. Twenty years ago, many people had the shape of the map stuck in their heads just from looking at it so often and they could practically recite the route description from the Munro book or Storer. But maybe it's just an increase in traffic on the Munro motorways. Off the beaten track, I'm not seeing many more bodies and those I meet still go right across the age groups.