Gordon Brown announced in a major speech this morning that he is going to make “a wide range of Ordnance Survey mapping data free for commercial reuse from 1 April”. This follows a consultation carried out by the OS over the last few months on whether mapping data, including their 1:50 000 and 1:25 000 maps, should be made available for free use. The government response to the consultation will be published shortly.
All these maps, both 1:25 000 and 1:50 000 for the whole of the UK, have already been made available free on Walkhighlands GPS route planner system (that’s over £7,500 worth of free maps!). The first (and so far, only) system to offer a free tool to plan your walking routes on a 1:25 000 OS map base, Walkhighlands allows you to trace planned routes, and download and upload them from your GPS (via your PC).
Why not try it now? No registration is required for 1:50 000 mapping; to zoom to 1:25 000 you must be logged in (free):
http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/maps/
The system has been kept as simple as possible for the fastest speed and to allow support across all major browsers. To jump to the area you are interested in, simply type in a placename into the search box.