Start with the right map for the job

Before you worry about bearings or contour lines, make sure you are holding the right map. Two scales cover almost everything a walker needs in Britain. A 1:25,000 map shows four centimetres for every kilometre on the ground, which is enough detail to pick out field boundaries, individual walls, small streams and the exact line of a footpath through a wood. A 1:50,000 map shows two centimetres per kilometre: less cluttered, covering a far bigger area, and ideal for open moorland, long ridge routes and days where you mostly follow obvious tracks.

Most beginners are happiest starting at 1:25,000, because the extra detail forgives small mistakes. Whichever you choose, buy the waterproof version if you can — a map that turns to pulp in a shower is no use on a wet afternoon in the hills — and check that the sheet covers your whole route with a few kilometres of margin to spare. A route that runs off the edge of the map is a route you cannot navigate.

• 1:25,000 — best for farmland, woods, complex footpath networks and beginners.
• 1:50,000 — best for big open country, long distances and simpler routes.
• Always — check the edition date, and carry the map in a clear case.

Orienting the map: the habit that changes everything

An oriented map is one where what you see on the paper matches what you see in front of you. Lay the map flat, then turn your whole body and the map together until the features line up with the landscape. If a lane runs away to your left and a church tower sits behind your right shoulder, the map should show the same. This sounds obvious and is quietly transformative: once the map is oriented, every decision becomes easier.

You can orient by eye using two or three recognisable features — a road junction, a distinctive bend in a river, a lone conifer plantation. If visibility is poor or you are in featureless country, use a compass. Line up the edge of the compass with a north–south grid line, then rotate map and compass together until the needle sits inside the orienting arrow. In Britain the difference between grid north and magnetic north is small, usually a degree or two, but it is printed in the map margin and worth glancing at on longer days.

Reading contour lines: the shape of the land

Contour lines join points of equal height. The vertical gap between them, the interval, is printed in the legend and is usually five or ten metres. Everything else is pattern recognition.

• Lines close together mean steep ground; widely spaced lines mean gentle slopes.
• Roughly concentric rings show a summit or a hilltop plateau.
• A V shape pointing uphill marks a valley or re-entrant — water runs down the middle of it.
• A V pointing downhill marks a spur or ridge, usually the easiest line of ascent.

Look for the darker index contours, which carry height numbers, and for crag symbols and hachures that mark rocky edges. Distance alone rarely tells you how hard a walk will be; height gained tells you far more. A flat ten kilometres is a pleasant morning. Ten kilometres with six hundred metres of ascent is a serious day out, and your legs will know the difference long before your map does.

Following a public footpath on the ground

On a 1:25,000 map, public footpaths appear as green dashed lines, bridleways as green dashes with small crosses, and byways as green crosses. Black dashed lines are usually permissive or informal paths, which can be closed at short notice. Where you see a green dashed line crossing a field, expect a stile, a gate or a waymark disc — yellow arrows for footpaths, blue for bridleways, red for byways.

Paths on the ground are not always as tidy as they look on paper. Use handrails: a wall, a hedgerow, a stream or a fence line that runs in the direction you want to travel. Follow the handrail and you cannot go far wrong. Pick a catching feature too — a road, a river or a forest edge you would hit if you overshot. If you do drift off line, walk back to the last point where you were certain of your position rather than guessing forwards.

Grid references are worth learning early. Four figures, read east then north, will get you within a hundred metres; six figures will put you within a field.

A simple routine for every walk

Good navigation is a loop, repeated often rather than performed once. Set the map. Thumb the map so your position stays under your hand. Orient it to the ground. Identify two features you can see. Then plan the next leg before you set off.

Allow time generously: roughly four kilometres an hour on the flat, plus about ten minutes for every hundred metres of climbing. Count your paces over short legs where you need precision. Stop at every junction and every gate to check, rather than striding on and hoping. Tell someone your route and expected return time, carry a spare layer, water and a headtorch, and remember the small courtesies of the countryside — leave gates as you find them, keep dogs on leads around livestock, and take your litter home. Read the map, look up, read the ground, and the countryside will open up to you one field at a time.