Ideal for walking and other outdoor pursuits. This series has replaced the earlier, green-cover Pathfinder maps.Some sheets for popular areas like the National Parks, are still branded as Outdoor Leisure (OL) maps, but are now included in this series as the cartography is the same as that in the Explorer Maps. The Explorer maps offer a substantial improvement on the Pathfinder series, with greater use of colour, larger area per map, and stronger emphasis on information for ramblers and tourists.
These highly detailed maps show all the administrative boundaries, settlements as small as isolated farms, road network down to unfenced roads and country tracks, and field boundaries (hedges and drystone walls) which make navigation across the countryside much easier. Steep gradients on roads are indicated. Various landmarks, eg. powerlines, archaeological sites, windmills, churches and lighthouses are shown, and additional graphics indicate natural terrain features such as cliffs, scree, mud and vegetation variations. Contour interval is 5 metres in the lower parts of the country and 10 metres in the uplands, and spot heights are marked. Each map covers an area of 30 x 20km (i.e. approx. 19 x 12 miles), with some double-sided maps covering more, as indicated in the individual descriptions. The maps are fully GPS compatible, with the National Grid shown at 1km intervals and latitude and longitude indicated by margin ticks at 1'.
Explorer maps show a large amount of information for ramblers and tourists. Public rights of way are shown (except in Scotland), together with other routes with public access: National Trails and Recreational Paths, permitted paths and bridleways, and selected cycle routes
