Ten Elements of Orienteering - Reading The Map (Part 2)

Post date: Jun 21, 2014 7:16:36 PM

We hope you tried out your compass skills as demonstrated in last weeks video in James' Fort on Tuesday evening. This week's video is the second part of the Ten elements of orienteering video which focuses on - Reading The Map (Part 2).

This is the sixth in a series of short training videos produced by the Irish Orienteering Association to help you learn the skills needed to orienteer. This video explains a bit more about Reading The Map and how the legend is key to understanding the map. We hope you enjoy the video and if you ever have any questions regarding understanding the map just ask any of our experienced club members at our event in Moanbaun Wood, Watergrasshill on Tuesday evening. You will find them at registration and at the start.

The map legend is key to understanding the map. Knowing what the various symbols mean will help you interpret the map and visualise the terrain around you. The various IOF Orienteering Map Symbols are illustrated and described below. 

Black symbols are used for rock features (for example, boulders, cliffs and stony ground) and for linear features such as roads, paths and fences as well as for other man-made features (for example, ruins and buildings.

Brown symbols are used for landforms such as contour lines, small knolls, ditches & earthbanks.

Blue is used to mark water features: such as lakes, ponds, rivers, streams and marshes.

Yellow is to designate vegetation - specifically open or unforested land.

Green is used to show vegetation that slows down the passage of an orienteer. The darkest green areas, called "fight", are usually impassable. 

White on an orienteering map signifies forest with little or no undergrowth - forest that an orienteer can run through. 

Purple (or red) is used to mark the orienteering course on a map. Also, this colour is used to designate map corrections and out-of-bounds areas.