Ordnance Survey misrepresenting Nairn?
Is Ordnance Survey misrepresenting Nairn? I’m beginning to suspect so.
I’ve looked at the OS map of Nairn previously and noticed that there is no real beach marked for the town – merely “mud and sand”.
However, while at a relative’s the other day and looking through their roadmap, I noticed that Nairn was not marked with a beach at all.
When I’m travelling around on family days out, I always aim for the beaches to keep the kids entertained at the end of the trip.
I’m therefore wondering how many people have therefore overlooked Nairn because there is no clear indication of a beach in OS data used for these roadmaps?
Therefore in an effort to challenge the issue, I’ve just sent the following email to OS:
RE: Ordnance Survey error query
Hi there –
I just wanted to raise a query regarding a potential error on Ordnance Survey material.
The seaside town of Nairn, in the Highlands of Scotland, about 15 miles east of Inverness, is shown as being fronted to the sea with “mud and sand”, or else by a large section of rocks across the Cetral beach.
However, as a resident of Nairn, my observation is that the area from Whiteness to West Beach at Nairn is in fact sandy beach lined extensively by sand dunes, and an award winning beach at that, featuring in the MCS Good Beach Guide:
http://www.goodbeachguide.co.uk/
For example, here are some photos of Nairn’s beaches on Flickr:
The confusion for a resident of the area is that Nairn is very much known for having among the best beaches in Scotland, and yet according to the well respected Ordnance Survey publication, Nairn has no real beach, simply a mixture of mud and sand.
Even more ironic is that Nairn is part of a long stretch of beach that stretches from Ardesier to Findhorn, and while Findhorn and Ardesier are both marked yellow as having sandy beaches, there is no suggestion of this continuing through Nairn.
The concern is that as OS data is syndicated, not least for roadmaps, the result is that Nairn is not displayed in these roadmaps as having a beach.
I would therefore be happy to invite the Ordnance Survey team to visit the area to determine whether or not their record for the area is correct or not, because at present, Ordnance Survey maps is in danger of failing to mark one of the most popular beaches in the Highlands of Scotland, which does seem a rather significant omission.
Best regards,
Brian
In the absence of a reply, I’ll take it up by post with them.
There are a lot of efforts Nairn can make to bring tourists here – I figure one simple way to achieve this is to get Ordnance Survey to properly represent the fact that Nairn really does have one, if not more, beaches!
Comments
5 Responses to “Ordnance Survey misrepresenting Nairn?”
Leave a Reply
Visited 1260 times, 1 so far today
How do they represent other beaches particularly in areas similar to Nairn?
Other beaches get coloured yellow at the very least, and this is carried over into roadmaps.
However, I noticed the Phillips roadmap has no beach marked for Nairn (because of the lack of the yellow colour on the OS maps). Not checked the AA roadmap yet, but suspect it is little different.
The map of Nairn on the OS website seems to give an accurate account of Nairn’s beaches
http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/
Looks like your map was drawn at high water
That’s interesting – now is the multimap version of the OS map the older or newer version?
Reply from OS:
“Thank you for your email of 17 August regarding the depiction of Nairn on our 1:250 000 scale Road Map series.
I referred your enquiry to our technical team for advice (as per my email below) and they have said that there is no reason why Nairn should not be shown as a sandy beach. It is already shown as sand on our 1:25 000 scale and 1:50 000 scale mapping, so we have now corrected it on our 1:250 000 scale data. The next time the sheet for this area is revised, Nairn will be shown as a sandy beach.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention as we appreciate all feedback, especially that which enables us to improve the accuracy of our products.”
Result!