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Snowdon and the Conwy Valley AA Walker’s Maps Review

By Dave Roberts   

on March 30, 2015    No ratings yet.

Posted in Books and Maps, Outdoor Gear Reviews

Snowdon and the Conwy Valley AA Walker’s Maps Review

When we saw these for sale we thought – “ooh, a new map!”

So we bought it on line, expecting some new sort of mapping that we aught to get accustomed to, perhaps something similar to the Harvey Map Superwalkers.

So imagine our surprise (and disappointment) when we received the map and realised it’s no more than a re-branded Ordnance Survey Outdoor Leisure Map 17. Well, that’s not 100% true as the map has been offset 1 KM vertically and horizontally compared to the OS version on the Conwy side. That means that you’ll lose overall coverage at two edges, but gain on the other. However, this means that if you were to buy the next map south from the OS, then you’d be missing a significant 1km strip along the bottom.

AA_Map (1 of 2)

Other than that, it’s a perfectly fine 1:25,000 scale Ordnance Survey map of Snowdonia that’ll serve as good as any other map for navigating this area. In other areas, the AA have provided a much better selection of mapping, such as the Central Lakes where the map covers an area overlapped by the four regular OS sheets. This map would have been much better were it able to fit the Carneddau onto one sheet, or perhaps the Moelwynion, which are both areas which I’ve had to invest in custom maps.

Bottom line is if you just want a paper map of this area and the slightly different coverage doesn’t bother you, then there’s nothing in it between this and the regular OS map – buy the cheapest. But the map misses out on the bottom 1km and so if you intend on buying the next map south, you’ll end up with a blank strip in between.

BTW – our map came off the cover after a few uses! We’ve found this with the ‘odd’ OS map as well, and we’ll assume we were unlucky!

AA_Map (2 of 2)

Top Tip? Check a map’s coverage before buying!

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Dave Roberts

Dave Roberts founded Walk Eryri in 2004, with the aim of providing routes that are off the beaten track. Walk Eryri is now part of Mud and Routes which continues to provide more off beat routes and walks in Snowdonia and beyond. Dave has been exploring the hills of Eryri for over thirty years, and is a qualified Mountain Leader. Dave also established Walk up Snowdon, Walk up Scafell Pike and Walk up Ben Nevis just to mention a few.

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