Links

• Gazetteer for Scotland
  A developing site with information about, and photographs of, places in Scotland. Supported by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society and the Department of Geography, University of Edinburgh
• Historic Environment Scotland
• Scottish Natural Heritage
• Scottish Place-Name Society
• Statistical Accounts of Scotland
  Scanned images of the pages of these outstanding sources of information on Scottish parishes in the 1790s and 1845, searchable by keyword. Contemporary county maps, showing parishes, are also provided
• Vision of Britain website
  Includes a detailed gazetteer of administrative units from 1801 to 2001, descriptive gazetteers from the 1870s-1880s, the accounts of travellers, and zoomable historical Ordnance Survey and Land Utilisation Survey maps for Great Britain.

More detailed modern maps

• Google maps
  Detailed street mapping, satellite imagery, terrain maps, with gazetteer search options
• OpenStreetMap
  Crowdsourced mapping, with excellent, up-to-date detail and free to use under an open license
• Multimap.com
  Maps for travel at various scales (down to street maps) of UK and World
• Streetmap.co.uk
  Street and road maps for the whole of mainland Britain, with address searching by place and postcode. A most useful facility links latitude and longitude with Ordnance Survey national grid numbers.

Historical maps

• National Library of Scotland Maps Images, 1560-1960s
  In the National Library of Scotland's 'Maps Images' resource you can access and view over 200,000 maps as high-resolution, colour, zoomable images, dating between 1560 and 1970. The main strength of the collection is on British printed mapping, particularly by Ordnance Survey, but the collection includes military maps, estate maps, town plans, coastal charts and county maps
• National Records of Scotland (NRS)
  Around 2,400 historic maps, plans and drawings, particularly strong in manuscript estate and railway plans, showing the changing Scottish landscape over time. Most of the maps and plans originate in the records of court cases, Scottish government departments, landownership records, and in private collections gifted to or purchased by NRS
• ScotlandsPlaces
  A collaborative web portal, launched in 2009, allowing combined searching of maps, photographs and other records from Historic Environment Scotland, the National Records of Scotland and the National Library of Scotland. ScotlandsPlaces makes the Ordnance Survey 'Object Name Books' available, recording the basis for the selection of place names on the Ordnance Survey six-inch to the mile maps.
  Visit the ScotlandsPlaces OS 'Object Name Books' page
  Read more about the OS six-inch to the mile maps.
• Charting the Nation
  Charting the Nation was a collaborative digital imaging and cataloguing project (1999-2002) with the aim of preserving and widening access to maps of Scotland and their associated archives dating from 1590 to 1740
• British Geological Survey
  Provides access to over 7,000 high resolution images of almost all small and medium scale maps produced by the British Geological Survey from 1832 to 2014. It includes all the one-inch and quarter-inch to the mile geological maps of Scotland, as well as horizontal and vertical sections
• Museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry
  Houses Scotland's shale mining collections including minute books, legal documents, photographs, letters and maps. The maps were created for the shale industry, but they contain a variety of other contextual information of interest to West Lothian and Lothian researchers. There are maps relating to the British Petroleum Archive and those that relate to the main museum collection
• Gough Map, around 1360
  The oldest surviving route map for Great Britain, held in the Bodleian Library, Oxford
• British Library Online Gallery
  Thousands of zoomable images (including maps and views) from the British Library's collections, including:
  • Unveiling of Britain — maps and views from 800 to 1600
  • Ordnance Survey Drawings, 1780-1840
  • Crace Collection of Maps of London — 16th to the 19th centuries
  • King George III Topographical Collection — views and maps
  • British Library Online Gallery.
• OldMapsOnline
  The world's largest portal to freely available historical maps. It includes metadata for over 400,000 maps from around 20 large map collections. The Library is one of these institutions, so many of the Scottish maps are available on our map images website too, but there are other maps, especially some Scottish county and regional maps on OldMapsOnline, available from other libraries beyond the United Kingdom
• Images of Early Maps on the Web
  A comprehensive list of images of maps around the world, with links to the websites
• David Rumsey Collection
  The collection concentrates particularly on maps of America, but as it also includes world atlases (primarily 18th and 19th century) there are some maps of Scotland. Plates from world atlases published by Scots (e.g. Fullarton 1872, Bartholomew 1922) are also displayed
• Landmark Old Maps
  Includes Ordnance Survey maps at a range of scales from the 1840s through to the 1990s, as well as Russian military maps. Detailed content is only available by subscription. Searchable by placename, national grid and postcode
• Map History / History of Cartography
  Descriptions, useful information, and links to web sites on the history of maps
• Historical Map Web Sites
  The Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection at the University of Texas at Austin lists, and links to, some map images on the web.
• Sheetfinder
  A map-based search interface to Ordnance Survey one-inch to the mile, 1:50,000 and six-inch to the mile County series map sheets on which a particular location appears
• Catalogue of British Town Plans
  A map-based search interface to records for over 8,000 town plans located in libraries and archives across the United Kingdom.

• Directory of UK map collections
  A list of UK libraries, archives and other collections holding maps
• National Records of Scotland catalogue
  Search 'By Place' using parish names, for accessing records for thousands of manuscript and unpublished maps of Scotland
• The National Archives, Kew
  The National Archives holds over six million maps, both manuscript and printed, relating particularly to British official or government activities, and dating mainly from the 16th to the later 20th centuries
• Legal deposit libraries
  The National Library of Scotland is one of six legal deposit libraries in the UK and Ireland. All have large map collections of antiquarian and modern maps, of international importance. Some also specialise in their own areas, e.g. for information about maps of Ireland contact Trinity College, Dublin
  • British Library Map Library, London
  • National Library of Wales Map Collections
  • Bodleian Library, Oxford
    Has a useful list of links to maps sites
  • Cambridge University Library Map Department
  • Trinity College, Dublin.
  • National Records of Scotland
    The Register House Plans series (RHP) contains over 100,000 hand-drawn and printed maps and plans
  • Royal Geographical Society
    One of the largest private map collections in the world, with 1 million map sheets, 3000 atlases, globes and gazetteers. The collection has focused on scientifically surveyed maps and charts from official agencies at home and abroad
  • Royal Scottish Geographical Society
    Founded in 1884, the RSGS supports research, talks, publications, and information dissemination on geography and the wider world, with important collections including maps.

• British Cartographic Society
  An 'association of individuals and organisations dedicated to exploring and developing the world of maps'
• Map Curators' Group
  'Founded in 1966 as an integral part of the British Cartographic Society, to promote the professional development of map curatorship'
• Charles Close Society
  Aims 'to bring together all those with any interest in the maps, plans, and related materials of the UK Ordnance Survey … and to promote the exchange of information, and encourage and co-ordinate research'.
• International Cartographic Association
  Aims 'to promote the discipline and profession of cartography in an international context. ICA is the world authoritative body for cartography, the discipline dealing with the conception, production, dissemination and study of maps'
• IMCoS International Map Collectors' Society
  'A forum for those who are interested in maps … collectors, dealers, librarians and academics'
• Royal Scottish Geographical Society
  Aims 'to be the foremost independent body in Scotland promoting the understanding of the inter-relationships between people, places and the environment through geographical research, education, debate, travel and exploration'

Maps collections main page