New eastwest maps - coming soon?

IrlJidel

Hope eastwest's excellent maps are ready in time for the summer season.

I see there are placeholders on their website for the new maps so hopefully wont be long.

http://www.eastwestmapping.ie/index.html

I also hope eastwest get around to updating their website some time. It does a poor job representing the professional quality of their maps.

foolelle

me too

Alun

I hope they are on the way soon too. They're great maps, and it will be great to have the whole of the Wicklow area covered at that scale. The Harvey map is great but just stops a bit too short esp. in the western and southern areas. I see they've changed the description of the paper used to 'water resistant' from 'waterproof' too, which is probably more accurate.

Hoping for digital versions too if possible which I know Barry's looking at as I've had a couple of discussions with him on the matter by email.

foolelle

Alun wrote: »

Hoping for digital versions too if possible which I know Barry's looking at as I've had a couple of discussions with him on the matter by email.

digital as in for like gps's?

Alun

foolelle wrote: »

digital as in for like gps's?

More like for use on a PC, viewing and reviewing GPS track logs, setting waypoints, planning routes and downloading these to GPS's. For use on the GPS itself, you'd have to get a company like Garmin interested, which is unlikely to happen for such a small company as EW mapping I think, although you never know. Getting an existing digital mapping publisher interested might be a good bit easier though.

BarryD

I hope it won't be too long either! Sent to print near enough a month ago but we seem to have got caught up in the school book printing season! Unfortunately our old printers, Kilkenny People Printing were bought out by a larger overseas consortium a couple of years ago, who then moved their business to other shops and closed them down:mad: Cut throat business it seems.
Anyway as regards our two new sheets (Wicklow Mountains West, Lugnaquilla & Glendalough), I expect them to be available in a couple of weeks. We'll keep retail cost the same despite quite substantial increases in production costs.
Apart from covering the ground as thoroughly as we could, I've invested a lot of effort into placenames, some of which may be mildly controversial e.g. the good people of Glenmalure tell me that the hill most of you will know as Clohernagh, that is going from the zigzags to Lugnaquilla - is in fact Leohard and so on.
Digital versions? Yes, probably - we'll see how the print ones are received. I've tested the raster mapping on the newer Garmin units and it's the way to go but there are fairly hefty fees to Garmin and the like as you might imagine.
Transforms hill navigation though and I think I can safely predict that the majority of hill users will carry one of these devices within a few years. Doesn't remove the need for map reading skill though!! The way I think things may develop is that the devices and the mapping will separate i.e. Garmin and the like will see that they'll sell a lot more devices if they remove their proprietary aspect of the mapping. Already moved in this direction with custom maps but these are somewhat limited, presumably for commercial reasons. I forsee that it's likely that you'll be able to buy a GPS unit and just upload mapping from various other third party applications and suppliers.

IrlJidel

BarryD wrote: »

Apart from covering the ground as thoroughly as we could, I've invested a lot of effort into placenames, some of which may be mildly controversial e.g. the good people of Glenmalure tell me that the hill most of you will know as Clohernagh, that is going from the zigzags to Lugnaquilla - is in fact Leohard and so on.

That's interesting - the 1840's maps show Clohernagh (Irish: Clocharna, 'stony place') as the summit name. Is there any paper evidence?

Alun

For me the big advantage of digital mapping is in the preparation of routes and the review of track logs after the event (where did I really go vs. where did I think I went!) and not so much being able to view maps on the GPS itself. It also means I can print out only the section of map I need at whatever scale I need (on waterproof paper)and have that to hand complete with WP's and a route card on the reverse, and keep that big flappy awkwardly folded thing in the rucksack for emergencies only.

Having the maps visible on the GPS is still (for me anyway) not a huge advantage when navigating in open terrain. You can't really see enough of the landscape in enough detail (esp. with my ageing eyes) to be useful. Where it does come in handy though is for micro-navigation .. finding that difficult to find firebreak through the forest, or deciding exactly which track intersection you're at in a maze of forest tracks.

BarryD

Yep, doubtless people have differing requirements re digital maps but portable devices like mobile phones and the like seem to be what the public want. Regarding placenames, I am putting my thoughts on the matter down on a few pages on our very crude website - must get around to upgrading but have to concentrate on mapping and other customers who pay my bills as well!!
The 1840's map you refer to above, is the OS six inch mapping, I presume. Whilst this was an extraordinary achievment of it's day - (I have tremendous respect for the lads who had to go out and physically measure the ground - the OS here has done nothing like it since), there are two good reasons to cast a cold eye on upland placenames as recorded: 1) the survey was primarily concerned with 'useful', profitable, taxable land -i.e. generally below 1000 ft. Hills and upland areas were basically not worth the time to investigate more fully and 2) a more general reservation is that the chaps recording in the field were mostly British army I believe, dealing with strong local accents, trying to write down a version of a name that was likely based in the Gaeilge. This at a time when placenames were less fixed and if you bothered to ask around, you might well have got several different answers.

foolelle

Oh right yeah, well i think there great maps and apart from being able to plan routes etc, id love one on my gps, far better than many maps. Barry i think you should cover all irish mountains, id buy them all, but tell me, are you taking pre orders for the map as yet, i wanna make sure i get me one a these and i know 1 or 2 who do too

BarryD

Thanks for your kind comment but sorry, haven't the energy to cover all the Irish hills!! To make this sort of mapping useful, you simply have to get out on the ground and find out what's there. That's why I have great respect for the surveyors in the 1800's, not only for a great technical achievment but for the amazing physical effort involved. Modern mapping, as say in the Discovery Series is not like that - largely about remote capture now. But features of interest to walkers and the like are readily missed from aerial & satellite imagery.
I'll post a message here when the maps are available rather than do pre orders etc. Thanks, Barry D.

BarryD

Two new maps - Wicklow Mountains West and Lugnaquilla & Glendalough are now both available from our website at http://www.eastwestmapping.ie/

The new maps are in the same general style as our Dublin & North Wicklow Mountains Map published in 2009 and printed at 1:30,000 scale on 120 gsm Pretex paper which is water and tear resistant. Retail price is same at €9.95 per sheet. We have a value deal for people who wish to purchase a set of the three maps at €29.00. I also expect they'll be available in Eason's, National Map Centre, Great Outdoors etc. and shops in Wicklow in due course.

Fieldwork on foot and by bike was undertaken in 2009 (great autumn!!) and 2010 interrupted somewhat by snow & ice etc. I think we've done a pretty good job at capturing the forest, road, track and path detail as well other physical features. Contouring is still at 20 metres - not ideal, adequate in Wicklow for general hillwalking and biking. Hopefully we can improve with more contour detail in the future. As with any map, doubtless we have missed some features and/or new forest tracks have been constructed etc. As always, I appreciate any feedback on detail that appears to be missing or incorrect so that we can chase it up on the ground. Where there is a significant issue, I'll publish free .pdf updates on our website.

One aspect that I have invested a lot of time & effort into is a thorough review of the placenames of the hills and the location of 'heritage' features etc. This has been a substantial task in itself and of course, open to improvement. I have written some of my thoughts on this aspect which you can find at [URL="mhtml:{DD64899E-7D47-43EE-8E49-C3FE8276C16D}mid://00000949/!x-usc:http://www.eastwestmapping.ie/placenames"]http://www.eastwestmapping.ie/placenames[/URL] In general I have deliberately chosen diversity as far as forms of names are concerned to reflect the richness of this aspect of our heritage. I have also placed an emphasis on the names known and used by the good people who live in the Wicklow hills rather than in some cases, those recorded on OSI material.

I trust you enjoy using these maps as much as we have enjoyed making them and I thank you for your support. I also hope that they'll go a little way towards a more complete record of these hills and valleys so close to many of our hearts.

Finally, I might mention that Wicklow Mountains East sheet will be published early next year. I will be also looking in more detail at releasing digital versions in due course as time allows. Thanks.

Barry Dalby
Eastwest Mapping,
Clonegal,
Enniscorthy,
Co.Wexford.
Ireland.
ph: 00353 (0)53 9377835
fax: 00353 (0)53 9377835

Alun

Great stuff! An order for both maps has been placed ... was I the first?

Looking forward to the digital versions.

IrlJidel

Alun wrote: »

Great stuff! An order for both maps has been placed ... was I the first?

I ordered mine at 13:21 ;-)

Alun wrote: »

Looking forward to the digital versions.

+1

BarryD

Thanks to anyone who pointed out that the link to the placenames page was incomplete. Here it is.

http://www.eastwestmapping.ie/placenames.html

Planet X

Just got my "Wicklow East" & "The Wicklow Way" maps this morning. Well impressed, amazing trail detail. Money well spent.

loobylou

I'm looking forward to the pending 1/25k Wicklow map from the OSI.
We've come a long way from the 1/2 inch to the mile I started out with.:)

Planet X

Planet X wrote: »

Just got my "Wicklow East" & "The Wicklow Way" maps this morning. Well impressed, amazing trail detail. Money well spent.

........and today got my "Lug. Glendalough" map. You can spend hours just reading it. The historical place names are fantastic. Camped atop Wicklow Gap last weekend and cannot wait to get out with this map even though the weekend weather looks bad!
Well done East West....love the maps.