Useful maps and books

Maps available from the Ordnance Survey

A wide range of maps and other publications is available from the Ordnance Survey Office, Phoenix Park, Dublin 8. All of the Ordnance Survey's map data is held electronically and so maps of most areas of Ireland can be produced at any desired scale up to 1:1000. The following pages illustrate some of the range of maps which schools might find most useful.

1:1,000

This is the largest-scale map available and is compiled from the latest digital information. Most urban areas are covered by these maps but the range is expanding. A 1:1,000 map of an area containing a school would be ideal for map work activities. It shows the detailed outline of buildings, walls, gardens, roads and many other features.

Map based on Ordnance Survey Ireland by permission of Government Permit No. 6768.

1:2,500 (25 inches to 1 mile)

Maps from this series cover all parts of the country but details may not be fully up to date. Nevertheless, these maps show a great deal of detail and will be very useful for the development of mapping skills in the locality. While many items shown on these maps will have changed substantially since the last revision (e.g. road layouts, railway lines, buildings, field boundaries) the existence of these changes will highlight the extent to which the environment evolves and changes. In the absence of a 1:1,000 map, the school should attempt to have a copy of the 25-inch map of the area in which the school is located.

Map based on Ordnance Survey Ireland by permission of Government Permit No. 6768.

1:10,560 (6 inches to 1 mile)

This series also covered all of the country and like the 25-inch series it was based on imperial measurements rather than modern metric scales. Each 6-inch map covers a greater area than a 1:1,000 or 25-inch map and is ideal for use in studies of the wider locality of the school. In most cases a 6-inch map will cover several townlands. If the school is located near the centre of a 6- inch map, then the location of many, of the children's homes may be found on the map. 6-inch maps also show a considerable level of detail (field boundaries, for example, are included) but many of the features shown may well be out of date.

Map based on Ordnance Survey Ireland by permission of Government Permit No. 6768.

1:50,000 Discovery Series

This series of maps, compiled from the latest metric data, covers all of the country and is presented in colour. On average, each county in Ireland is covered by two or three of the Discovery Series sheets, so these maps are ideal for county studies and they complement the 1:1,000 or other large-scale series. Map based on Ordnance Survey Ireland by permission of Government Permit No. 6768.

City street maps

City street maps are available for Dublin (1:20,000), Cork (1:15,000), and Galway, Limerick and Waterford (1:9,000). These can be very useful for exploring the geography of these urban areas.

Books on the geography of Ireland

The books in the following list will be useful for teachers when researching the geography of their local area. Further books and other sources, including historical atlases, maps and other items, are discussed in the Appendix of the Teacher Guidelines for History.