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Saturday 27 July 2024

Compass

My first compass, from 1973. And I still have its 24-page instruction leaflet. 

The leaflet goes into great detail, enough to enter an orienteering competition, but I used the compass mainly to check I was heading roughly in the right direction. When you are walking the twenty-five miles through the mountains from Rannoch to Fort William in the Scottish Highlands, the last thing you want is to go wrong at the high watershed and somehow find yourself miles astray at Kinlochleven. I suppose most would use a SatNav now. 

Another brilliant walk was around the hidden, Blea Gill Waterfall near Grassington in Yorkshire. You follow the track along the Western side of Grimwith Reservoir (since considerably enlarged) to Blea Beck, and then climb to the top of the waterfall to Grassington Moor. A circular anti-clockwise route takes you back via Hebden Beck to the starting point on the B6265 road. 

Route around Blea Gill Waterfall (1967 1-inch map)

It was wild above the waterfall, very boggy, with few obvious tracks. There were centuries-old, disused lead mine workings, chimneys, shafts, and spoil heaps, a strangely beautiful landscape of industrial desolation, deserted by the legions of miners that once toiled there. You saw no one else all day, and without a compass it would have been easy to lose your bearings. Proper walking. I am told it has now been cleaned up with signposts, notice boards, and warnings not to fall down the concealed mine shafts. 

Blea Gill Waterfall, Grassington Moor,1974
Blea Gill Waterfall, 1974
Grassington Moor now

I then looked for routes needing more precise compass work. I remember walking with friend Neville up to Alport Moor from Howden Reservoir in the Derbyshire Dark Peak. The ascent passes through dense evergreens before reaching open moorland, which levels out gradually, curving up so you cannot see the top until almost there. Neville looked dubious when I said the Alport Moor trig point was a little way straight ahead, and indeed there it was. He had complete faith in my map reading after that, often misplaced. 

We also liked to cross the Derbyshire moorland plateau of Kinder Scout, from Fair Brook to Kinder Downfall. I wrote about it here. It is not far across, but the maze of deep, watery, peat ridges and trenches known as hags and groughs, twisting and turning in all directions, make it impossible to keep to a straight line. All distant features are below the horizon, so there is nothing you might aim towards. Unless you check your compass every few yards you go hopelessly off-course. 

Navigating With The Compass

From the top of Fair Brook to Kinder Downfall you follow a bearing of about 255 degrees, but you do not really need to know about bearings. All you have to do is set the compass using the map, and then follow it. Well, that is how I do it. 

The needle of the compass points red to the North. It swivels inside a black dial, which can be manually rotated on a transparent base plate. The base plate has a large arrow pointing away from the needle. 

You place the compass on the map with the large arrow pointing roughly in the direction you want to go, and then slide it so that one of the long edges of the base plate passes through both your current position and your target destination, e.g. from the top of Fair Brook to Kinder Downfall as circled in yellow in the photograph. You then rotate the dial so that North on the dial matches the grid lines on the map. There are lines inside the dial to help with this. It does not matter which way the map or the magnetic needle are pointing at this stage. 

Setting the compass: Fair Brook to Kinder Downfall

You can then put the map away for a while. Stand up and hold the base plate level with the large arrow pointing ahead of you. Slowly turn round until the red needle lines up with North on the dial, and walk straight ahead. It helps to choose a distant feature to aim towards, if one can be seen. 

There is a lot more to it, but I usually find this sufficient. You could adjust for the difference between Magnetic North and Grid North, but over short distances it probably does not matter much, so I am not going into that. It makes only about 2 degrees difference at present, although in past decades it has been as much as 10. It slowly changes. It is also worth mentioning that map grids do not always point to True North, but, again, it does not really matter. I could explain these different kinds of North, but do you really want to know? 

The 24-page leaflet explains all this in greater detail. I have archived a PDF copy here, in case you are nerdy enough to be interested. 

As mentioned at the start, this was my first compass. I later bought a new, supposedly more accurate mirror compass, but never got the hang of it. I simply fold out the mirror and use it in the same way as the old one. I believe that for greater accuracy you can read the needle through the mirror, and look at objects through the hole and the notch. I am told that you can even measure heights, if so inclined. But I would rather enjoy the countryside than study for qualifications in surveying. At least the new compass fits neatly into your trouser pocket without any sharp corners to castrate you when you sit down. And the mirror allows you to check your face is still perfect after a long day out in the wind and rain. 

30 comments:

  1. Does it help you find the way out of IKEA?

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    1. Oooh. That would be useful! I tried leaving a trail of bread crumbs but they get snapped up by other desperate and starving lost souls.

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    2. Actually, yes, so long as you know the general direction of the exit. If you look carefully, there are shortcuts across the maze. Watch the staff - they use them all the time.

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    3. How many times did you have to get trapped in IKEA to work that out? (I always assumed they came and went through hidden doors😉)

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    4. Never. I rarely go there. Female members of the family showed me when I did.

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  2. When I was in the Army Cadet Corps at school back in the 1960s we were taught compass use alongside map reading, using the standard Army issue prismatic compass. One of our teacher officers could have used an update to his skills as on one of our summer camps in the Lake District near Warcop he managed to lead us into the wrong valley - we ended up on the edge of a live tank firing range instead of the safe area that we should have Ben in.

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    1. How useless. It's easy to make mistakes, but not if you re-check and double-check. Over-confidence by the sound of it.

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  3. My walking or hiking is a lot less serious than yours. I like well-signposted circuits with good views, and venturing along irresistible woodland paths is something I rather do on my own and not with O.K. who tends to get cross when we take a wrong turn or the markings for a particular route are not clear.

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    1. These walks were in my 20s when I was braver and more foolhardy. Wouldn't try it now. Anyway, most wild places here are criss-crossed by tracks because there are too many walkers.

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  4. I was nerdy enough to have a look at the instructions and became totally confused. I have never used a compass.

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    1. That's why I use my own simplified method.
      There is even a compass on the car information display now.

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  5. I guess a compass' continued usefulness lies in its not needing recharging, unlike relying on GPS on one's phone.

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    1. There have been tragic situations where that has happened.

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  6. I have the same compass from my teen years but not the leaflet, so thanks for the download. Mine is kept in a suede leather pouch I made in leather work class at school. I bound the leather and fitted a press stud to the opening flap. I must get it out and take a photo.

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    1. You sound even more nerdy than I am. But the leather pouch is probably good protection from the sharp corners.

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  7. I had a compass from my father's army days, circa the 1920's. It was housed in a little green canvass army case. I gave it to my grandson when he and his father got into long distance hiking. I must ask him if he still has it.

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    1. It sounds like standard army issue heavy duty, and very heavy.

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  8. I've never understood compasses - I just didn't try hard enough!

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  9. I just went on long walks that didn't need compasses, not on the high mountainous moors but in the lowlands, with a collie dog who always knew the way back to the car.

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    1. I don't know how they always know the way, but do. Where do they carry their compasses?

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  10. I've never owned a compass, so try to work out where I need to go by the position of the sun and the time of day. Not always helpful in a British climate!

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    1. You could go by looking at which side of the trees the moss grows. An boy scout tip.

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  11. I have a couple of compasses that I found while out walking. I could have done with one yesterday afternoon when walking east of the village of Denby in Derbyshire. I became slightly lost. As for Fairbrook Naze and Kinder Scout - I am familiar with that area. Walking over those hags and groughs can be very disorienting. Maybe I should stick one of those compasses in the pocket of my backpack.

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    1. I read your blog posts. You astonish me with your disregard for personal safety. Yes, put a compass in your backpack. Maybe a pair of underpants too, in case you forget those.

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    2. You will be pleased to learn that on long walks I usually carry a banana in case I encounter the safety evangelist known as Tasker Dunham. I am sure there will be somewhere where he can hide the banana.

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  12. That was the best compass I ever owned. I still have it although it hasn't been used in anger for many years.

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    1. Simple is best. The mirror ones are too difficult to use.

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  13. We got sent off tramping with a compass exactly like that. Believe it or not they even work in the southern hemisphere.

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    1. Thank goodness they do work there. We wouldn't survive for long if the Earth suddenly lost it's magnetic field.

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