Reading Maps and Using a Compass

Finding Your Way When Everything Else Fails

When GPS stops working and your phone becomes nothing more than a flashlight, one ancient skill suddenly becomes priceless, knowing where you are, and how to get where you need to go.

Maps and compasses have guided travellers, explorers, and soldiers for centuries. They do not rely on batteries, satellites, or signal strength. They depend only on your knowledge and your calmness under pressure.

Navigation is not just about direction. It is about awareness, judgment, and the confidence to move safely through the unknown.

Walkers compass and on a topo map — Walkers liquid-filled compass and on a topo map

Why Navigation Matters in Survival

In a survival situation, getting lost can be just as dangerous as hunger or cold. Without direction, you waste energy, lose time, and risk wandering into hazards or exhaustion.

Good navigation gives you:

Control: You know where you are and what surrounds you.
Confidence: Every step has purpose, reducing panic and confusion.
Safety: You can find resources like water, shelter, and roads.

Understanding how to read a map and use a compass keeps you in charge when technology fails.

Understanding Maps

A map is a scaled picture of the real world viewed from above. It shows landforms, roads, water, buildings, and elevation, but only if you know how to read its language.

1. The Essentials of a Map

Every survival map, whether printed or drawn by hand, shares a few key elements:

Scale: Tells you how map distance compares to real distance (for example, 1:50,000 means one unit on the map equals 50,000 in reality).
Legend (Key): Explains the symbols and colours used,rivers, forests, roads, contour lines, buildings, and so on.
Grid Lines: Divide the map into squares to help pinpoint exact locations.
Compass Rose or North Arrow: Shows which way is north.

These simple markings form the foundation of land navigation.

2. Map Symbols and Colours

Maps use colours to convey terrain information quickly:

Colour	Meaning
Blue	Water – rivers, lakes, reservoirs
Green	Vegetation – forests, grassland
Brown	Contour lines – elevation or hills
Black	Man-made features – roads, buildings, boundaries
Red	Major roads, landmarks, or grid lines
White	Open land with little vegetation

Learning these colours allows you to visualise terrain even before you see it.

3. Contour Lines and Terrain

Contour lines show shape and height.

Lines close together mean steep ground.
Lines far apart mean gentle slopes or flat areas.
Closed circles with hatching indicate depressions or pits.

Recognising contour patterns helps you plan routes that avoid unnecessary climbs, cliffs, or valleys. It also helps you find water flow, streams run through the lowest contour paths.

4. Orienting a Map

Before a map can guide you, it must face the same direction as the land around you.

To orient a map:

Place your compass on it with the edge along a north-south grid line.
Rotate the map until the compass needle’s red end lines up with north on the map.
The map is now correctly aligned with the ground.

This simple act transforms a flat piece of paper into a living landscape.

Understanding the Compass

A compass is one of the simplest and most reliable tools ever made, a magnetised needle that points toward the magnetic north pole.

There are several types, but the most practical for survival is the baseplate compass.

1. Compass Parts

Know what each part does before you use it:

Baseplate: The flat plastic base used to lay over maps.
Rotating Bezel (Compass Housing): Contains degree markings (0–360).
Needle: The red end always points to magnetic north.
Orienting Lines and Arrow: Used to align the compass with map grid lines.
Direction of Travel Arrow: Points where you need to go once bearings are set.

2. Taking a Bearing from a Map

A bearing is the angle between north and your destination. It tells you the exact direction to travel.

To find a bearing:

Place the compass on your map so its edge connects your current position with your destination.
Rotate the bezel until the orienting lines are parallel with the map’s north-south grid lines.
Read the degree marking where the travel arrow meets the bezel, that is your bearing.
Hold the compass flat and turn your body until the red needle sits in the orienting arrow.
The direction of travel arrow now points the way you must go.

Follow it, checking frequently to stay on course.

3. Taking a Bearing from the Land

If you see a landmark (mountain, tower, or river bend) and want to locate it on your map:

Point the travel arrow directly at the landmark.
Rotate the bezel until the red needle lines up with north.
Read the bearing.
Place your compass on the map with the edge passing through your approximate position and rotate the map until the bezel’s north lines up with the grid’s north.
Draw a line along the compass edge, the landmark lies somewhere along that line.

With two or more landmarks, you can triangulate your exact position.

4. Declination: Magnetic vs True North

Magnetic north and true north are not the same. The difference between them is called magnetic declination, which changes depending on where you are in the world.

Maps usually mark local declination near the legend. To stay accurate, always adjust your bearing by adding or subtracting this value. In the UK, declination is small (usually less than 2°), but in other regions it can be much larger.

Navigating Without a Map or Compass

When you have no tools and the world around you is unfamiliar, nature itself becomes your guide. The sun, shadows, and stars can tell you more than you might think, if you know what to look for.

Using the Sun:

The sun always rises in the east and sets in the west, no matter where you are.
The difference lies in its midday position.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the sun sits roughly to the south at midday.
In the Southern Hemisphere, the sun sits roughly to the north at midday.
If you face the sun at midday and it is in the south, you are in the Northern Hemisphere and east will be on your left, west on your right.
If it is in the north, you are in the Southern Hemisphere and the directions are reversed, east will be on your right, west on your left.

Using Shadows:

This simple method works anywhere in the world.
Push a straight stick upright into the ground.
Mark the tip of its shadow with a small stone or twig.
Wait about fifteen minutes and mark the new position of the shadow’s tip.
Draw a straight line between the two marks.
That line runs approximately west to east, with the first mark being west and the second east.
Stand with the first mark (west) to your left and you will be facing north in the Northern Hemisphere, or south in the Southern Hemisphere.

Using the Stars:

The night sky changes depending on which half of the planet you are in.

Northern Hemisphere:
Find the Big Dipper (or Plough). Draw an imaginary line through its two outer stars and extend it upward, it points directly to the North Star (Polaris). Polaris sits almost above true north.
Southern Hemisphere:
Look for the Southern Cross constellation. Imagine a line running through its long axis and extend it about four and a half times its length downward toward the horizon. The point where it meets the horizon marks true south.

Urban Navigation

City navigation during a disaster is often overlooked, yet it can be just as vital.
When streets are blocked, signs gone, or GPS unreliable, you need to understand orientation by landmarks and building layout logic.

Identify tall structures like churches, towers, or cranes. Use them as fixed points.
Note that most city grids align roughly north–south or east–west.
Always track your turns, three right turns or three left turns put you back where you started.
Use paper maps of transport lines, parks, or sewer layouts if available; they often remain consistent even when surface routes are impassable.

A small pocket street map or printed overview of your city can be more valuable than any digital device.

Non-Urban and Wilderness Navigation

In the countryside, the land itself becomes your map. When the paper version is gone or unreadable, you must learn to read the features around you. Every hill, tree line, and stream tells a story about direction, elevation, and human presence.

Reading the Landscape

Start by pausing to observe your surroundings before moving.
Look at the terrain as if it were a frozen wave of motion — where the land rises, where it falls, and where life gathers. These patterns give clues about where people, water, and roads are likely to be.

Fences and Field Boundaries:
In farming regions, fences and hedgerows often run along property lines and connect to gates, barns, or rural paths. Following them can lead to roads, villages, or shelter.
If you find a well-trodden animal trail, note that it usually leads to water, not people — but water can still lead you to people.

Rivers and Streams:
Water always flows downhill, gathering into larger rivers that often lead to towns, bridges, or farmland. Follow the flow and you are likely to encounter civilisation, though be cautious — rivers also curve and meander, so they may not take you in a straight line.
In mountainous areas, look for V-shaped valleys that indicate watercourses. In flatter terrain, follow tree lines and green belts, as vegetation often marks hidden water channels.

Roads and Tracks:
Roads rarely exist in isolation. Even when abandoned or overgrown, they tend to lead somewhere. Follow vehicle tracks, power lines, or paths worn by livestock.

Power lines in particular are useful guides: they are maintained for access and nearly always lead toward populated areas or service roads.
If you see a straight line cutting through the landscape, especially across hills, it is likely a man-made feature worth following cautiously.

Common Navigation Mistakes

Overconfidence: Thinking you know the way is the easiest way to get lost.
Not orienting the map: A misaligned map is as dangerous as no map.
Forgetting to adjust for declination: Over long distances, even small errors add up.
Failing to check position often: Reassess every 15–30 minutes or after major terrain changes.
Ignoring fatigue: Tired people make directional errors without realising it.

Calm and frequent checks prevent small mistakes from becoming life-threatening ones.

Building Navigation Skills

Navigation is best learned hands-on. Take your map and compass outside. Practise:

Finding north without looking at your compass.
Estimating distances using pace counting (average adult: 65–75 cm per step).
Plotting a route and following it without GPS, then comparing your result.
Using contour lines to anticipate what the terrain will look like before you see it.

Confidence comes not from theory, but repetition.

A Final Thought

The landscape never lies. It may confuse you, hide you, or humble you, but it will always tell the truth if you know how to read it.

Maps and compasses do not fail when batteries die. They ask only that you look, think, and move with purpose.

In a world where most people have forgotten how to find their way without technology, the person who can still navigate with a simple map and compass holds a powerful advantage, freedom of movement and the ability to guide others safely home.

Find your bearings. Learn your tools. Practise before you need them.

The map is your guide. The compass is your anchor.
Together, they turn the unknown into something you can understand.

Additional Resources

Becoming a good navigator can be an essential skills and have saved countless lives. It is also a lot simpler than you may think once you have mastered the basics I have therefore compiled a list of resources to get you started.

Essential and highly recommended books on Wilderness and Urban navigation:

Wilderness Navigation by Steve Rayder
Wilderness Navigation by Bob and Mike Burns (This is the one most cited in outdoors courses)

A compass is one of the best investments you can make and it is essential that you learn how to use it.