This is the UK's leading website for Walking and Hiking

Navigation Skills for Walkers, Hikers and Ramblers

  - Giving a Grid Reference

A grid reference allows you to reference any 100m x 100m square in mainland Britain (England, Scotland & Wales). A complete grid reference comprises two grid letters (which define a particular 100km x 100km square) plus a 6 figure number (which defines a particular 100m x 100m square within that larger square). For more information on grid letters - see The National Grid. Below is an interactive example of how to construct or locate a grid reference:

 

1. Establish the locations for which you need the grid reference - Point 'A' - in this case SD785442.

2. Find the blue vertical grid line immediately to the west (left) of Point 'A' - the '78' grid line. This grid line represents the first two numbers of the grid reference - 78. (Called 'The Easting' - because it increases as you travel East)

3. Next, find the horizontal grid line immediately to the south (below) of Point 'A' - the '44' line. This represents the fourth and fifth number in the grid reference - 44. (Called 'The Northing' - because it increases as you travel North)

4. Imagine this 1km square is divided into 100 smaller squares - 10 along the bottom and 10 up the side - represented as grey lines in the illustration above.

5. Estimate how many smaller squares point A is east (right) of grid line 78. This represents the third number of the grid reference - 5.

6. Similarly, estimate how many smaller squares point A is north (above) of grid line 44. This represents the sixth number of the grid reference - 2.

7. Finally, add the two grid letters which define the relevant square to the front of the reference - SD. These letters will be found in the map margin. You now have a complete grid reference for a 100m x 100m square.

Remember: Grid References are always read Eastings first followed by the Northings. This can be easily recalled using the phrase:

Go Along The Corridor (Eastings) before going Up The Stairs (Northings)

Note: It is important to note that the complete grid reference defines an area of 100m x 100m NOT a particular spot.

 

To contribute to go4awalk.com or to contact us about anything at all

- see Talk To Us. For help see Help.

 

go4awalk.com and go4awalk.co.uk are registered trademarks of TMDH Limited.

Copyright © 2000-2008 TMDH Limited. All rights reserved.

 

Copyright | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Statement

 

NB. To see our navigational hills you must have the Macromedia Shockwave/Flash Player plug-in installed in your browser. This is free and comes as standard with later versions. If you have an early version browser - click here and follow Macromedia's installation instructions. Furthermore, go4awalk.com makes full use of your browser's ability to display multiple pages in a single window as Tabs. To enable tabs in Internet Explorer see Tools > Internet Options > General. To enable tabs in Mozilla Firefox see Tools > Options > Tabs. To enable tabs in Safari see Safari > Preferences > Tabs.