4 Night Navigation Skills for Beginners in the Northern Lake District

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Duration: 4 nights
Interests: Navigation skills

There’s an art to navigating the outdoors that goes beyond mastering a GPS tracking device and loading a smartphone app. You’ll learn how to read a map, find grid references, work your compass correctly, estimate distances and timings, and plan your own countryside walks. This holiday is suitable for anyone with limited or no experience of navigating with a map and compass.

What you’ll love

  • Learning basic navigation skills through practical indoor and outdoor exercises
  • The expertise of a knowledgeable and experienced tutor
  • Gaining confidence to read a map and use a compass
  • Estimating distances and time
  • Planning your own countryside walk
  • Staying at Derwent Bank, our country house near Keswick

What’s included

  • En-suite accommodation in our 4-star country house
  • Cream tea on arrival day 
  • Cooked or continental breakfast every morning 
  • Daily packed lunches 
  • Three-course evening meals, plus tea & coffee  
  • Easy-to-follow routes, maps, and information available in our Discovery Point if you want to explore independently 

Trip Notes

Easy to download as a PDF, our trip notes provide detailed information for every holiday. Please click below to find the trip notes for your departure date.

All our carefully-curated itineraries are designed by our experts. While we make every effort to adhere to the described itinerary, we may take alternative routes or adapt the running order for weather and/or operational reasons.

You're welcome to check in from 4pm onwards. Enjoy a complimentary cream tea on arrival. After tea enjoy a short walk with an introduction to maps.


Our days will be spent working through a range of practical indoor and outdoor exercises that will help us cover the Bronze Navigator Award Syllabus:

  • Navigate using a variety of maps and scales.
  • Use 4 and 6 figure grid references with worded descriptions to define the position of a map feature and to locate a feature on the ground.
  • Orientate the map using handrails, obvious point features and major landforms.
  • Use linear features (e.g. paths, tracks, clear boundaries) as handrails in simple navigation exercises.
  • Relate prominent landforms such as large hills and valleys to corresponding contour information on the map.
  • Orientate the map by aligning a compass needle against grid north and be aware that magnetic variation causes an inaccuracy.
  • Use an orientated map to confirm the direction of travel.
  • Use clearly identifiable features to confirm position along the route and to recognise when the target has been overshot.
  • Measure horizontal distance on the map and estimate distance on the ground using timing, pacing and simple visual judgements e.g.100m.
  • Plan and implement simple routes and navigation strategies based on the above skills.
  • Recognise a navigation error within a few minutes and apply simple relocation techniques using handrails and prominent features.
  • Be aware of the use of mobile phone location apps as a back up to map and compass and in emergencies.
  • Demonstrate an awareness of local and national access issues, access legislation, personal responsibilities, the Countryside Code and sustainability.
  • Demonstrate appropriate knowledge of walking equipment, safety equipment and emergency procedures.

If you want more information about what you will learn on a Bronze course please read these

Participant Notes

You will be outside for parts of the course and there will be some standing around outside so please bring warm clothing with you. You can expect to walk between 2 to 4 miles each day.

The course includes map work exercises and walk planning in the evenings. Maps will be provided for use during the course but you will need to bring a compass we recommend a compass which has a baseplate, 360 degree protractor, map measuring features, plus scales of 1:25k and 1:50k an example compass is the Silva Expedition 4.


Enjoy a leisurely breakfast before making your way home.


Guest reviews

Duration:
4 nights
Interests:
Navigation skills

Call to Enquire

020 3974 8865

For group bookings of 10+ guests click here

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