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As shown above, Orkney consists of 70 or so islands of irregular size and shape.  Historically, these presented map makers with a major challenge and early maps of Orkney are barely recognisable.


This site describes the development of maps and charts of Orkney from the mid 16th until the late 19th centuries. A brief survey of them  clearly indicated that their development was not a smooth process. Instead, it involved a series of abrupt improvements in them. These were interspersed with the publication of inferior copies of each newly improved version and quite often, with further  publication of maps based on even earlier maps.


If the historical evolution of the maps was to be understood, unbiased methods were required to assess the similarities and differences between the maps and  thus determine their inter-relationships. The methods developed to assess these relationships and the conclusions drawn from them are described  on the following pages.

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GB

Orkney

The Mapping of Orkney

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