The Great Polish Map of Scotland is located on the grounds of the Barony Castle Hotel. Found near the borders town of Eddleston, just north of Peebles, or a 50 minute drive from Edinburgh. We visited it on our way north from England, which didn’t take use too much out of our way. It is free to visit so a must visit for all map enthusiasts in Scotland or Northern England.
Built between 1974 and 1979 to a scale of 1:10000 it is truly impressive to behold (50 m x 40 m on the ground). It is the largest known physical representation of a country and the largest outdoor relief map in the world (signpost at the map). Envisioned by Jan Tomasik, a Polish sergeant. He had been station in Galashiels during WW2, and added the Hotel Black Barony to his holdings in 1968, providing the map a location. The map itself was built in stages over a number of years, with Polish exchange students providing some of the manpower required.
The map is now maintained by Mapa Scotland. A charity who are now working on restoring the map. Parts of it are currently in poor condition, but overall it is an impressive site.
Also the grounds of the hotel in general are really beautiful, with a small glen running through the site, if visiting the Scottish Borders it would make a great place to stay: Barony Castle Hotel.
When arriving at the hotel there is a path just to the left of the castle:
The path continues on the bridge over the glen:
Finally the map, the white stick is the location of Ben Nevis. Looking from the east, so Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire in the forefront:
View from the west, with the Western Isles in the forefront:
View from the south with the Scottish Borders and Dumfires and Galloway in the forefront:
Closeup of the details, the erosion on the edges is evident:
YouTube:
Bing:
Bing Maps Bird’s eye view has a good image of the map.
Google:
Location on Google Maps.
For more information please visit:
Mapa Scotland
The Great Polish Map of Scotland on Wikipedia
BBC News
