OS Benchmarks

I read the orienteering club newsletter and saw there was an article about Ordnance Survey Benchmarks. It was interesting as I did a Surveying undergrad degree and learnt all about the OS levelling network. 

There were over 500,000 benchmarks initially. All current benchmarks are helpfully shown on this map. 

As I saw there were many nearby I went for a walk to see if I could find any. There were 5 within a 1km walk. All were cut marks which are the most common benchmark and they are found on vertical surfaces such as houses, walls, stones, churches and even boulders.

In this blip I have pictured 3. In the top left it is somewhere on the wall. All the benchmarks come with a good description to help the surveyors locate them. It said "Wall Opp no70 S side Thirlstane road". I used that and then spotted it and top right is a zoomed in shot where it is more visible.

Then there are two extras

There are too many to start keeping a record but it will be fun to try and spot them