The Isle of Man Maps
As a regional map of The Isle of Man will show, The Isle of Man is located in the Irish Sea, almost exactly at the middle point between England and Ireland. It is around 16 miles off the southernmost point of Scotland.
As of the most recent census, the Isle of Man's population was 80,058. Its land mass measures 221 square miles, or 572 kilometres, and has a length and breadth of 32.5 miles (52 kilometres) by 13 miles (22 kilometres). The Calf of Man, a small islet which is home to a nature reserve, lies on the southwest side of the island. A mountain range bisects the Isle from the Northeast to the Southeast, with Snaefell, the highest peak on the Island, being part of this range. Snaefell tops 2,034 feet, or 621 metres.
The oldest Ordnance Survey 1:2500 scale maps of the Isle of Man date to the mid 1800's, but there were many notable and significant maps drafted by private parties. More complete information about older Manx maps can be obtained by visiting the Manx Museum in person or their website.
Local, large-scale mapping of the Isle of man is the responsibility of the Isle's Government's Department of Local Government, or DLGE. The actual work of surveying and map production has historically been the province of the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain (OSGB), accomplished under contracts awarded by DLGE. The OSGB does produce its own 1:50,000 scale Landranger maps for historical purposes in paper and digital format, and the copyrights of these maps remains with OSGB.
A new, extensive survey of the Isle of Man was done during the '80's. This new survey was done based on Great Britain's National Grid system of referencing. Due to this, map scales of 1:1,250 were adopted in the Douglas and Onchan areas, and the 1:2,500 scale was used for the rest of the Island. This re-surveying was conducted by the OSGB and produced digital data of almost 800 map tiles. The Ordnance Survey also converted their mapping into digital formal for computer use.
DLGE has conducted a yearly revision programme beginning after the complete re-survey, mainly focused on places on the Isle where major changes might have happened. In the previous decade surveyors have scrutinized every map tile and re-surveyed other urban sites on a 1:1,250 scale.
The DLGE decided that the required yearly revision surveying of the Isle of Man be offered competitively in 1996. This resulted in a five-year contract being given to BKS Surveys, Ltd., a company from Northern Ireland that specializes in mapping. This contract was amended to 7 years afterward, and BKS was given the contract again in 2004 when the original one expired.
Many map products have been obtained from the Isle of Man base mapping:
1:10,000 vector dataset (42 digital map units)
1:10,000 contour dataset (42 digital map units)
20 metre DTM
1:25,000 Outdoor Leisure map
1:50,000 RASTER map
1:100,000 Tourist map
The pan-Governmental mapping project, MANNGIS, was started in 1992 to make sure that GIS development was approached in a corporate fashion across the various Departments, Utilities and Statutory Boards of the Government. Besides this, MANNGIS has developed and maintained corporate field gazetteers, addresses, and streets, and the products associated with these items for the Isle of Man. More information can be obtained by visiting the MANNGIS website
More information and details about Isle of Man maps and their availability can be found in the Cartographic portion of the Isle of Man’s Government site
