Ordnance Survey Discount Codes July 2025

You're not short on maps these days. Between Google, Apple, and the ever-expanding wilderness of vaguely helpful hiking blogs, there are more ways than ever to "just follow the blue dot." But if you’ve ever tried to navigate a bridleway in rural Cumbria using satellite view and goodwill alone, you’ll know there’s still something oddly reassuring about a large piece of waterproof paper with contour lines. And pubs.

Ordnance Survey has been attesting to this fact for the last couple of centuries, and they’ve doubled down online with their own shop of maps, books, and a subscription-based app. The tone is rugged yet politely helpful. It’s as if your dad - if he were exceptionally organised and wore fleece - were running a map shop from his shed.

A format older than the Internet (and more reliable in a rainstorm)

The star products are what you’d expect: the classic orange Explorer and pink Landranger paper maps. They’re printed on tough, weather-resistant stock and cram in enough detail to make even the most obscure footpath feel confidently walkable. They also won’t buzz with notifications midway through a climb, directly before you misread an elevation line.

At £12.99 each, they’re not exactly impulse buys - but they frequently appear in sets with modest discounts. For example, the Explorer Dartmoor Map Set currently sits at £31.18 (down from £38.97). Not earth-shattering, but considering you’ll stare at them for hours in a rain-lashed tent planning your escape, possibly worth it.

Free delivery is offered on most regular maps and book orders via Royal Mail 1st Class if you spend over £75. Yes, that’s quite a few maps, but obsessive completists - or anyone planning a truly over-ambitious UK hiking tour - will hit that threshold easily. For everyone else, you’re looking at £2.99 shipping, or free Evri delivery over standard timeframes. This won't get your map to you before the weekend’s weather changes, but it’s consistent enough.

More than just maps: Books, routes and (mildly) personal touches

If you’re more into walking than navigating, there’s a slew of Pathfinder Guides covering short ambles and long hikes with turn-by-turn directions. The accessible walks series is a decent addition - not flawless, but clearly trying. At £12.99 apiece, they’re reasonably priced, and at least one of them will contain the phrase "breezy hilltop with sweeping views," which lets you know you’re in the right place.

There are also custom maps, should you want to wall-mount your own adventure - or, perhaps, confuse your relatives with a framed rendering of Skiddaw featuring your dog’s face. Starting at £7.99 for a folded custom map, they’re fine. Not cheap. Not extortionate. Just comfortably gift-shop-adjacent. Framed and canvas versions exist, but after shipping times of 10–12 working days, they may arrive after the memory of your hike has faded back into Instagram Stories.

The app you’ll forget to cancel, but probably shouldn’t

OS Maps Premium offers a repertoire of digital routes and offline mapping for smartphones, and it's currently offered with a 14-day free trial. Cancel it promptly or forget, and it’ll auto-renew (classic modern software move). It works well enough, assuming your phone battery doesn’t faint at the first sign of altitude, and the route-suggestion algorithm avoids anything that looks too landslide-y. Value depends on how often you go out. Weekend dabblers might do better sticking to books and paper; part-time goatherds will see the appeal.

Refunds and the return to civilisation

Returns are fairly painless. Maps and books can be returned within 14 days, as long as you haven’t spilled soup on them or dramatically re-folded them in the wrong order. Framed and custom maps are understandably less flexible - although there is a "latest edition guarantee," which we assume doesn’t cover naming your dog after what turns out to be a seasonal stream.

Final thoughts (ideally from a comfortable pub)

The Ordnance Survey shop is one of those rare places online that feels human in its ambitions. It doesn’t push glossy, impossible outdoor lifestyles. It doesn’t aggressively upsell you to a titanium spork. It just tries to tell you where you are, and how to get somewhere more interesting. With vouchers, map sets, and the occasional "free gift over £30" offer, it rewards the quietly prepared. Which is as British as walking into fog with waterproof optimism.

TL;DR? You probably don’t need every map. But the ones you do get will work, won’t beep, and won’t shame you with low battery warnings. For that alone, they’re oddly comforting.

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