ORDNANCE SURVEY GRIDS CODE

The numbering follows a grid index where the tens denote the progress from West to East and the units from South to North. If working with more than one Landranger sheet, this may also be given as 41/166712.Īlternatively, sometimes numbers instead of the two-letter combinations are used for the 100×100 km squares. For example, within the context of a location known to be on OS Landranger sheet 41 (which extends from NN000500 in the south-west to NN400900 in the north-east) the abbreviated grid reference 166712 is equivalent to NN166712. It is often used informally when the context identifies the OS 2-letter square. Unlike the numeric references described above, this abbreviated grid reference is incomplete it gives the location relative to an OS 100×100 km square, but does not specify which square. For example, the grid reference for Sullom Voe oil terminal in the Shetland Islands may be given as HU396753 or 439668,1175316.Īnother, distinct, form of all-numeric grid reference is an abbreviated alphanumeric reference where the letters are simply omitted, e.g. Note that 14 digits may be required for locations in Orkney and further north. Grid references may also be quoted as a pair of numbers: eastings then northings in metres, measured from the southwest corner of the SV square. Illustration of the Ordnance Survey National Grid coordinate system, with Royal Observatory Greenwich as an example (Grid references may be written with or without spaces e.g., also NN166712.) NN has an easting of 200 km and northing of 700 km, so the OSGB36 National Grid location for Ben Nevis is at 216600, 771200. For example, the grid reference of the 100 m square containing the summit of Ben Nevis is NN 166 712. The most common usage is the six figure grid reference, employing three digits in each coordinate to determine a 100 m square. A location can be indicated to varying resolutions numerically, usually from two digits in each coordinate (for a 1 km square) through to five (for a 1 m square) in each case the first half of the digits is for the first coordinate and the second half for the other. For example, NH0325 means a 1 km square whose south-west corner is 3 km east and 25 km north from the south-west corner of square NH. Within each square, eastings and northings from the south west corner of the square are given numerically. The central (2° W) meridian is shown in red. These squares are outlined in light grey on the '100km squares' map, with those containing land lettered.

ORDNANCE SURVEY GRIDS CODE

For the second letter, each 500 km square is subdivided into 25 squares of size 100 km by 100 km, each with a letter code from A to Z (again omitting I) starting with A in the north-west corner to Z in the south-east corner. The O square contains a tiny area of North Yorkshire, Beast Cliff at OV 0000, almost all of which lies below mean high tide. Four of these largest squares contain significant land area within Great Britain: S, T, N and H. The first letter of the British National Grid is derived from a larger set of 25 squares of size 500 km by 500 km, labelled A to Z, omitting one letter (I) (refer diagram below), previously used as a military grid.

The map shows The Wash and the North Sea, as well as places within the counties of Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk.

European-wide agencies also use UTM when mapping locations, or may use the Military Grid Reference System (MGRS), or variants of it. The Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system (UTM) is used to provide grid references for worldwide locations, and this is the system commonly used for the Channel Islands and Ireland ( since 2001). Grid references are also commonly quoted in other publications and data sources, such as guide books and government planning documents.Ī number of different systems exist that can provide grid references for locations within the British Isles: this article describes the system created solely for Great Britain and its outlying islands (including the Isle of Man) the Irish grid reference system was a similar system created by the Ordnance Survey of Ireland and the Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland for the island of Ireland. The Ordnance Survey (OS) devised the national grid reference system, and it is heavily used in their survey data, and in maps based on those surveys, whether published by the Ordnance Survey or by commercial map producers. The Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system (also known as British National Grid ( BNG) ) is a system of geographic grid references used in Great Britain, distinct from latitude and longitude. For the electricity network, see National Grid (Great Britain).

Ordnance survey grids