Survey Maps of Scotland Towns

The National Library of Scotland has released a digital library of over 1,900 sheets of surveys covering 62 towns surveyed between 1847 and 1895. It's available at http://www.nls.uk/digitallibrary/map/townplans/index.html .

You may browse these surveys either from a map of Scotland itself or through an alphabetical listing of the town. I looked at the alphabetical listing and chose an 1849-1853 map of Edinburgh. The introductory page shows a map of the city divided into quarters. Background information on the city, sheet details, and symbol and abbreviation information are also available.

You can view the maps with a regular browser, but it's far easier to use the MrSid plugin (with which you might be familiar if you've ever used Ancestry.com) and Internet Explorer. Using the plugin you'll be able to quickly pan around each map quadrant and zoom in very close to the surveys as long as you don't mind waiting a few moments for the page to reload. The maps are easily-readable and fun to explore; I just wish the windows that displayed the maps were a bit larger.

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