Have you ever felt curious about the historic places around you and wanted to find out more?
PastMap is an easy-to-use tool to help you do just that, for free, on different devices.
You can find information about the historic buildings, archaeology and landscapes
of places in Scotland, by using various records and maps.
So let's see how you can use PastMap.
You can access it at pastmap.org.uk using any popular modern browser.
From the home screen press ENTER to get the map
or click the 'I'm ready to dig deep' links.
The map screen is the heart of PastMap.
Apart from the map itself, there is a tool box at the top right
a bottom bar
a left sidebar.
The left sidebar has three parts -
The search box.
Here you can search for places.
Type a location in the search box
and click the arrow on the right.
This will bring up a list of possible locations in the left sidebar.
Click 'go' to zoom to that location on the map.
The second section is the data layers.
One or more layers of data can be turned on or off, by clicking the check box next to each one.
Like layers relating to archaeology,
layers relating to buildings,
layers relating to conservation areas and more.
There are 10 different layers you can explore.
To learn more about each layer click on the information icon.
At any time, you can click the arrow to get back to the layers options
Scrolling down, the last section is the base layers, giving you a selection of underlying maps
There are nine layers of maps.
You can see modern maps or historic maps.
To learn more about each click on the information icon.
At any time, you can click the arrow to get back to the layers options.
You can show or hide the sidebar using the arrow.
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The bar at the bottom shows a line scale
and also the Ordnance Survey grid reference of your cursor.
Click and hold down on the map to drag its position.
Click anywhere on the map to find out information about a particular location.
The information appears in the left sidebar
Again, click the arrow to get back to the layers options.
If you would like to see information about multiple sites, at the same time,
the Select tools allow you to highlight an area.
Select the shape you want to use and click;
detailed instructions on how to use the select tools appear in the sidebar.
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The move tool allows you to zoom in and out.
You can use your mouse wheel to do this too.
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Click the cross bar icon to go back to the full map of Scotland.
We hope this short video has given you an idea of the main features of PastMap.
But you should know PastMap is not intended to be used as part of the planning process.
For that, you should seek advice from your local authority archaeologist
or a conservation officer.
Use the Historic Environment Scotland portal for live information about designated sites
like scheduled monuments or listed buildings.
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PastMap is brought to you by Historic Environment Scotland
in partnership with the Scottish Historic Environment Records Forum.
Now you're ready to explore PastMap.
Why not start by discovering what's on your doorstep?
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