Download, explore and view locations of woodland in Scotland in the 1840s to 1880s.
This dataset shows areas of woodland identified on Ordnance Survey 1st edition Six-Inch to the mile (1:10,560 scale) maps of Scotland. The woodland areas were extracted using a combination of machine learning, post-processing techniques and manual verification. The depiction of woodland on these maps is one of the most comprehensive records of ancient woodland in Scotland.
Ordnance Survey 1st edition six-inch to the mile mapping (1840s-1880s)
The Ordnance Survey 1st edition six-inch to the mile (or 1:10,560) County Series was the earliest and most comprehensive, topographic mapping of all of Scotland from the 1840s to the 1880s. The series is made up of 2,031 sheets, each with a map extent of 61 x 92 cm (24 x 36 inches). The series records most man-made and natural features in the landscape and it is an excellent documentary resource for landscape history. Every road, railway, field, fence, wall, stream and building is shown, even including smaller features such as letter boxes, bollards on quaysides, mile posts, and flag-staffs. Uncultivated land is distinguished by different symbols for marsh, bog, and rough grassland. Woodland is usually distinguished into three main types – broadleaved woods, conifers, and mixed woods. A range of different symbols also depict various man-made features, and the maps are also a comprehensive record of public boundaries.
View OS six-inch maps on the National Library of Scotland maps website:
Ordnance Survey Six-inch to the mile, maps of Scotland, 1843-1882
View Ordnance Survey characteristics sheet showing three different types of woodland symbol
Purpose
Zulu Ecosystems have created and donated this woodland layer to contribute towards the conservation and protection of ancient woodland in Scotland. The work is part of the Zulu Ecosystems’ ‘Lost Woods’ programme which has been developed to support the restoration of derelict and dying ancient woodland. These ‘Lost Woods’, where only 20% or less of canopy cover remains, are eligible for carbon credits under the Woodland Carbon Code (WCC). This is beneficial to help incentivise and support landowners to regenerate nature at scale.
The new woodland layer also allows improvements to the Scottish Ancient Woodland Inventory (AWI) where the category ‘Ancient’ comprises woods recorded as being of semi-natural origin on either the Roy Military Survey Maps of Scotland (1747-55) or the 1st edition Ordnance Survey six-inch maps from the 1840s-1880s.
Methodology
Zulu employed a workflow which firstly used Machine Learning processes to detect the three main types of woodland symbols for broadleaved woods, conifers, and mixed woods. The models were trained to detect these symbols and distinguish them from other similar-shaped symbols for different features. A number of post-processing techniques were used to then merge certain polygons, remove very small areas (less than 0.2 hectares in extent), as well as remove small holes in the dataset. Manual verification also allowed broader false detection of certain similar symbols (ie. scattered trees, rocks, marshes) to be identified and removed. Following publication on the National Library of Scotland’s website in January 2024, map users were invited to submit corrections to the layer which they spotted. During the following year, over 750 corrections were notified which Zulu subsequently corrected in the woodland layer itself.
About the data
The dataset is available a shapefile, with polygons showing the extents of woodland. The area of each polygon is given in hectares.
View the data
This data has been visualised on the National Library of Scotland maps website’s Woodland in Scotland map viewer.
Rights information
This data collection is licensed under a CC-BY 4.0 license. Please apply the credit line ‘OS First Series Woodland Layer (2025) by Zulu Ecosystems’ if you use this dataset or if you create derivative work from it.
The default re-use terms for NLS maps are CC-BY 4.0 but please refer to our information page about reuse of maps for more information.
Download the data
Woodland in Scotland (1840s-1880s) data
Download the dataset as a shapefile within a zip file.