Islanders turn focus on to Instagram maps
● Locals help pick out beauty spots for social media savvy tourists
With their beautiful windswept beaches, lochans and wildlife in abundance, it would seem like the Outer Hebrides has everything to offer when it comes to taking great holiday pictures.
But with social media ‘upping the ante’, the UK’S first Insta-friendly maps have been launched for the Uists, featuring an Instagram camera symbol for beauty spots where the best pictures can be taken.
The two limited-edition maps, developed by Calmac Ferries and Outer Hebrides Tourism, go on sale this week with proceeds going to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
The £20 adventure-scale maps, designed in all-weather waterproof fabric, have the traditional layout and grid reference points, but also include a new Insta-friendly symbol created and added to sit alongside the traditional ‘place of worship’ and ‘museum’ symbols from traditional maps.
Islanders helped identify the 20 most ‘Instagrammable’ beauty spots on the islands.
Among the ten most Instagrammable locations for Berneray, North Uist, Grimsay and Benbecula were the Giant Macaskill statue on Berneray commemorating Angus Macaskill (1825-1863), who at 7ft 7 inches was recorded in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s tallest man. Traigh Lar – a beach wildlife haven on North Uist – and South Ford cockle beach on Benbecula also made the list.
The top ten for South Uist and Eriskay range from the Fifa-recognised football pitch on Eriskay and Roshinish on South Uist, which has a view of where the SS Politician cargo ship carrying more than 250,000 bottles of whisky sank in 1941. The incident was the basis of Whisky Galore – a novel by Compton Mackenzie later made into an Ealing comedy film in 1949.
Andrew Macnair, head of marketing at Calmac Ferries, said the original intention was to have online maps only.
“However, the enthusiasm that has flooded into the tourism office for the products showed there was a demand to create a physical product,” he said. “We’re delighted to bring the islands to life with these bespoke maps and can’t think of a more rewarding charity to receive the sale proceeds.”
Robert Mckinnon, chief executive of Outer Hebrides Tourism, said social media had raised the islands’ profile.
“Welookforwardtowelcoming visitors to Uist and seeing Instagram feeds fill with snapshots of their adventures on the islands,” he said.
The maps, designed and made by Hampshire-based Splashmaps using Ordnance Survey’s Landranger style of map, are for sale for at Welcome Points.