Great gift ideas for walkers
There are those for whom a walk is simply a means of fresh air and mild exertion. And then there are the true walkers; people who read the contours of a landscape like a poem, who lose hours to ridgelines and lichen, whose fondest memories are often mapped in footpaths rather than photographs.
Mapelio’s collection of contour maps captures this sentiment with eloquence. Designed with absolute precision and reverence, these pieces offer more than topography, they celebrate the character and memory of place.
So, let’s explore three classic hiking areas and how they are reflected in the perfect gift - maps!
The Llanberis Path
From £30
The Pyg Track
From £30
The drama of Snowdon
Snowdonia’s contours are almost theatrical in their verticality. Yr Wyddfa, Wales’s highest summit, rises amid a symphony of corries and knife-edge arêtes like Crib Goch. For many walkers, this landscape is their first introduction to mountain air - a rite of passage that becomes a lifelong touchstone.
A contour map of Snowdon is not simply a record of elevation; it reflects the dramatic landscape, the narrowness of Crib Goch, and the classic routes to the summit. For those who have trodden its routes in mist and sunshine, it is a quietly moving reminder of achievement and awe.
Mapelio’s Snowdon contour map distils the region’s energy into a timeless, elegant composition and ideal for a study wall or hallway where stories of ascent are often recounted.
Helvellyn Contour Map
From £30
The Wainwright Fells
From £42
The layered soul of the Lake District
Nowhere in Britain fuses literature and landscape more seamlessly than the Lake District. This is terrain that invites introspection and daydreaming as much as exertion. Its fells and tarns have long been a balm for writers, climbers, and solitary ramblers alike.
The beauty of a Lake District contour map lies in its subtlety. Unlike the overt drama of the Highlands or Snowdonia, this region speaks in undulations and hidden passes. The slow rise of Skiddaw, the iconic curve of Helvellyn’s Striding Edge, the clustered density of Langdale, each element is rendered with topographic clarity and poetic restraint.
For the walker who has returned to Grasmere year after year, or who once camped above Borrowdale under a Turner-esque sky, this map becomes a piece of personal cartography.
The Cuillin Mountains
From £30
The Munros
From £36
The wild contours of ScotlandThe wild contours of Scotland
To walk in Scotland is to surrender to scale. From the vastness of Rannoch Moor to the drama of the Cuillin, these are landscapes that resist taming. A map here is more than an artefact; it is an invitation, a challenge, sometimes even a warning.
Mapelio’s Scotland contour collection pays homage to these northern wilds. The sheer detail of the relief around Glencoe or the Cairngorms makes each piece a study in geological poetry. This is the domain of long-distance walkers and bothy seekers, where a single footpath may represent a week of solitude and silence.
For the friend or family member who finds sanctuary in Scotland’s remoteness, a contour map offers both recognition and reward. It honours the walker’s eye, the ability to read a line of elevation and feel, instinctively, the shape of the day ahead.
A lasting expression of place
In a world often distracted by the ephemeral, a beautifully crafted map endures. It captures a loved landscape with grace and accuracy, allowing its owner to revisit summits, ridges and valleys with the lightest glance. For the serious walker, few gifts could be more personal or more quietly powerful.
Mapelio’s contour map collection transforms familiar ground into framed reflection and a meaningful way to celebrate the paths already walked, and those still to come.
So, let the landscape speak and gift a map that will be treasured.