Firstly and most obviously, take a look around you and then take a look at your map. Look for key features in the distance such as big hills, a church spire, a radio tower, a river, etc.

You will probably have a very rough idea of where you are already. You will probably know that you are within an area of about 5 km by 5km at least. So start your search in that area of the map.

One by one, try and find those distant key features on the map. If you have spotted a river, the chances are there will be only one major river in that 5km x 5km area. This would give a good start.

As you find one major feature, use that as a point on the map to work from to find the next. For example a telephone box is next to a road that leads to a bridge over the river. Start looking for bridges over the river and then look for telephone boxes near those bridges.

From this method, you can often find out where you are to a certain degree of accuracy.

If the area you are in is a bit more featureless such as in Dartmoor or you cannot get a good level of accuracy, you have to turn to other means. This leads to the next section - Bearings and Triangulation