About Bath 5k Map
The Bath 5k Map was created by Bath resident Annie Legge to promote ways to improve mental health and wellbeing through accessing the outdoors.
Annie’s inspiration came on New Years Day 2022 whilst exploring a new walk with the family and discussing new year's resolutions, many of which were about trying new things and keeping fit! A 5k Walk idea was born, which rapidly led to a different 5k route for every week of the year as an initial goal and spending much of 2022-23 mapping over 50 circular 5k walks in and around the City of Bath.
The initial purpose of the project was very personal, to feed a curiosity to deeply explore the hills, valleys and surrounding countryside of Bath, and to find ways in which to share this with others who are living in, or visiting the city. However, early in 2023 Cerys, took her own life in Bath aged 24, Annie’s niece. This brought about a renewed passion and focus to bring a “Bath 5k Map” to life and a focus on mental health and wellbeing for all our young people, residents and visitors to the city.
A community project
A focus on mental health and wellbeing soon led to The Bath 5k Map being developed as a tool to build community, hold conversation and encourage access to the outdoors and more time offline.
The Bath 5k Map supports the wellbeing of young people with 100% of profits from the sale of each map in aid of two charities Mentoring Plus and Off the Record Bath and North East Somerset, who support the mental health of young people in Bath and beyond. Our launch crowdfunder is live for ongoing sponsorship.
Bath 5k Map is now delivered as a tool for visitors and citizens of Bath to engage with nature, delivered as a physical map and online content to open up our amazing countryside to wider audiences.
Support the Bath 5k Map
Our Crowdfunder fundraising is ongoing to support our overheads and running of the Bath 5k Map:
Bringing the map to life
Design
Jo Hounsome Photography, 2023
The project just wouldn’t have been possible without the incredible partnership with Ellie Shipman, an illustrator and artist based in Bristol.
Ellie took the brief for “a physical, beautifully illustrated map giving an overview of the city and inspiring walkers to explore the 5k routes” bringing to life not only the Bath 5k Map as an illustration, but a functional, useable map for walkers.
The Bath 5k Map brand is vintage-inspired, harkening back to when maps were artefacts but now bringing an attractive, fun and colourful style to hopefully inspire all ages.
The Bath 5k Map project takes sustainability principles seriously, and we are delighted to have our maps printed locally in Frome, with Dennis Maps the leading map printer in the UK, producing more than 2 million maps and charts every year.
Dennis Maps are fully accredited to the ISO 14001 environmental management standard as well as being an FSC© paper user. Dennis Maps are the major printer of all Ordnance Survey maps and renowned for the quality and accuracy of printing and folding large format maps. Our Bath 5k Map is has been large format litho printed on a paper stock which is weather-resistant and tearproof, just as all Ordnance Survey maps.
Taking the maps online
Annie is so grateful for the support of Matt Hardy, who has tirelessly given up weekends and evenings to support with the more challenging technical support setting up The Bath 5k Map online!