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Castles of King Edward I

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About the map

King Edward I built a series of fortresses to aid his conquest of north Wales. These castles have been termed the Ring of Iron. The most notable are Beaumaris, Caernarfon, Conwy and Harlech; all have been designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. 

This map poster, in the style of a 13th-century manuscript, displays the castle locations and provides further information on these fortifications. It also features a building footprint of Harlech Castle to, highlight its double-wall structure and its architectural symmetry. 

For a more detailed walk through of the creation of this map, check out the Putting the ArcGIS cartography tools through their paces session from our 2023 Annual Conference.  

Why it works

The 13th Century theme of the map was heavily inspired by the works of Matthew Paris, a monk of St Albans Abbey, particularly his map of Great Britain. Inspiration was also taken from 13th/14th-century manuscripts that also depict King Edward I and other works by Matthew Paris.

The map uses symbol layers in ArcGIS Pro to mimic the styling of our inspirations, starting from shared style files. By layering different textures of parchment, watercolour and brushstrokes with different blending modes, we can achieve an old medieval map style.   

This map also uses a lot of custom artwork, such as the icons, letterings and decorative border. These little details really add to the overall medieval theme. 

Important Steps

  • 1.

    Do research on your mapping subject! There is always a visual narrative to present in your design and cartography. If there is a theme that ties into your map, try to incorporate it and make design choices beyond options that ‘just look nice’.

  • 2.

    Use ArcGIS Pro Styles. Styles are a great way of quickly elevating your cartography. Click here to see a wide variety of styles, from industry-standard symbologies to creative textures!

  • 3.

    Customise the ArcGIS Pro Styles you have downloaded. You can edit and customise the different components of the symbology in the ‘Layers tab’ and 'Structures tab' in the symbology’s properties.

  • 4.

    Blending modes are your best friend! Visualise and combine your layers in a compelling way using the variety of blending modes within ArcGIS Pro. In my map I used the colour burn and linear burn blending modes, so that the texture of my background can still be seen. This makes it look like my icons were ‘drawn onto’ the paper itself.

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Requirements

  • Analysis

    As this map purely uses data visualisation techniques, no analysis was required to create it. 

  • Time

    The actual map took 5 hours to research and create. However, as we decided to illustrate the layout components myself (illustrative E lettering, borders and castle icons), the total time spent creating the finished product was around 7 to 8 hours.

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Tips and tricks

  • experiment with styles

    Experiment with styles

    Experiment with mixing, matching and customising ArcGIS Pro styles. You never know what might look good! As Bob Ross said “There are no mistakes, just happy accidents”.

  • set your label sizes

    Set your symbology sizes

    Set a display reference scale if you want to ensure the size of your symbols stays consistent at all extents.

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Links & Resources

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Balqis Mazuir

Map Author

Balqis Mazuir

Balqis (she/hers) is a GIS Consultant at Esri UK with a background in Earth Sciences. Alongside her interests in GIS and Cartography, Balqis enjoys painting, going on walks and playing badminton.

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