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Here be dragons: embellishing castles of the past

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About the map

It was thought that there were once over 1,500 castles scattered across the UK, but how many are still standing? A testament to their structural integrity and true grit (literally), we were impressed to see how many remain.

We created an interactive map for viewers to learn about these landmarks. We also included information about each structure’s nearest neighbouring castle. Although the data doesn’t show if it was a friend or foe, click through to decide for yourself!

You can relive this cartographic quest by checking out the Putting the ArcGIS cartography tools through their paces session from our 2023 Annual Conference.

Why it works

Mimicking a weathered reference map of yore, this web GIS map has been styled for an old-time theme with all the tools and interactivity that comes with the digital age.

What initially looks like a scorched map becomes a smattering of castles as viewers zoom in. Equipped with more than just a drawbridge, each castle encourages you to engage with the map through their pop-ups. The pop-ups stick to the medieval theme and provides more details about the historic site.

A crinkled paper texture, stains and even scorch marks, add drama to the map. We then used a visible range to reveal the individual sites for your area of interest and added additional layers for extra narrative.

Important Steps

  • 1.

    Cleaning the data in ArcGIS Pro meant setting each dataset to the same projection and appending attributes before merging. We also filtered the features to solely castles from a longer list of historic buildings.

  • 2.

    Take advantage of the multitude of layers available in the Living Atlas to create your own olden day basemap. Use tools like Blending and Transparency to see how layers react. Don’t be afraid to duplicate layers for a more intense effect.

  • 4.

    Take your pop-ups further with Arcade expressions. Ours calculate castle distances and bearings, along with showing helpful visuals.

  • 5.

    Heatmaps let you visualise your data’s distribution but can also complement your cartography if you change the colour ramp and use Effects.

  • 6.

    Sketch layers give you the ability to annotate with text and create polygons quickly.

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Requirements

  • Analysis

    We reprojected the datasets to be in the same projection as the basemap. Then, we Selected by Attribute to capture only castle data points. We created new shapefiles for the selected features, then merged them together using the  Append function. This also let us pair attributes with matching information types but different titles. e.g ‘X’ and ‘Easting.’ 

  • Time

    Most of our time was spent cleaning each dataset and preparing it to be uploaded into ArcGIS Online.

    Styling can take as much or as little time as you’d like to have fun with the various tools in Map Viewer. 

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Tips and tricks

  • tip-1-dragons

    Sketch layers

    Not just for stylistic effects, sketch layers are useful for symbolising points of interest, adding ad-hoc data, or annotating features. Sketch layers are specific to the map they are created in and can even be used as input to analysis too.

  • tip-2-dragons

    Have a hierarchy

    Take advantage of Map Viewer’s dynamic nature by using the Visible Range slider for a multiscale experience. 

  • tip-3-dragons

    Curate a colour scheme

    Using HTML, you can insert your desired hex codes within the source for a custom background.

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Links & Resources

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Eve Selbie

Map Author

Eve Selbie

Eve (she/they) is a Junior Customer Success Consultant at Esri UK. When they aren’t making maps or writing about the process, you can find them baking bread, wild swimming or wandering Edinburgh on their never-ending perfect coffee quest.

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