Scotland and Poland have had cultural and trade links since at least the 16th Century but the Second World War saw thousands of Polish troops come to Scotland as allies in the fight against Germany. They were tasked with defending a long stretch of the East coast against invasion. In 1942 the 1st Polish Armoured division, under General Maczek, came to the borders to train and prepare for the liberation of occupied Europe and in that year Barony Castle in Peebles became the main Polish Staff Officer training college.
After the war Maczek, and many of his comrades, including Jan Tomasik, made their homes in Scotland. The 3D map of Scotland was actually the brainchild of Jan Tomasik who had been a Sergeant in the 1st Polish Armoured Division. He had been stationed at Galashiels and married a Scottish nurse in 1942 after being injured and treated in the town's hospital. After the war he became a successful hotelier in Edinburgh and bought the hotel in Peebles in 1968. Maczek and Tomasik were friends and neighbours in Edinburgh, with Maczek staying for summer holidays at the hotel while the map was being built.
Tomasik had seen a miniature scale model of Belgium at the Brussels World Fair in 1958 and this is thought to be the inspiration for his creation of the map of Scotland. He hoped it would become a tourist attraction!
In the early 70's he proposed his idea to Professor Klimaszewski of Krakow University and a cartographer began the design work. Beginning in 1974, the project was managed and supervised by Tomasik's son-in-law and the hotel manager. With the help of the hotel maintenance man they did much of the basic construction work. It was built over 6 summers between 1974 and 1979, with visiting Polish exchange students looking for summer jobs, providing the labour.
They began by marking out the shapes of the islands - to a scale of 1:10,000. Three contour lines of 300, 600 and 900 metres were then laid in brick courses with shuttering to contain the concrete. Once the body of the map was completed they then had to manually sculpt the landforms. Mountain heights were slightly exaggerated to enhance the visual impact. The terrain was finally completed and painted in 1976. By 1979 features were painted onto the surface of the map and the pit was surrounded by its wall allowing water to be pumped into the basin to form the seas and some rivers.
The building of the map was therefore quite a job! It measures 50 metres by 40 metres and lies in an oval pit surrounded by a 142 metre long wall. It covers 1590 square metres and is believed to be the largest three-dimensional physical representation of a country and the largest outdoor relief map in the world!
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| photo from mapascotland |
Unfortunately in 1985 the hotel closed and the map fell into disrepair until it was almost completely covered over. On a visit to Scotland in 1994 the original cartographer, Dr Trafas, mentioned the existence of the map to town planners and it was rediscovered!
Mapa Scotland, a group of volunteers, was formed in 2010 to save and restore the map and major funding was finally secured in 2013 to ensure that it doesn't get lost again! The hope is that it becomes an educational resource and tourist attraction for future generations.
The map is free to visit and they have recently built a platform so that you can view it from a height and get a better view of the map. An amazing structure.
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