Welcome to the Great Polish

Map of Scotland

On 30th June 2023 the 10 year lease granted by Barony Castle 
LLP to the charity, Mapa Scotland SCIO, expired.  
Ownership and responsibility for maintenance of the Great Polish Map of Scotland 
returned to the hotel. The Charity Mapa Scotland SCIO continues with 
its remit to promote the historical and cultural links between 
Scotland and Poland.

December 2017

September 2017

State of the map at September 2016.  The “sea” is back for the first time since 1980!

© Craig Allardyce (click to enlarge)

The Great Polish Map of Scotland is a globally unique feature in the Scottish landscape. It is a large physical relief map of Scotland, sculpted in concrete and measuring some 40m by 50m. It stands in the grounds of Barony Castle, Eddleston, once the home of the Murrays of Elibank, and later the Hotel Black Barony. But how did this remarkable artefact come into existence…? Read more here

Milestones en route to ‘The Great Polish Map of Scotland’

Here is the place that was chosen for the Great Polish Map of Scotland: the South Lawn putting green of the Hotel Black Barony, Eddleston.  The moment captured in this image is at the end of April 1940.

South Lawn of Barony Castle in 1940

Germany had just invaded Denmark and the last ports of Norway were about to fall. The invasions  of France and the Low Countries still lay ahead.  A month or two later, with the Fall of France, the first Polish forces began arriving in Scotland, and in due course used the hotel as a staff officer training college. Read more here