UK Parliament Scottish Constituencies – General, Geographic & Electoral Knowledge Atlas (14 Oct 2019)
- October 14, 2019
Scotland has 59 out of the total 650 consituencies that make up the United Kingdom Parliament at Westminster, to which a single member (‘MP’) is elected every 5 years or so very roughly speaking (the last UK General Election was 8th June 2017). Obviously this is a political process with an unpredictable outcome, but this map is about visually connecting the general, geographic & electoral knowledge resources about ALL of the constituencies that remain valid no matter who is currently elected, all together in a single, information rich, intuitive to navigate, easy to share, digital document.
There is a knowledge seed branch for every constituency in Scotland, arranged alphabetically in 7 columns of approximately equal sizes to form a rich visually structured framework. Embedded within each is a contextual thumbnail location map and basic ‘facts & figures’ – some publicly available (after a bit of a hunt), and others we have derived ourselves. Seeing the ‘Area’, ‘Population’ and ‘Population Density’ figures for all constituencies side by side makes for interesting comparison.
Collections of sub-branches of links to general, geographic & electoral knowledge resources about each constituency – with multiple selected links also attached to the seed branches – complete this first ever national local knowledge map of all Scotland’s UK Parliament constituencies. It also provides a comprehensive & robust visual knowledge framework upon which to build other maps in the future and, with yet another UK General Election a looming possibility, that future is probably not that far away…

Angus McDonald
Scotland The Map Project Director and Knowledge Mappers Founder & CEO
Part of the 'Governance & Politics' Category
- On This Page
Map
The options to view / download this UK Parliament Scottish Contituencies General, Geographic & Electoral Knowledge Atlas (14 Oct 2019) map are in the panel below. If you are new to our maps then please browse the Knowledge Map Mini Guide first before viewing / downloading. Further down this page you can also see a summary of the map content, the main features, and some fun facts 😉 we discovered when compiling it. Please provide your feedback, or suggest additional content, in the map comments, and please also share it with your networks. You can also find other maps using the map finder panel, or the map of maps.
View / Download Options
Anybody can view the html version of this map as a standalone, full-screen webpage in a new browser tab, using the ‘View HTML map full screen’ button below. However to download the HTML5 file – for viewing on-, or off-, line in any modern browser, on any device, without additional plugins – you will need to register for basic membership (it’s free 🙂 To download the original map in MindManager (.mmap) format – for amending, adapting & repurposing in MindManager software – you will need PRO membership, available for a modest annual, or one off lifetime, fee. Already joined? Login here.
Download Map As An HTML5 (.html) File [17.4 MB]
Download Map As A MindManager (.mmap) File [11.6 MB]
Knowledge Map Mini Guide
We create our digital knowledge maps linking to 100’s of public domain knowledge resources about the ‘building blocks’ of Scotland using MindManager, the market leading information mapping software for over 20 years. One of MindManger’s many unique features is the ability to publish a knowledge map as an HTML5 document that…
- retains all of the knowledge, and most of the interactivity, of the original.
- is viewable in any modern browser, on any device, as a stand-alone webpage that doesn’t require any external plug-ins or internet connection to ‘work’ (ie. they can be viewed offline).
- can be embedded in an existing webpage using a standard i-frame and URL (whilst being hosted elsewhere).
- can be shared in the usual ways that files are shared, including being sent as an email attachment.
- is ‘thumb friendly’ for viewing & interacting on touch screen devices such as mobile phones.
If you have not encountered an HTML knowledge map before, treat it like a Google Map. You can pan about, zoom in and out, and clicking on map branches will activate content (single hyperlinks, multiple hyperlinks, notes, embedded data feature toggles etc.). Notes & hyperlinks will open up in a side panel in the browser window (mobile users – see ‘Tips For Mobile Users’ below).
We make the HTML versons of our maps available to the world for free by publishing them within ‘map blog posts’ on the ScotlandtheMap.info WordPress blog website. This video explains the layout of the posts and how the maps can be viewed online as a stand alone page in your web browser, or downloaded to your device and viewed offline at your convenience.
As stated already our HTML knowledge maps are “thumb friendly and viewable in any modern browser, on any device”. Here are a few extra tips to enhance your user experience if viewing maps on a small touch-screen device…
1) Vertical Scrolling Of Webpage – If your ‘scrolling thumb’ is anywhere within the embedded map window when it slides across the touch-screen, you will pan around the map rather than scroll the webpage as a whole. To counter this there is always a narrow margin around the map panel at the edges of the screen, which you can ‘drag’ to move the page. (Viewing the map full screen in a new browser tab also gets round this issue :-).
2) Activating Branch Content – Clicking on map branches will activate content. Notes & the list of attached hyperlinks will open up in a side panel in the browser window. On mobile phones this panel can be take up a disconcertingly large proportion of the screen. If you don’t want to access this content, just click on the map background away from the activated branch, and the panel will disappear.
3) Following Hyperlinks – If there is a single hyperlink on a branch then clicking on the favicon symbol at the end once will activate it and the web resource linked to will open up in a new browser tab. If the topic has multiple hyperlinks attached (another unique MindManager feature) then these can only be followed by clicking on the link in the list in the side panel that opens up within the browser window when the branch is clicked. Note that notes and hyperlinks are on separate tabs within the sidepanel if both are present. Hyperlinks are listed in the ‘Attachments’ tab.
4) Map Content Version – Work the ‘Lo-Fi’ (most images removed) version of the map if your device has limited capacity. But that is not to say that the ‘Hi-Fi’ version can’t be viewed, and they do not work fine once they have loaded. It will just take longer for them to load, say 30s – 2 mins depending on the connection. For example we have viewed & worked with the ‘Hi-Fi’ version of the Scottish Local Councillor map – 2000+ branches, 6000+ hyperlinks, 1600+ embedded images, including a location map for all 32 councils and 324 electoral wards as well as a colour photo of every one of the 1227 councillors – on a Samsung Galaxy S7 no problem.
1) Maps In Native MindManager (.mmap) Format – Whilst our HTML maps are interactive, they are not editable. This can only be done within MindManager and the maps republished as HTML. Generally speaking ScotlandtheMap maps will be available to download in native MindManager (.mmap) format from the Knowledge Mappers map store. Click the button below the map if present to go to the map page on the store website (opens up in a new browser tab).
2) Other Information Mapping Software Users – Many other information software programmes have the capability of importing MindManager map files (MindManager was the first software of it’s type and has been the market leader for over 20 years). A word of caution however. Our maps fully utilise the large range of unique ‘information cartography’ features available in MindManager – large maps (1000’s of branches), ‘rich (ie. variable) formatting’ of topic text, multiple hyperlinks, embedded data features (spreadsheets, charts & topic properties), layout variations within the same map etc. – which are not supported by other information mapping software programs. Thus even if your program can import a MindManager file, how it copes with each of these features, and what it renders on-screen as a result, will vary from the MindManager version so user beware!
Map Summary
UK Parliament Scottish Constituencies – General, Geographic & Electoral Knowledge Atlas (14 Oct 2019)
Description
Scotland has 59 out of the total 650 consituencies that make up the United Kingdom Parliament at Westminster, to which a single member (‘MP’) is elected every 5 years or so very roughly speaking (the last UK General Election was 8th June 2017). Obviously this is a political process with an unpredictable outcome, but this map is about visually connecting the general, geographic & electoral knowledge resources about ALL of the constituencies that remain valid no matter who is currently elected, all together in a single, information rich, intuitive to navigate, easy to share, digital document.
There is a knowledge seed branch for every constituency in Scotland, arranged alphabetically in 7 columns of approximately equal sizes to form a rich visually structured framework. Embedded within each is a contextual thumbnail location map and basic ‘facts & figures’ – some publicly available (after a bit of a hunt), and others we have derived ourselves. Seeing the ‘Area’, ‘Population’ and ‘Population Density’ figures for all constituencies side by side makes for interesting comparison.
Collections of sub-branches of links to general, geographic & electoral knowledge resources about each constituency – with multiple selected links also attached to the seed branches – complete this first ever national local knowledge map of all Scotland’s UK Parliament constituencies. It also provides a comprehensive & robust visual knowledge framework upon which to build other maps in the future and, with yet another UK General Election a looming possibility, that future is probably not that far away…
'Knowledge Seed' Branches
With embedded features and attached multiple hyperlinks & index marker tags, ‘seed branches’ provide a ‘base level’ of contextual knowledge resources about the subject, which is retained if the seed branch is repurposed / used in other maps in future.
Logo & thumbnail location map of the constituency relative to the other constituencies in Scotland
Constituency unique identifying codes for cross-referencing with other data…
- ONS code
Constituency ‘Facts & Figures’ embedded as single data fields…
- Constituency Area Total
- Constituency Area Non-Inland
- Constituency Area Inland
- Constituency Population (latest est)
- Constituency Population Density
Index marker ‘geo’ tags for additional contextual knowledge and dynamic map filtering…
- Constituency Type
- Current Political Party
- Shared Land Borders (ie. immediate neighbours)
- Border ‘Status’ (island, landlocked or mixed)
- UK Home Nation
- UK EU-NUTS2 Region
- Scottish Parliamentary Region
- Scottish Parliament Constituency
- Local Council Area
- Local Council Electoral Ward
- ONS Code
Shape of topic indicates nature of boundaries with neighbouring councils…
- all coastal (‘island’)
- all land (‘land-locked’)
- mixed
General Knowledge Resources
UK Parliament – Constituency Representation
House of Commons Library – Constituency Local Data Dashboard
Scottish Government Statistics Portal – Westminster Parliamentary Constituency
Wikipedia – Article on the UK Parliament constituency
Geographic Knowledge Resources
Boundary Commission for Scotland – Fifth Review Constituency Map [PDF & online viewer]
UK Parliament – Constituency Location Map
Electoral Knowledge Resources
BBC News Election Results – Constituency
UK Parliament Elections Online 2017 – United Kingdom Parliamentary Constituency
Wikipedia – Election results subsection of UK Parliament constituency Article
Knowledge Resource Link Collections
The links to official / definitive / ‘plain old useful’ public domain knowledge resources contained in these branches is the main focus of this map. Each link is attached to a single sub-branch which desctibes what it is, with sub-branches grouped into related collections, such as ‘General Knowledge Resources’ or ‘Geographic Knowledge Resources’. This makes for easier, more ‘thumb friendly’ browsing & knowledge discovery. Sub-branches can easily become ‘seed points’ if users start adding newly new knowledge discovered during their browsing.
General Knowledge Resources
Geographic Knowledge Resources
Electoral Knowledge Resources
Electoral Knowledge Resources
BBC News Election Results – Constituency
UK Parliament Elections Online 2017 – United Kingdom Parliamentary Constituency
Who Can I Vote For? by Democracy Club – Crowd-sourced details of all the candidates for all elections to the constituency since 2016 (as well as the 2015 & 2010 general elections)
Wikipedia – Election results subsection of UK Parliament constituency Article
Changelog
We are continually striving to find further, freely accessible in the public domain definitive / official / plain old useful 🙂 knowledge resources to link to in our maps, as well as keeping the existing links up to date. The changelogs below summarise the actions undertaken to initially create – and subsequently update – this knowledge map.
UK Parliament Scottish Contituencies General, Geographic & Electoral Knowledge Atlas (14 Oct 2019)
Version – 1.0
Links to knowledge resources – 1,820
Map Branches – 1,432
File Sizes – HTML5 – 17.4 MB; MindManager (.mmap) – 11.6 MB
Basemap(s) – This is the basemap!
Actions – The main work done in making this version of the map was…
- Initial creation of main branch framework of local councils contained in the Scottish Government’s Standard Geographic Codes Register – Scotland (Excel spreadsheet) from the Small Area Statistics Reference Documents.
- Addition of subranch collections of links to general and geographic knowledge resources about them.
Note(s)
i) Given the reasonably constant ‘churn’ of local councillors due to illness, death and party shenanigans, it’s our intention to update this map every 3 to 4 months. The precisie timing though is dependant on the actual dates of the local by-elections, which tend to come in clumps.
Map Facts
Here are some of the ‘fun facts’ 😉 about Scotland’s 59 (out of a total of 650) United Kindom Parliament Constituencies that we have discovered (and embedded!) during the process of creating this map…
Geographic Area
Smallest & Largest
Glasgow North Consituency
Ross, Skye and Lochaber Constituency
Population (2018 Est)
Smallest & Largest
Na h-Eileanan an Iar Constituency
Linlithgow and East Falkirk Constituency
Population Density
Smallest & Largest
Na h-Eileanan an Iar Constituency
Edinburgh North and Leith Constituency
Borders With Neighbouring UK Parliamentary Constituencies
With respect to land & sea
All Coastal Borders
(ie. 'Islands')
Land & Coastal Borders
(ie. 'Mixed')
All Land Borders
(ie. 'Land-Locked')
Map Features
We take full advantage of MindManager’s many unique ‘information cartography’ features when creating our unique maps so we can pack in 1000’s of ‘bits’ of knowledge into a single, visually structured, intuitive to navigate document that can be easily shared. Here are the main features of this United Kingdom Parliament Scottish Contituencies General & Geographic Knowledge Atlas (14 Oct 2019) …
Big Map With 100's Of Branches & Links And Capacity For Plenty More
With 1,820 knowledge resource links over 1,432 branches, this map is a useful, contextual knowledge resource in it’s own right, as well as being a visually structured index of the best definitive / official / plain old useful knowledge resources available in the public domain about the subject. Thanks to MindManager’s unique capabilities it has plenty of spare capacity for further content to be added in the future.
Main Branches Create Robust Visual Framework For 'Seed Branches'
The 1st level branches form the main (‘org-tree’) visual framework within which the map content of interest sits. It is a simple ‘A – Z’ layout, with the 32 Scottish Local Councils arranged alphabetically in 5 columns of approximately equal sizes to pack as much in to a ‘single screen view’ as possible.
Visually Rich 'General Knowledge Seed' Branch For Each Of Scotland's 59 UK Parliment Constituencies
The 2nd level branches are ‘knowledge seed points’ for each Scottish United Kingdom Parliament Constituencies, to which links to public domain knowledge resources about them are attached. Visually rich & information dense, they contain the name & official area identifier codes in variably formatted (‘rich’) text – a unique MindManager featue. Visually the thumbnail location map image aids user navigation and provides spatial context, whilst the variation in topic shape indicates the status of the borders with neighbouring constituencies – all coastlal (ie. island), mixed or all land (ie. landlocked). The full list of visual knowledge embedded within this seed topic is given in the map summary above.
Embedded Data Elements Provide Additional Contextual Knowledge
Data features embedded within seed branches – like spreadsheets, charts & data fields (another unique MindManager feature) – provide another ‘channel’ of knowlegde that adds context to the more detailed knowledge contained in the public domain resources linked to in the map. Just like in a normal spreadsheet, some of the data field values may be ‘auto-calculated’ from the others using formulae, creating data not found elsewhere in the public domain. They can also be used to ‘conditionally format’ the map eg. colouring the branches based on a particular data value (the equivelant of ‘thematic mapping’ in GIS). The full list of data embedded within this seed topic is given in the map summary above.
Attached Multiple Hyperlinks To Public Domain Knowledge Resources
Seed Branches have multiple hyperlinks attached to them (yet another unique feature of MindManager maps), which link to the best definitive / official / plain old useful knowledge resources available in the public domain about the subject. The ‘definable link text’ gives clarty as to the resource being linked to (which can be very variable if left to the default). As well as increasing the amount of knowledge that can be ‘squeezed’ into a map without increasing the ‘visual clutter’ of additional branches, it means these links can be retained if the seed branches are used in other maps, or this map is re-purposed. The full list of multiple knowledge resource hyperlinks attached to this seed topic is given in the map summary above.
Index Marker Tag Groups Enable 'Geo Intelligent' & Other Map Filtering
Branches in the map may be tagged with one or more ‘index markers’ from one or more ‘marker groups’. These enable intelligent map filtering and quick navigation. Many of the tags are ‘geographic’ in nature such that branches are tagged with ‘where’ they are – eg. administrative or electoral areas. This gives the map in-built ‘spatial intelligence’ and the ability to be ‘geo-filtered’. (MindManager software users can copy and paste any of the marker groups in any other maps). The full list of index marker tags attached to this seed topic is given in the map summary above.
Sub-Branch Collections Of Single Links To Public Domain Knowledge Resources
The Scottish United Kingdom Parliament Constituencies sub-branch collections – each with a single hyperlink to official / definitive / at least practical & useful online knowledge resources – are grouped into related collections for ‘general’, ‘geographic’ and ‘electoral’ knowledge resources. These are starting points for knowledge discovery and subsequent more detailed (‘desktop’) research. (MindManager software users have the advantage of being able to add to these branches as they go). The full list of links in the sub-branch collections attached to this seed branch is given in the map summary above.
Map Legend Branch Describes Each Topic 'Type' With Links To Further Information
Every map needs to have a legend that explains the cartographic structure, colours and symbology used. The ‘Map Legend’ branch describes the sub-components of each ‘type’ of map branch, with links to further knowledge resources where necessary.
'Contributing Online Knowledge-bases Branch' With Links To Further Information
We hunt down and assess many official / definitive / at least practical & useful online knowledge resources in the process of creating our maps. The ‘Contributing Online Knowledge-bases’ branch has links to all the ones that are actually linked to in the main map content, as well as some others that are a good source of general knowledge about the subject. It is a frustrating fact of life that some resources are organised better than others, and not all are ‘linkable to’ at the individual ‘building block’ level and so can’t be included in seed branches.
Built-in Topic Styles Enable Quick Visual Reformatting
The visual formatting of all the map elements is controlled via our structured system of topic styles, which makes for easier alteration ‘on the hoof’ and therefore quicker map building. (MindManager software users can change the appearance of the whole map with just a few clicks eg. to match their own ‘in-house’ style & branding.)





