Using UK Government Data in QGIS?

Question

I've downloaded some .asc files from the UK Government. They are 1m resolution LIDAR tiles. Apparently.

When I load them into QGIS, they appear with the nice thumbnails and everything. But I get errors about no CRS and defaulting to CRS EPSG:4326 WGS84. I think that is the standard model for the globe?

When I try to load the .gpx file for my route, it is no where to be seen. I think the .asc files dont have coordinates or something? I was expecting the trace to appear over the top so I could pull out surface elevations.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

UK Government data in general, and definitely in this case, is stored using the Ordnance Survey's national grid coordinates. So you need to ask QGIS to set the projection of the layers to EPSG:27700. All will then line up.