What are these symbols on my map screen.

The top one is your position on the elevation plot. The bottom one is the position of the virtual partner.

They correspond to the blue and gray arrows on the map above.

Thank you.

That raises more questions than it answers!!!

What is a virtual partner? I cannot see any reference to that in the 70 odd pages of the manual. presumably it is in there but where? And how do I get rid of it?

The Elevation plot I have found. Don't want it, and don't use it. But the manual gives instructions to remove it that are not available on the unit.

Instructions are Menu>navigation>Course. Select a course and in options I can select Elevation to show this marker. Unfortunately there are no options available. Elevation is there, and cannot be selected/unselected. I do use the graphic on big climbs and don't want to lose that, but how do I get rid of this annoying marker/

If you create and follow a course the course has speed information in it. That information is what controls the position of the virtual partner.

In terms of removing the elevation plot from the map page you need to go to

Menu -> Settings -> Activity Profiles -> name of profile you wish to change -> Data Screens -> Map -> Show Elevation Profile

Success at last.

Both these lines and the annoying symbols have now gone. Super. Makes a big difference to the size of the map.

Why do Garmin make it so damned hard to personalise the screens?

We don't all want to micro analyse every second of our rides. Some of us - make that most of use - just want to ride our bikes. Garmin tells us where to go, and records what we did. And that's enough.

If you save the routes you create as GPX files and then manually put those onto the unit I have found the default speed the units assumes is low enough for the virtual partner not to be visible on the map screen.

If you create the Course in Garmin Connect online, as part of the creation process or editing it afterwards, you can change the Pace of the Virtual Partner that will be stored with the Course.  If you don't want to see the arrow, set it to painfully slow and the Partner will fall behind immediately.  Notice the "Pace Calculator" tab to the right of the "Elevation" tab.  Click it and you can set the target pace of the Partner.  

If the Course is created from a previous ride, it will adopt the pacing of that ride.  This is so you can either pace against your previous ride or race it if you like.  It follows the actual pacing along the ride, not just a constant speed. You'll see the Virtual Partner appear in things like ClimbPro, your map screen as you see with the grey arrow and the lollipop, in the Elevation plot screen on your Edge, and you can enable a Virtual Partner page on the device if you want to go that far.   It can be nice if you want it.  

I'll agree that navigating and understanding all the features can be daunting at times.  I too have no use for many of the features.   Whether I use them or not I'm thankful they're built into the 530.  There are several features that I thought I'd never use and now it seems like I can't live without them.