In the peace following the final defeat of Napoleon, Maconochie spent 13 years in Edinburgh studying geography and geopolitics. At this time he wrote extensively on steam navigation and the colonisation of the Pacific. He married in 1822. In 1828 he moved to London, England where he was a founder and first secretary of the Royal Geographical Society in 1830. In 1833 he became the first professor of Geography at the University College London, and was a knight of the Royal Guelphic Order.