Story · Land & heritage map · about 3 min
How much of Britain is protected heritage?
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each protect their historic buildings and sites under their own laws, with their own grades and their own registers. This story walks through all four, one place at a time.
England: a Grade II country
England lists 379,685 buildings, 92% of them Grade II. Bath is a good place to see it: the dots are listed buildings (the darkest are Grade I), the teal areas are conservation areas. England's conservation area record is incomplete, and the map shows which boundaries came from councils.
Scotland: categories A, B and C
Scotland has 67,474 dots on the map, standing for 46,747 listings (one listing can cover several buildings or parts). Its categories run A, B and C, which are not the same as England's grades. Zoom in on Edinburgh's Old Town to see how close together they sit.
Wales: castles and slate
Wales lists 30,113 buildings with the same three grades as England, and protects 4,239 scheduled monuments. Around Caernarfon the deep pink areas are scheduled monuments, the red and orange dots listed buildings.
Northern Ireland: its own scheme
Northern Ireland's Historic Buildings Record holds 15,862 records, but only 9,198 are listed (the rest are recorded but not protected). Grades run A, B+ and B. Belfast shows both the listed buildings and the scheduled zones, which the Department calls an indicative dataset.
Four schemes, one picture
England has 78% of all 486,470 listed buildings on this map, and the most scheduled monuments too: 20,003 against 8,074 in Scotland, 4,239 in Wales and 2,093 in Northern Ireland. Those count what each nation protects, which says little about how much history each has, and the grades cannot be compared across borders.
For classrooms and curious minds
Questions to talk about, alone or in a group.
- Why can the four nations' grades not simply be added up as one list?
- What is the difference between protecting a single building and protecting an area?
Try it on the map: Find the listed building nearest to you. What grade or category does it have, and what do you think earned it?
The figures above are calculated from the datasets listed on Data & sources and are approximate: many map layers are modelled or interpolated. Read each layer’s caveats on the map.