Story · Environment map · about 3 min
How much of Britain is protected for its nature and scenery?
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each protect their best landscapes and wildlife places under their own laws, with their own names. This story walks through them one nation at a time, then looks at ancient woodland, which each of them defines differently.
England: a National Landscape in every corner
England has ten National Parks and 34 National Landscapes (until 2023 they were called Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty). Measured from this data, the National Landscapes alone cover about 15% of England. Around Bath and the Cotswolds the orange areas are National Landscapes and the green ones are National Parks.
Scotland: scenery first, then reserves
Scotland has no AONBs. Its equivalent is 40 National Scenic Areas, which together with their offshore extensions cover 13,811 km², plus two National Parks and 49 National Nature Reserves. The Highlands and islands are where most of them cluster. Of its two National Parks, Cairngorms alone covers 4,528 km², nearly as much as England's two biggest, the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales, put together (4,547 km²).
Wales: three parks, five landscapes
Wales has three National Parks, 5 National Landscapes (legally still AONBs) and 76 National Nature Reserves. Snowdonia (Eryri), the Brecon Beacons (Bannau Brycheiniog) and the Pembrokeshire coast are the parks.
Northern Ireland: eight AONBs
Northern Ireland has 8 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and no National Park. Its statutory nature reserves (50 in the source file, which does not say which are National Nature Reserves) and its Areas of Special Scientific Interest sit inside and around them.
Ancient woods, three definitions
England's inventory holds 44,373 ancient woods, about 2.8% of the country, using a cut-off of 1600. Wales has 48,837 sites covering 4.6% of Wales. Scotland's inventory has 28,512 woods covering 3,528 km², judged from old maps. "Ancient" means more than old: soil left undisturbed for centuries supports species a newly planted wood cannot recreate, so the test is how long the ground has been wooded, whatever the age of the trees. The rules differ, so read the three side by side rather than as one measure. Northern Ireland has no layer here yet.
For classrooms and curious minds
Questions to talk about, alone or in a group.
- Why does each nation protect nature under its own names and rules?
- What makes a wood "ancient", and why can it not simply be replanted?
Try it on the map: Switch on a national park and a nature reserve layer for one nation. Which covers more of the map, and why?
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.