Protected Wreck Sites
Designated historic wrecks across the UK in one schema. England, Wales and Northern Ireland under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973, Scotland's Historic Marine Protected Areas flagged separately.
About this dataset
A protected wreck site is a historic shipwreck or marine site shielded from unauthorised interference such as diving, salvage or recovery. This dataset gathers every such designation in the United Kingdom: 74 sites across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, each with a stable identifier and a point you can map.
The legal basis differs by nation. England, Wales and Northern Ireland designate under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973. Scotland protects equivalent sites as Historic Marine Protected Areas under section 67 of the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010, a distinct statute we record honestly rather than collapse into one label. Records come from four custodians: Historic England, Cadw, the Department for Communities Historic Environment Division, and Historic Environment Scotland.
We reconcile the four national registers into one schema. A wreck_protection_type field flags which statute applies, so a Scottish Historic Marine Protected Area is never served as if it were a 1973 Act wreck. Every record carries valid EPSG:4326 geometry, reprojected server-side from British National Grid, and a date_precision flag so a year-only designation date is never dressed up as an exact day.
Query the data by point, radius, bounding box or polygon over REST, or fetch a single site by id. Some sites sit legitimately offshore, so the centroid may fall in coastal or open water. Everything is published under the Open Government Licence v3.0 with per-custodian attribution returned on every record, which keeps commercial reuse clean.
Everything in the box
Point and polygon queries
Search by point, radius, bounding box or polygon, or fetch a single site by its stable id.
Statute flagged honestly
A wreck_protection_type field marks whether a site is a 1973 Act protected wreck or a Scottish Historic Marine Protected Area.
Mappable EPSG:4326 geometry
Every site carries valid WGS84 coordinates, reprojected server-side from British National Grid.
Honest designation dates
A date_precision flag records whether a designation date is known to the day, month or year.
Clean OGL provenance
Open Government Licence v3.0 throughout, with per-custodian attribution returned on every record.
Four registers, one schema
Historic England, Cadw, the Department for Communities and Historic Environment Scotland reconciled into one identity per site.
What each record carries
Straight from the API
{
"id": "design.heritage.ENG.protected_wreck.1000089",
"reference": "1000089",
"nation": "ENG",
"source": "Historic England",
"name": "Wreck of the Rooswijk",
"name_cy": null,
"designation_type": "protected_wreck",
"wreck_protection_type": "protection_of_wrecks_act_1973",
"designated_date": "2007-12-13",
"amended_date": null,
"date_precision": "day",
"category": "Protected Wreck Site",
"local_authority": null,
"area_hectares": 0.79,
"source_url": "https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1000089",
"centroid": { "lat": 51.3782, "lng": 1.4053 },
"licence": "OGL v3.0",
"attribution": "Contains Historic England data licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0."
}What people build with it
Offshore and coastal constraint checks
Screen a development footprint, cable route or dredging area for protected wreck sites before works begin.
DevelopersMarine consent screening
Confirm whether a licence or consent application overlaps a designated wreck or a Historic Marine Protected Area.
PlannersMarine and coastal risk underwriting
Flag heritage marine designations within a coastal or marine asset footprint when pricing or assessing cover.
InsurersHeritage layers in property platforms
Surface nearby protected wreck designations on coastal property and land records through one REST call.
PropTechFrequently asked questions
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