Scheduled Monuments
34,023 scheduled monuments across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in one schema, with EPSG:4326 polygons, harmonised monument classes and clean OGL provenance.
About this dataset
A scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or monument given legal protection against unauthorised change. This dataset holds 34,023 of them across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, each as an EPSG:4326 polygon you can map and query directly.
Scheduling rests on statute. In England, Scotland and Wales it is the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. In Northern Ireland it is the Historic Monuments and Archaeological Objects (Northern Ireland) Order 1995. The records come from the four national custodians: Historic England, Historic Environment Scotland, Cadw, and the Department for Communities Historic Environment Division.
We reconcile four separate national registers into one schema with one stable identifier per monument. Each nation runs its own monument typology, so we map them to a single cross-nation monument class aligned to the FISH thesaurus. England publishes no source typology, so its monuments resolve to 'unassigned' rather than a guessed class. Geometry is reprojected server-side from British National Grid to EPSG:4326, and every record returns its source custodian and Open Government Licence v3.0 attribution.
Query by point, radius, bounding box or polygon over /v1/heritage, or fetch a single monument by its stable id. Use it for site due diligence, planning constraint checks and archaeological screening, alongside listed buildings and other heritage designations in the same model.
Everything in the box
Point, radius and polygon query
Query scheduled monuments by point, radius, bounding box or polygon over REST, or fetch a single monument by its stable id.
Harmonised monument class
Divergent national typologies reconciled into one cross-nation monument class aligned to the FISH thesaurus. English monuments resolve to 'unassigned' where no source typology exists.
EPSG:4326 polygons
Every monument carries a valid WGS84 polygon, reprojected server-side from British National Grid, ready to map without further transformation.
Stable cross-nation identity
One stable identifier per monument in the form design.heritage.{nation}.scheduled_monument.{reference}, consistent across all four registers.
Clean OGL provenance
Open Government Licence v3.0 throughout, with per-custodian attribution returned on every record for clean commercial reuse.
Honest designation dates
A date_precision flag marks whether a designated date is known to the day, month or year, so a year-only value is never served as an exact calendar date.
What each record carries
Straight from the API
{
"id": "design.heritage.WAL.scheduled_monument.GM170",
"reference": "GM170",
"nation": "WAL",
"source": "Cadw",
"name": "Caerau Hillfort",
"name_cy": "Bryngaer Caerau",
"designation_type": "scheduled_monument",
"monument_class_canonical": "hillfort",
"designated_date": "1933-06-21",
"amended_date": "2002-09-30",
"date_precision": "day",
"category": "scheduled_monument",
"local_authority": "Cardiff",
"area_hectares": 5.13,
"source_url": "https://cadw.gov.wales/advice-support/cof-cymru/search-cadw-records",
"centroid": { "lat": 51.4782, "lng": -3.2461 },
"licence": "OGL v3.0",
"attribution": "Contains data from Cadw, Welsh Government, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0"
}What people build with it
Site due diligence
Check whether a development site contains or sits near a scheduled monument before acquisition or design, using polygon geometry rather than a single point.
DevelopersPlanning constraint checks
Screen sites for scheduled monument constraints that trigger scheduled monument consent and shape what can be built.
PlannersMortgage and valuation risk
Flag properties on or adjacent to scheduled monuments where consent restrictions can affect value and saleability.
LendersArchaeological screening
Run point and radius queries across a portfolio to surface archaeological constraints early in a survey workflow.
SurveyorsConstraint layers in proptech
Embed scheduled monument polygons as a map layer or API call inside a property platform, with one schema across all four nations.
PropTechFrequently asked questions
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