World Heritage Sites
Every UK World Heritage Site, with boundaries from Historic England, Historic Environment Scotland, Cadw and NIEA. Inscription type and criteria i to x, as EPSG:4326 polygons.
About this dataset
World Heritage Sites are areas of Outstanding Universal Value inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. This dataset covers all of them across the United Kingdom: 42 sites plus 9 buffer-zone features in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, each returned with a stable identity and a polygon you can map.
The statutory basis is the UNESCO World Heritage Convention 1972. Boundaries come from the national custodians who hold them: Historic England, Historic Environment Scotland, Cadw, and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency for the Giant's Causeway natural site. We deliberately do not use the UNESCO global layer, which is points-only and carries a share-alike licence that would compromise clean commercial reuse.
Four registers become one schema. Every site carries its inscription type (cultural, natural or mixed) and its selection criteria from i to x, served as EPSG:4326 polygons reprojected from British National Grid and Irish Grid. A date_precision flag records whether an inscription date is known to the day, month or year, so a year-only value is never dressed up as an exact date.
Buffer zones are included as separate features because they are a material planning consideration under NPPF paragraph 200. Query the data over REST at /v1/heritage by point, radius, bounding box or polygon, fetch a single site by its stable id, and read per-custodian attribution on every record under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Everything in the box
Point, radius and polygon query
Find every World Heritage Site and buffer zone intersecting a coordinate, a radius, a bounding box or your own polygon over REST at /v1/heritage.
Inscription type and criteria
Each site carries its UNESCO inscription type, cultural, natural or mixed, and the selection criteria i to x that justified its Outstanding Universal Value.
Buffer zones as features
The 9 buffer-zone features are served separately so you can test a site against NPPF paragraph 200 as a material planning consideration.
EPSG:4326 polygons
Boundaries are reprojected server-side from British National Grid and Irish Grid to valid WGS84 polygons, ready to map or run a spatial join against.
Stable identity per site
Every record has an id in the form design.heritage.{nation}.world_heritage_site.{reference}, stable across snapshots so you can cache and reconcile.
Clean OGL provenance
Boundaries come only from named public-sector custodians under the Open Government Licence v3.0, with per-custodian attribution on every record and no share-alike obligation.
What each record carries
Straight from the API
{
"id": "design.heritage.ENG.world_heritage_site.1000080",
"reference": "1000080",
"nation": "ENG",
"source": "Historic England",
"name": "Maritime Greenwich",
"name_cy": null,
"designation_type": "world_heritage_site",
"unesco_inscription_type": "cultural",
"unesco_criteria": ["i", "ii", "iv", "vi"],
"designated_date": "1997-01-01",
"amended_date": null,
"date_precision": "year",
"category": "World Heritage Site",
"local_authority": "Royal Borough of Greenwich",
"area_hectares": 109.5,
"centroid": {
"lat": 51.4826,
"lng": -0.0077
},
"source_url": "https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1000080",
"licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
"attribution": "Contains Historic England data licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0."
}What people build with it
Site due diligence
Check whether a development site sits inside a World Heritage Site or its buffer zone before you commit, using the exact polygon rather than a single point.
DevelopersPlanning constraint checks
Screen applications against World Heritage boundaries and buffer zones as a material consideration under NPPF paragraph 200.
PlannersMortgage valuation risk
Flag properties within a World Heritage Site where heritage constraints can affect alteration, extension and resale.
SurveyorsUnderwriting heritage exposure
Identify assets inside World Heritage boundaries where reinstatement and consent requirements differ from standard stock.
InsurersTourism and ESG screening
Locate assets near World Heritage Sites for tourism and placemaking analysis, with reconciled boundaries across all four UK nations.
InvestorsFrequently asked questions
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