National Parks in the United Kingdom

National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty were established for England and Wales under legislation in 1948. Scotland created its first national parks more recently in 2000. As these are usually major tourist destinations in their own right, and affect planning laws, these are useful boundaries to have mapped.

Boundaries are probably difficult to identify precisely, and therefore initial mapping is likely to include/exclude areas. Some national parks have obvious signs along road (for instance the millstones used by the Peak District), but in most cases the boundaries will need iterative refinement. When boundaries are not known precisely it is useful to document how the mapped boundaries are derived, as done for the Cotswolds.

National Parks (England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland)

There are 13 National Parks in England and Wales, set up under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949, and 2 National Parks in Scotland, set up under the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000. There are currently no National Parks in Northern Ireland.

National Park	Country	Est.	Boundary Way/Relation	Notes
Brecon Beacons [1]	Wales	1957	357283 357283	complete, but often guess-work
Cairngorms [2]	Scotland	2003	9838401 9838401	Complete boundary added from OS OpenData 250k images, using existing features where available. Needs tweaking in places.
Dartmoor [3]	England	1951	1928125 1928125	complete
Exmoor [4]	England	1954	86909 86909	complete
Lake District [5]	England	1951	287917 287917	work in progress
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs [6]	Scotland	2002	1957067 1957067	Complete boundary added from OS OpenData 250k images, using existing features where available, and local knowledge boundary where similar to OS OpenData and had more detail. Needs tweaking in places, especially through Balloch.
New Forest [7]	England	2005	2678988 2678988	complete
Northumberland [8]	England	1956	1168821 1168821	complete but some is tentative
Norfolk Broads [9]	England	1988	2568322 2568322
North York Moors [10]	England	1952	409150 409150	incomplete
Peak District [11]	England	1951	2176657 2176657	incomplete
Pembrokeshire Coast [12]	Wales	1952	165598 165598
Snowdonia [13]	Wales	1951	287245 287245	complete, but most of the boundary is tentative
South Downs [14]	England	2010	1596374 1596374	complete. source is OS_OpenData_Strategi (except western edge) - may need fine tuning
Yorkshire Dales [15]	England	1954	307985 307985	complete