National Parks

Published by:
Natural Resources Wales
Last updated:
14 October 2025
Topic:
Not added
Licence:
None

Summary

This spatial dataset contains the digital boundaries of National Parks in Wales. National Parks were established to protect beautiful and relatively wild countryside by: - Preserving the characteristic beauty of the landscape; - Providing access and facilities for public open-air enjoyment; - Protecting wildlife, buildings and places of architectural and historic interest; whilst allowing sustainable farming use to continue as before. Powers to create National Parks were established under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. In Wales, since 1991, the designation of National Parks are proposed by former Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) which now forms part of, Natural Resources Wales (NRW), and confirmed by the First Minister for the Welsh Government. Since 1996 the Parks have been administered by independent free-standing authorities. With the coming of GIS and its use in government departments and commercial companies mobilising the data in this way, advances the protection of these sites and the efficiency of decision making. The three National Parks have been designated over a number of years, Snowdonia 1951 (variation 1974); Pembrokeshire Coast 1952 (Variation 1989); Brecon Beacons 1955 (Variation 1966). The data has been held digitally since mid 1990s. The boundary has been transferred to OS MasterMap by NRW but there has been joint checking by NRW staff and the relevant Park authority staff.

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Data links

Link to the data Format File added Data preview
Web Mapping Service N/A 14 October 2025 Not available
Download Data and Web Service N/A 14 October 2025 Not available

Additional information

View additional metadata
Added to data.gov.uk
2024-12-09
Access contraints
There are no access restrictions on this data. NRW may release, publish or disseminate it freely.
Harvest GUID
NRW_DS98777
Extent
Latitude: 53.29505135° to °
Longitude: -5.5379589° to -2.99152507°
Spatial reference system
Dataset reference date
2023-06-22 (publication)
Frequency of update
asNeeded
Responsible party
Natural Resources Wales (NRW) (owner, custodian, originator, distributor); National Park Authorities (originator)
ISO 19139 resource type
dataset
Metadata language
eng
Source Metadata
XML
HTML

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