National Parks UK leaflet
Summary
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National Park Authorities also have a strong record of providing high-quality training and delivering apprenticeships, and have been involved in the design and development of several Trailblazer Apprenticeships, from historic environment investigation to traditional countryside management.
In recent years dedicated National Park staff, working in strong partnerships with other bodies and local communities, have secured millions of pounds worth of external funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and charitable trusts. This funding supports vital work to conserve and enhance our historic environment, whilst providing educational, health and recreational opportunities and helping local economies to thrive and grow.
National Parks are incredibly special places. Their heritage is a national asset recognised the world over. Understanding, conserving and communicating the stories of these cultural landscapes is integral to protecting them, allowing us to realise their potential and, by so doing, enriching the lives of all of those who live in, work in or visit National Parks today and in the future.
Harbottle Castle, Northumberland National Park
Robin Hood's Bay, North York Moors National Park
Tretower Castle, Brecon Beacons National Park
Britain's breathing spaces
Park images
- Brecon Beacons
- © Tretower Castle, Hepburn Photography
- Broads
- Complete remains of a Medieval timber boat found on the River Chet © Broads Authority
- Cairngorms
- Corgarff Castle © Cairngorms National Park Authority
- Dartmoor
- Northern Walland, Challacombe Down © Dartmoor National Park Authority
- Exmoor
- Exe Cleave © Jason Ball, Exmoor National Park Authority
- Lake District
- Eskdale Peat Hut © Lake District National Park Authority
- Loch Lomond & The Trossachs
- Sir Walter Scott paddle steamer © David Mitchell, Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park Authority
- New Forest
- Beaulieu © New Forest National Park Authority
- Northumberland
- Harbottle Castle © Northumberland National Park Authority, Woodhouses Bastle © K Paisley
- North York Moors
- Rievaulx Abbey © Chris J Parker
Boundary stone above Robin Hoods Bay © Mike Kipling - Peak District
- Millstones © Peak District National Park Authority
- Pembrokeshire Coast
- Carew Castle © Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority
Pentre Ifan © Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority. - Snowdonia
- Harlech Castle © Snowdonia National Park Authority
- South Downs
- © South Downs National Park Authority
- Yorkshire Dales
- Field Barns at Gunnerside Bottoms in the Yorkshire Dales © Robert White, Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority
Britain's breathing spaces
Special landscapes shaped by people
Cover montage images
- Rievaulx Abbey
- © Mike Kipling, North Yoor Moors National Park Authority
- Ecton Mines
- © Peak District National Park Authority
- Scheduled Monument Condition Survey
- © Brecon Beacon National Park Authority
- Community Archaeology on Exmoor
- © Exmoor National Park Authority
- Herringfleet Smock Mill
- Somerleyton, The Broads. © Chris Herring
- Heritage Skills Training at Stubb Mill Hickling
- © Simon Finlay/Broads Authority
- Stott Park, Burnmoor stone circle, Eskdale
- © Lake District National Park Authority
- Higher Uppacott
- © Dartmoor National Park Authority
Design / Penknife Ltd / 029 2046 1021
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The United Kingdom’s National Parks are amongst its finest and most treasured landscapes, rightly recognised for their tranquillity, special wildlife and unique habitats. They are also cultural landscapes, shaped by human activity over thousands of years. These living, working landscapes have, in turn, influenced local and national identity, inspiring writers, poets and artists and contributing significantly to the nation’s rich cultural legacy.
The UK’s National Parks contain some of the earliest and most extensive evidence of human ingenuity, endeavour and creativity, from stone tools left by hunter-gatherers at the end of the last Ice Age to some of the finest Bronze Age landscapes in Western Europe.
National Parks also protect some of the best-preserved Roman military structures, castles and hunting forests of medieval monarchs, beautiful 18th century designed landscapes, and historic mines and quarries, some of which are still in use today. Moreover, National Parks protect a rich and distinctive vernacular architecture, with buildings, farmsteads and villages constructed from local materials such as stone, slate, pantile and thatch that create a unique sense of place and identity.
These physical remains form the story of England, Scotland and Wales and are all key factors in attracting inward investment and tourism.
Fifteen percent of all designated heritage assets lie within National Parks. This, however, represents only a fraction of the total resource as new discoveries are constantly being made. The historic environment provides the excitement of discovery whilst delivering cultural experiences and significant volunteering opportunities for people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities.
Swaledale, Yorkshire Dales National Park © Natural England copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data© Crown copyright and database right [2017]
Carew Castle, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park
Special landscapes
shaped by people
Britain's breathing spaces
Peak District
The UK’s first National Park; contrasting limestone and gritstone landscapes reflected in distinctive building and settlement forms. A wealth of heritage assets: stone circles, barrows, field systems, lead mines, quarries, mills and country houses.
Yorkshire Dales
Specialised upland farming regimes both created the distinctive barns and walls landscape of today and helped to preserve the physical evidence of earlier, often radically different landscapes.
North York Moors
Prehistoric archaeology, magnificent abbey ruins, dramatic landscapes shaped by iron and alum production, railways and coastal villages clinging to the cliffs, all interspersed with remote farmsteads and scattered moorland villages.
Northumberland
From the Cheviot Hills to Hadrian’s Wall, Northumberland National Park has a rich historic environment in one of England’s most tranquil places. The distinctive identity and vibrant heritage of the land and its people have been shaped by centuries of conflict and innovation.
Snowdonia
From World Heritage Site to a rich industrial past and home of the “Snowdonia House”, Snowdonia’s historic environment makes it a truly distinctive part of the United Kingdom.
Lake District
The spectacular cultural landscape, inscribed as a World Heritage Site has stimulated poets and artists including Wordsworth, Ruskin and Beatrix Potter for centuries and continues to inspire the millions who visit it each year.
Cairngorms
Strong deep rooted cultural heritage where Gaelic place names give meaning to the mountains, woodlands, lochs, rivers and settlements: Corgarff, for example, derived from Coire a’Gharaidh, meaning corrie of the animal’s den.
Loch Lomond & The Trossachs
Stunning lochs and landscapes inspired many, with the romantic literature of Sir Walter Scott encouraging Victorian tourism which left a legacy of incredible engineering structures, passenger steamers and fine buildings.
South Downs
The landscape has inspired creativity to celebrate and record it in many ways, from JMW Turner, Jane Austen, Rudyard Kipling and Mervyn Peake, poet Edward Thomas and composers from Edward Elgar to Dobrinka Tabakova.
Pembrokeshire Coast
A spectacular coastal landscape, humans have shaped the character of this place for thousands of years, from the prehistoric tomb of Pentre Ifan, to the lime industry of the Cleddau estuary.
New Forest
Established as a royal Norman hunting forest in 1079 and largely an uncultivated landscape, thousands of archaeological sites have been mapped since 2006, ranging from pre-history through to the Second World War.
Broads
These inland waterways were formed by centuries of peat digging, which later flooded. A haven for wildlife and for recreation, the area retains the greatest concentration of historic mills in the UK.
Exmoor
The Royal Forest of Exmoor dates back to Saxon times, from Porlock to Bray and Martinhoe to Dulverton. Astonishingly well preserved medieval villages and Victorian industrial engineering are among the rich historic environment waiting to be explored.
Dartmoor
Prehistoric hunter-gatherers and farmers, medieval miners, and soldiers have all left their mark on Dartmoor. The result is a cultural landscape containing a wealth of evidence from ancient standing stones to the medieval farmsteads of the more recent past.
Brecon Beacons
Large expanses of upland commons divided by fertile river valleys define a stunning archaeological landscape including well preserved prehistoric sites, fine Medieval buildings and the Blaenavon Industrial World Heritage Site.
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