National parks in the UK

Peak District Lake District Dartmoor North York Moors Yorkshire Dales Exmoor Northumberland The Broads New Forest South Downs Snowdonia Pembrokeshire Coast Brecon Beacons Loch Lomond and the Trossachs Cairngorms

There are 15 national parks in the UK . The parks are distributed as follows:

• 10 in England
• 3 in Wales and
• 2 in Scotland

The first three national parks were established in England in 1951.

There are no national parks in Northern Ireland, but efforts are being made to establish a park in the Morne Mountains .

Not a single national park in Great Britain meets the strict criteria of the International Union for Conservation of Nature ( IUCN) . They were therefore all classified in the second weakest category V (Protected Landscape). In contrast, however, 24 (National) Nature Reserves in Scotland are listed by the IUCN under Category II (National Park) . The largest is the approximately 165 km² large The Great Trossachs Forest , which is located within the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park .

National parks in England

All of the UK's national parks cover about 7% of the country's area.

The national parks in England and Wales are governed by the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 . In contrast to the national parks of many other states, the English national parks are not state-owned and are not under state administration. Each national park is managed by its own national park office. The national parks can even include larger settlements. A large part of the national park area is privately owned.

An estimated 110 million people visit national parks in England and Wales each year.

Surname	founding	Size [ha]	comment	map	view
Peak District National Park	1951	140,400
Lake District National Park	1951	217.200
Dartmoor National Park	1951	95,300
North York Moors National Park	1952	130,000
Yorkshire Dales National Park	1954	176,500
Exmoor National Park	1954	69,200
Northumberland National Park	1956	103,000
The Broads National Park	1988	30,300
New Forest National Park	2005	57,100
South Downs National Park	2011	162,700
Total:		1,181,700

National parks in Wales

The three national parks in Wales cover around 20% of the country's area.

Surname	founding	Size [ha]	comment	map	view
Snowdonia National Park Parc Cenedlaethol Eryri	1951	217,000
Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Parc Cen. Arfordir Penfro	1952	62,000
Brecon Beacons National Park P. C. Bannau Brycheiniog	1957	134,400
Total:		413,400

National parks in Scotland

The two national parks in Scotland cover about 7% of the country's area.

Surname	founding	Size [ha]	comment	map	view
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park	2002	186,500
Cairngorms National Park	2003	380,000
Total:		566,500

Individual evidence

1. ^ The IUCN categories . In: nationalparks.gov.uk, accessed December 7, 2018.
2. ↑ Search term "II", filter: Country: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, IUCN Category: II. In: protectedplanet.net, accessed on December 9, 2018.
3. ↑ The Great Trossachs Forest . In: protectedplanet.net, accessed December 9, 2018.