World Heritage Sites
What is a World Heritage Site?
A World Heritage Site is a place of outstanding international importance for the conservation of our universal cultural and natural heritage.
There are 878 World Heritage Sites worldwide, including the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids, the Great Barrier Reef and Venice. The UK is proud to have 27 of these, which include Stonehenge, Kew Gardens, Canterbury Cathedral, Ironbridge and Hadrian’s Wall.
The World Heritage List includes a wide variety of exceptional cultural and natural sites, such as landscapes, cities, monuments, technological sites and modern buildings. The World Heritage Convention was established in 1972 by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) and set up this list.
For a trip around the World Heritage Sites across the globe, visit: UNESCO World Heritage Centre
Which are our UK World Heritage Sites?
These are all the UK sites and the dates they were designated. Clicking on them will take you to more information on the UNESCO World Heritage Site website.
- Blaenavon Industrial Landscape (2000)
- Blenheim Palace (1987)
- Canterbury Cathedral, St Augustine's Abbey, and St Martin's Church (1988)
- Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd (1986)
- City of Bath (1987)
- Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape (2006)
- Derwent Valley Mills (2001)
- Dorset and East Devon Coast (2001)
- Durham Castle and Cathedral (1986, 2008)
- Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast (1986)
- Gough and Inaccessible Islands (1995, 2004) 27
- Hadrian’s Wall: Frontiers of the Roman Empire (1987, 2005,2008) * 26
- Heart of Neolithic Orkney (1999)
- Henderson Island (1988)
- Historic Town of St George and Related Fortifications, Bermuda (2000)
- Ironbridge Gorge (1986)
- Liverpool – Maritime Mercantile City (2004)
- Maritime Greenwich (1997)
- New Lanark (2001)
- Old and New Towns of Edinburgh (1995)
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (2003)
- Saltaire (2001)
- St Kilda (1986, 2004, 2005)
- Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites (1986, 2008)
- Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of Fountains Abbey (1986)
- Tower of London (1988)
- Westminster Palace, Westminster Abbey and Saint Margaret's Church (1987, 2008)
Nomination process
World Heritage Sites are nominated by their national government, evaluated by the international Advisory Bodies to the Convention and inscribed on the World Heritage List by the intergovernmental UNESCO World Heritage Committee. In order to be inscribed on the List, a site has to meet one or more of ten criteria (six cultural, four natural) established to assess Outstanding Universal Value, satisfy requirements of authenticity and/or integrity, and have in place adequate legal protection and management systems to protect its Outstanding Universal Value, including authenticity and integrity. Before a site can be nominated, it has first to be included on the Tentative List of its national government. This is a list of sites which the government might consider nominating over a five-to-ten year period.
