National parks

Frequently asked questions

How many national parks are there in the UK?

There are 15 designated national parks: 10 in England, 3 in Wales, and 2 in Scotland. Northern Ireland has no national parks but does have several Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Which is the largest UK national park?

The Cairngorms National Park in Scotland is the largest at 4,528 km² — bigger than every English national park combined.

Are the national parks free?

All UK national parks are free to enter and walk in — the right to roam and public footpath networks mean there are no entry fees. Car parks and visitor centres often charge.

Are these places free to visit?

Many places in the guide are free to enter — almost every national museum, every public park and garden, every parish church and cathedral. Castles, historic houses and theme parks usually charge admission; National Trust and English Heritage members visit those properties free.

Where does the data come from?

Every entry is built from open data: OpenStreetMap (locations, tags, opening hours), Wikipedia (descriptions), Wikidata (structured facts and operator information), Wikimedia Commons (images), ONS open data (population). The site never makes runtime API calls — everything is fetched at build time and committed.

How often is this updated?

A weekly automated job re-fetches the upstream sources and rebuilds the site. Manual editorial corrections are applied as overlays on top of the open data.