UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the UK and Overseas Territories

UNESCO World Heritage Sites are designated for having cultural, historical, scientific, or other form of global significance. Sites are judged to contain cultural or natural (or mixed) heritage considered to be of Outstanding Universal Value.

This is embodied in an international treaty called the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (or World Heritage Convention), adopted by UNESCO in 1972.

The 35 Properties (sites) in the UK and Overseas Territories, including ancient landscapes and monuments, areas of global natural significance, and sites that shaped the industrial Revolution, join over 1,200 further properties in more than 165 countries to be inscribed onto the UNESCO World Heritage List.

UNESCO World Heritage Sites belong to everyone, and it is everyone’s duty to protect them for future generations.

Explore World Heritage Sites

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Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal
Spanning eleven miles of the of stunning canal and countryside, the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal is an outstanding piece of industrial and engineering heritage comprising of embankments, tunnels…
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is world-renowned for its stunning collection of plants and important contributions to botanical science.
Saltaire
Saltaire, West Yorkshire, is a complete and well-preserved industrial village of the second half of the 19th century.
The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales
The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales, in Gwynedd, consists of six key areas (or component parts).
St Kilda
The tiny archipelago of St Kilda, 100 miles off the west coast of Scotland, is the UK’s only mixed World Heritage Site, important for both its natural and cultural heritage.
Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites
This World Heritage Site is universally important for its unique and dense concentration of outstanding prehistoric monuments and sites which together form a landscape without parallel.
Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of Fountains Abbey
Deep within the Skell Valley in North Yorkshire lies Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of Fountains Abbey World Heritage Site.
Tower of London
Built to protect the gateway to London and declare Norman supremacy over a defeated population, the Tower of London is a symbol of royal power, fear…
Gough and Inaccessible Islands
Completely shut off from the world by two thousand nautical miles of open South Atlantic ocean and some of the world’s fiercest weather…
Henderson Island
Sitting in the isolated east South Pacific Ocean, Henderson Island is one of the last few places in the world practically untouched by humans.
Gorham's Cave Complex
The steep limestone cliffs on the eastern side of the Rock of Gibraltar contain four caves that for 125,000 years were home to a now extinct species of human being called Neanderthals.
Historic Town of St George and Related Fortifications, Bermuda
The Town of St George, founded in 1612, is an outstanding example of the earliest English urban settlement in the New World.
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