National Scenic Areas - Scotland
National Scenic Areas (NSAs) are a national landscape designation of areas that have been identified as having outstanding scenic value in a national context. The designation’s purpose is both to identify our finest scenery and to ensure its protection from inappropriate development through the planning system. They are broadly equivalent to the Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty found in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. There are 40 NSAs in Scotland, mainly in remote and mountainous areas, including spectacular mountain ranges (e.g. Skye Cuillins, Ben Nevis, Glencoe), dramatic island landscapes (e.g. the Hebrides, Northern Isles) and picturesque, richly diverse scenery (e.g. Perthshire, Dumfries and Galloway). They were identified in 1978 by the Countryside Commission for Scotland (a predecessor of NatureScot) in its publication Scotland’s Scenic Heritage, and their boundaries remain unchanged today. All NSAs have been surveyed to record their special qualities that, individually or combined, make each area's scenery outstanding and justify their designation as NSAs.
Default
Identification info
- Alternative title
-
NSAs
- Metadata Language
- English
- Character set
- UTF8
- Dataset Reference Date (Creation)
- 1998-01-01
- Identifier
- www.gov.scot / SG_NationalScenicAreas
- Presentation form
- Digital map
- Purpose
-
National Scenic Areas (NSAs) are areas that have been identified as having outstanding scenic value in a national context, and as such require special protection measures through the planning system. There are 40 NSAs designated, mainly in remote and mountainous areas, covering nearly 13% of Scotland's land area.
- Maintenance and update frequency
- As needed
-
GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
-
-
Protected sites
-
-
IPSV Subjects List
-
-
Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty
-
- Limitations on Public Access
- Other restrictions
- Other constraints
- No limitations to public access
- Use constraints
- Other restrictions
- Other constraints
- Open Government Licence
- Other constraints
-
Available under the terms of the Open Government Licence. The following attribution statement must be used to acknowledge the source of the information: © Scottish Government, contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right [insert year].
- Spatial representation type
- Vector
- Denominator
- 50000
- Extent
-
GB-SCT
IS0 3166-2 2007-12-13
))
Temporal reference
Temporal extent
Temporal extent
- Additional information
-
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Environment/Countryside/Heritage/Areas
- Code
- EPSG:27700
Distribution Information
Data format
- Data format
-
Name Version WMS
1.3.0
WFS
2.0.0
ESRI REST
1.0
ESRI Shapefile
1.0
Transfer options
- Resource Locator
-
Protocol Resource Locator Name OGC:WMS
https://maps.gov.scot/server/services/ScotGov/ProtectedSites/MapServer/WMSServer? NationalScenicAreas
OGC:WFS
https://maps.gov.scot/server/services/ScotGov/ProtectedSites/MapServer/WFSServer?request=GetCapabilities&service=WFS PS:NationalScenicAreas
WWW:DOWNLOAD:ESRI REST https://maps.gov.scot/server/rest/services/ScotGov/ProtectedSites/MapServer/3 National Scenic Areas
WWW:DOWNLOAD-1.0-http--download
https://maps.gov.scot/ATOM/shapefiles/SG_NationalScenicAreas_1998.zip
Data quality info
- Quality Scope
- Dataset
- Statement
-
NSAs were first identified by the Countryside Commission for Scotland (a predecessor to NatureScot) in 1978 and described in the Commission’s report "Scotland's Scenic Heritage". While originally established in 1980 under planning legislation, NSAs were formally designated under The Town and Country Planning (National Scenic Areas) (Scotland) Designation Directions 2010 in December 2010.
This digital dataset was originally digitised against Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 raster data circa 1998, and follows the textual description in the Countryside Commission report. The textual description contains ambiguities and the maps associated with the text (also in the publication) don't always agree. The dataset covers all NSAs including offshore extensions - no new areas have since been identified. Most areas are in private ownership although the Forestry Commission has some sizeable land holdings.
Metadata
- File identifier
- 13396739-7602-4428-85fd-95a5d7e208a1 XML
- Metadata Language
- English
- Resource type
- Dataset
- Metadata Date
- 2024-11-11T15:15:20.009Z
- Metadata standard name
-
UK GEMINI
- Metadata standard version
-
2.3
Point of contact
- Individual name
-
GI-SAT
- Organisation name
-
Scottish Government
- Position name
-
Geographic Information Science and Analysis Team
- Delivery point
-
Victoria Quay
- City
-
Edinburgh
- Postal code
-
EH6 6QQ
- Country
-
United Kingdom
- Electronic mail address
-
GI-SAT@gov.scot SAT@gov.sco GI-SAT@gov.scot
- Role
- Point of contact