National parks of the United Kingdom  

... (Welsh: parciau cenedlaethol; Scottish Gaelic: pàircean nàiseanta) are 15 areas of relatively undeveloped and scenic landscape across the country. Despite their name, they are quite different from national parks in many other countries, which are usually owned and managed by governments as protected community resources, and which do not usually include permanent human communities. In the United Kingdom, an area designated as a national park may include substantial settlements and human land uses that are often integral parts of the landscape. Land within national parks remains largely in private ownership. These parks are therefore not "national parks" according to the internationally accepted standard of the IUCN but they are areas of outstanding landscape where planning controls are a little more restrictive than elsewhere.

Within the United Kingdom there are fifteen national parks of which ten are in England, three in Wales, two in Scotland, and none in Northern Ireland.

An estimated 110 million people visit the national parks of England and Wales each year. Recreation and tourism bring visitors and funds into the parks, to sustain their conservation efforts, and support the local population through jobs and businesses. However, these visitors also bring problems, such as erosion and traffic congestion, and conflicts over the use of the parks' resources. Access to cultivated land in England and Wales is restricted to public rights of way and permissive paths. (Under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 there is a right of access for walkers to most but not all uncultivated areas in England and Wales.)
  NATIONAL PARK BY COUNTRY & SIZE        
EST.
km2

SCOTLAND

  Cairngorms
2003
4,528
  Loch Lomond & the Trossachs
2002
1,865

WALES

  Snowdonia
1951
2,130
  Brecon Beacons
1957
1,344
  Pembrokeshire Coast
1952
629


ENGLAND

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photos)

The photos
are LARGE
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with a 1920x1080
monitor - a
mobile cannot do them justice!

  Lake District
1951
2,362
  Yorkshire Dales
1954
2,178
  South Downs
2010
1,627
  Peak District
1951
1,440
  North York Moors
1952
1,430
  Northumberland
1956
1,050
  Dartmoor
1951
954
  Exmoor
1954
692
  New Forest
2005
560
  The Broads
1989
303