Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Nominations sought for UK’s next Unesco world heritage sites

Heritage Minister Nigel Huddleston has launched the call for new nominations, hailing the ‘transformative impact’ of the status.

Luke O'Reilly
Friday 25 March 2022 20:01 EDT
Nominations are reviewed every 10 years, and are bestowed to sites such as Stonehenge in recognition of the role they have played in world history (PA)
Nominations are reviewed every 10 years, and are bestowed to sites such as Stonehenge in recognition of the role they have played in world history (PA) (PA Wire)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The Government is calling for sites to be put forward as the UK’s next nominations for Unesco World Heritage Status.

The successful places would join the UK’s 33 world heritage sites, including Stonehenge, The Tower of London and Hadrian’s Wall.

Nominations are reviewed every 10 years, and are bestowed in recognition of the role sites have played in world history.

Heritage Minister Nigel Huddleston has launched the call for new nominations, hailing the “transformative impact” of the status.

“Unesco World Heritage Status has a transformative impact on places bestowed with this honour,” he said.

“As well as international acclaim, Unesco status boosts tourism and creates employment and economic growth opportunities.

“The UK and Overseas Territories have many potential contenders and I can’t wait to see what fantastic sites and stories we uncover in our search.”

The most recent site to receive Unesco World Heritage Site status was the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales in 2021.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport will review the sites, and will publish a tentative list of potential nominees later this year.

From this list they will then select the sites that will be the UK’s final nominations.

The next sites to be reviewed for Unesco status in 2024 are the Scottish Flow Country and Gracehill in Northern Ireland.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in