Irish Spatial Data Exchange
Ancient and Long-established Woodland Inventory 2010
Ancient woodland refers to those woods that have had a continuous history of cover since before the period when planting and afforestation became common practice (mid‐1600s). These woodlands are important in terms of their biological and cultural value, and may even form links with prehistoric wildwoods. To date, unlike our European counterparts, no extensive study of ancient woodland has been conducted in the Republic of Ireland, leaving these irreplaceable habitats open to threats such as woodland clearance.
This polygon shapefile constitutes the main output from the Ancient and long-established Woodland Inventory 2010.
A total of 481 woodland sites were digitised and the following categories were set up:
- Possible ancient woodland (PAW) stands have been continuously wooded since 1660.
- After additional research some PAW stands were upgraded to ancient woodland (AW) status.
- Long‐established woodlands (LEW) have been continuously wooded since 1830. There are two sub‐categories, LEW (I) stands for which no evidence of antiquity could be found in older documentation, and LEW (II) stands for which there is evidence that the site is not ancient.
In addition, for each digitised polygon the stand type on the OS maps was determined. The categories used were semi‐natural broadleaf (SNB), mixed woodland (MW), conifer plantation (CP), non‐native broadleaf (NNB) and recent clearfell (RC).
This inventory is provisional in nature, investigating only a subset of Ireland’s woodland resource and available historical documents. However, it presents a working methodology to assist in the identification of these sites in Ireland. This study also promotes taking a multidisciplinary approach in the study of ancient woodlands.
Simple
- Alternate title
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Ancient and Long-established Woodland
- Date (Publication)
- 2010-01-01T00:00:00
- Citation identifier
- https://data.gov.ie/dataset/ / ancient-and-long-established-woodland-inventory-2010
- Purpose
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It was beyond the scope and resources of this project to conduct a comprehensive survey of ancient woodland in Ireland. Hence, the overall objective was instead to identify resources and develop a protocol for the identification of ancient woodland and to initialise a national inventory. This will provide a formal framework for future studies in ancient woodland. The aims of this project were therefore to:
1. Investigate the historical records available in the Republic of Ireland which can provide an assessment of woodland longevity.
2. Collate available information from previous research into ancient woodlands in Ireland.
3. Research through desk-based work and fieldwork a selection of woodland sites from across the country.
4. Produce a National Ancient and Long-established Woodland Inventory in the form of a GIS data layer showing the extent and distribution of researched sites.
5. Produce a preliminary list of ancient and long-established woodland vascular plant indicators for the Republic of Ireland and identify other pertinent features associated with these woodlands.
- Status
- On going
- Point of contact
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Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
National Parks and Wildlife Service
Point of contact
- Maintenance and update frequency
- As needed
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GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
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Habitats and biotopes
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GEMET - Concepts, version 3.1
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habitat, biodiversity, woodland ecosystem
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National Parks and Wildlife Service
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National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, species, habitat protection, heritage, National Biodiversity Plan
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ISO 3166
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Ireland
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- Use limitation
- Access constraints
- Other restrictions
- Other constraints
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Copyright Government of Ireland. This dataset was created by National Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. This copyright material is licensed for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- Spatial representation type
- Vector
- Denominator
- 10560
- Language
- English
- Character set
- UTF8
- Topic category
-
- Environment
- Biota
))
Vertical extent
- Minimum value
- 0
- Maximum value
- 1014
Vertical CS
Vertical datum
- Reference system identifier
-
EPSG
/
https://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/29903
EPSG Geodetic Parameter Dataset EPSG 2009-11-25
- Distribution format
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Name Version Esri shapefile
v10.x
- Distributor contact
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Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
National Parks and Wildlife Service
Point of contact
- OnLine resource
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Protocol Linkage Name application/zip
https://www.npws.ie/sites/default/files/general/ancient-long-established-woodland.zip Download SHP
- OnLine resource
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Protocol Linkage Name text/html
https://dahg.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=e6da11a2a9804664a428315bcd105260 Visualisation of Ancient and Long-established Woodland Inventory 2010
- OnLine resource
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Protocol Linkage Name ESRI REST
https://services-eu1.arcgis.com/Jhij7i46ouO8Cc0N/arcgis/rest/services/ALEWAncientandLongEstablishedWoodland/FeatureServer ESRI REST
- OnLine resource
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Protocol Linkage Name WFS
https://dservices-eu1.arcgis.com/Jhij7i46ouO8Cc0N/arcgis/services/ALEWAncientandLongEstablishedWoodland/WFSServer?service=wfs&request=getcapabilities WFS
- OnLine resource
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Protocol Linkage Name text/pdf
https://www.npws.ie/sites/default/files/publications/pdf/IWM46.pdf Publication Document
- Hierarchy level
- Dataset
Conformance result
- Title
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INSPIRE Data Specification on Habitats and Biotopes
- Alternate title
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INSPIRE Data Specifications v3.0
- Date (Publication)
- 2013-12-10
- Explanation
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The INSPIRE Directive or INSPIRE lays down a general framework for a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) for the purposes of European Community environmental policies and policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment.
- Pass
- No
Conformance result
- Title
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COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services
- Alternate title
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INSPIRE Interoperability Regulation
- Date (Publication)
- 2010-12-08
- Explanation
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Level of conformance with the COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services
- Pass
- No
- Statement
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Historical Ordnance Survey (OS) maps and a contemporary forest inventory were used to create a GIS database of areas that have been continuously covered by woodland since c. 1830. The 481 woodlands identified by this process were systematically researched using a set of historical national surveys. This allowed stands to be grouped into different woodland categories.
Other maps and historical documents were then identified as potential resources for ascribing woodland antiquity and existing research on ancient woodland was collated. Supplementary research included toponymical research and a detailed examination of historical stand type.
Metadata
- File identifier
- ab7ea956-318f-4360-9c6f-a06ca9593b01 XML
- Metadata language
- English
- Character set
- UTF8
- Hierarchy level
- Dataset
- Date stamp
- 2025-06-16T13:47:49
- Metadata standard name
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ISDI Metadata Profile
- Metadata standard version
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1.2
- Metadata author
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Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
National Parks and Wildlife Service
Author
)))
