UK

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a country to the north-west of mainland Europe. It comprises the island of Great Britain, the north-east part of the island of Ireland and many small islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land border, sharing it with the Republic of Ireland.Apart from this land border, the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea. The largest island, Great Britain, is linked to France by the Channel Tunnel.

The United Kingdom is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy comprising four constituent countries — England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The Crown Dependencies of the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, formally possessions of the Crown, are not part of the UK but form a federacy with it. The UK has fourteen overseas territories, all remnants of the British Empire, which at its height encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface.

Over the last years, I have visited the UK once or twice a year. It's an easy weekend break from Holland, and I always enjoy going there: discovering new regions, buying travel books and enjoying good Indian food.

List of world heritage sites in UK

Site nameEntered
St. Kilda1986
Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd 1986
Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites 1986
Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of Fountains Abbey 1986
Ironbridge Gorge1986
Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast1986
Durham Castle and Cathedral1986
Frontiers of the Roman Empire1987
City of Bath1987
Westminster Palace, Westminster Abbey and Saint Margaret's Church1987
Blenheim Palace1987
Canterbury Cathedral, St Augustine's Abbey, and St Martin's Church1988
Tower of London1988
Henderson Island1988
Gough and Inaccessible Islands 1995
Old and New Towns of Edinburgh 1995
Maritime Greenwich1997
The Heart of Neolithic Orkney1999
The Historic Town of St George and Related Fortifications, Bermuda2000
Blaenavon Industrial Landscape2000
Dorset and East Devon Coast2001
Saltaire2001
New Lanark2001
Derwent Valley Mills2001
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2003
Liverpool – Maritime Mercantile City2004
Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape2006

Tentative list of UK

  • Chatham Naval Dockyard
  • Darwins Home and Workplace: Down House and Environs
  • Fountain Cavern, Anguilla
  • Frontiers of the Roman Empire: Antonine Wall
  • Gibraltar defences
  • Lake District
  • Manchester and Salford (Ancoats, Castlefield and Worsley)
  • Monkwearmouth and Jarrow Monastic Sites
  • Mount Stewart Gardens
  • Pont-Cysyllte Aqueduct
  • Shakespeares Stratford
  • The Cairngorm Mountains
  • The Flow Country
  • The Forth Rail Bridge
  • The Great Western Railway: Paddington- Bristol (selected parts)
  • The New Forest
  • The Wash and North Norfolk Coast

    • Visits

    Northern Ireland

    February 2008
    Long years of violent political conflict (euphemistically called 'The Troubles' in UK English) have left the Northern Ireland Tourism Board with the gigantic task of brushing up this region's image. Fortunately, Easyjet lends a helping hand as it offers cheap direct flights from several European cities to the Northern Ireland capital of Belfast. This way I spent a pleasant weekend here: enjoying a tour along the Antrim and Causeway Coasts and roaming around the old and the new Belfast on foot.


    Canterbury
    January 2008
    The choice of the first WHS to visit in 2008 fell upon Canterbury in the UK. I spent a pleasant weekend in this lively university town. The designated WHS area consists of three monuments which are easy to get to on foot.


    Glasgow
    February 2006
    My last visit to the UK was over 1.5 years ago, too long for my taste. I always feel very much at home there on the other side of the Canal.
    My destination of choice for this weekend was Glasgow, to enjoy some modern and some industrial heritage.

    There's only one WHS in this part of Scotland: the utopian village of New Lanark. It became a milestone visit: number 200!


    Northern England
    August 2004
    Staying in Durham, I enjoyed a few beautiful late summer days in Northern England: reading a book or two in the sun, eating out.
    On the worldheritage front, I added Durham (mainly the Cathedral) and Hadrian's Wall (back to Roman times in very English surroundings) to my Visited list.



    Greenwich
    January 2004
    The weather was very appropriate to the theme of this visit: rain and storm accompanied me in Maritime Greenwich. However, I found the trip very worthwhile: there is a lot to see and to do in Greenwich, both inside (the museums) and outside (the town and waterfront).


    London
    March 2003
    Went to London for a job interview at the Ford motor company. Don't know the outcome, but hey, here's visited world heritage number 117.




    Nottingham
    November 2002
    When the company that I work for decided to send me to Nottingham for a few days, I immediately checked my map of the UK. Would there be any world heritage sites in that area? The answer: yes, of course. So I added a short visit to the Derwent Valley and its mills to my schedule.


    Safle Treftadaeth Byd
    June 2002
    ... is Welsh for World Heritage Site. So Wales is where I headed to make my 100th visit to a worldheritage. I was so absorbed by the place (and there was so little public transport on a Sunday) that I missed my plane back home - for the first time in 12 years of air travel.


    New entries for 2001 announced
    December 2001
    The notice came by email today: 31 new sites have been added to the World Heritage List. Fortunately a lot less than last years 61. On first sight, the most eyecatching new entry is Samarkand (anchor on the Ancient Silk Route). Only one out of these 31 I have visited, a long time ago: the cliffs of Dorset in the UK.


    Edinburgh
    October 2001
    Stimulated by the low prices of air tickets, I decided to go abroad for one last time this year. Well, except for the holidays around Christmas, and the occasional daytrip of course. The Scottish capital Edinburgh provided me both with beautiful scenery and two of my other favourites - bookstores and Asian food.