Statistics

Northern Ireland has a rich heritage of archaeological sites, monuments and buildings representing the aspirations and achievements of past societies, providing evidence of settlement, agricultural, industrial and ritual activity from 9,000 years ago to the present day. This chapter looks at the numbers of scheduled monuments and listed buildings in Northern Ireland, including those which are at risk, and the number of conservation areas.

There are upwards of 35,000 archaeological sites and monuments in Northern Ireland dating from 9,000 years ago to the recent past. Monuments are selected from this group each year for scheduling under article 3 of The Historic Monuments and Archaeological Objects (NI) Order 1995 and some of the masonry structures are entered into the Built Heritage at Risk in Northern Ireland (BHARNI) register.

In 2009/10, there were a total of 1,853 scheduled monuments. Their condition is assessed regularly, and they were judged to be better managed than most non-scheduled sites in a survey “The Condition and Management Survey of the Archaeological Resource (CAMSAR) for Northern Ireland” published by NIEA in 2009.

Listed buildings are those of special architectural or historic interest, and provide an indication of the extent of this historical architectural resource. Since 2003 there has been a modest increase in the number of listed buildings with a total of 8,424 buildings recorded by the NIEA in 2009/10. Because some listings include multiple buildings the total number of buildings protected in this way is estimated to be around 8,500 structures.

Buildings classified as at risk in Northern Ireland and recorded on the NIEA online database BHARNI, are those most at risk from deterioration or demolition. In 2009/10, there were 445 listed buildings and structures on the BHARNI database.

There are currently 60 designated conservation areas in Northern Ireland. These are defined as areas of special architectural or historic interest.

Monuments Figure 7.1 Number of scheduled monuments, 2000/01 – 2009/10

Table 7.1 Number of scheduled monuments, 2000/01 – 2009/10

	00/01	01/02	02/03	03/04	04/05	05/06	06/07	07/08	08/09	09/10
Number of scheduled Monuments	50	40	60	66	65	14	20	20	46	50
Cumulative total	1,473	1,513	1,573	1,639	1,704	1,718	1,738	1,757	1,803	1,853

Source: NIEA
Note: One monument was descheduled in 2007/08

• Scheduled Historic Monuments include settlements, defences, workplaces, routeways and sites for ritual and burial.

• There has been an increase in the number of monuments being scheduled in the last couple of years in Northern Ireland with 20 or fewer monuments scheduled in the years 2005/06, 2006/07 and 2007/08 but 46 scheduled in 2008/09 and 50 scheduled in 2009/10.

• Overall there has been an increase in the total number of scheduled monuments rising to 1,853 in 2009/10 compared to 1,473 in 2000/01.

Listed Buildings Figure 7.2 Number of listed buildings, 2003/04 – 2009/10

Table 7.2 Number of listed buildings, 2003/04 – 2009/10

	03/04	04/05	05/06	06/07	07/08	08/09	09/10
Number of listed buildings	8,184	8,206	8,177	8,242	8,248	8,350	8,424

Source: NIEA

• The Planning (Northern Ireland) Order 1991, enables lists of buildings of special architectural or historic interest to be compiled by NIEA.

• There has been a modest increase in the number of buildings listed in recent years with a total of 8,424 statutory listings in 2009/10.

• A second, area based survey of all historic buildings (The Second Survey) has been underway since 1997 and is largely responsible for this increase. However it should be noted that a significant number of buildings have also been found which no longer meet the legislative test and have therefore been removed.  

• Because some listings include multiple buildings, such as terraces or farm buildings under a single listing reference, the total number of structures is greater than the figure given and is estimated to be around 8,500.

Listed Buildings Figure 7.3 Number of buildings and monuments at risk, 2003/04 – 2009/10

Table 7.3 Number of buildings and monuments at risk, 2003/04 – 2009/10

	03/04	04/05	05/06	06/07	07/08	08/09	09/10
Number of buildings and monuments at risk	378	399	422	410	417	437	445

Source: NIEA

• A listed building or structure is at risk when its condition and management is deemed to be poor and unsustainable, placing the building or structure under threat of deterioration and/or demolition.

• Such listed buildings, structures and some scheduled monuments are recorded on an on-line database Built Heritage at Risk in Northern Ireland (BHARNI) register.

• The BHARNI register provides an indicator of changes in the number of buildings judged to be at risk. In 2009/10, there were 445 buildings and structures on the BHARNI database. In total, 17 listed buildings were removed from the database in 2009/10 and were no longer at risk.

• The Sustainable Development Strategy sets a target of removing 200 buildings from the BHARNI register (based on 2006 figure) by 2016. However, as the collection of data is ongoing it is expected that numbers of buildings identified as being at risk will continue to rise in the initial years as this work is completed.

Conservation Areas Figure 7.4 Number of conservation areas, 2002/03 – 2009/10

Table 7.4 Number of conservation areas, 2002/03 – 2009/10

	02/03	03/04	04/05	05/06	06/07	07/08	08/09	09/10
Conservation Areas	57	59	59	60	60	60	60	60

Source: Planning Service

• Planning Service and NIEA are both within the Department of the Environment. Planning Service is responsible for area based heritage controls.

• Planning Service has been responsible for the designation of Conservation Areas since 1995. These are defined as areas of special architectural or historic interest.

• Since 1975, the Department of the Environment has designated 60 conservation areas in Northern Ireland. They range in scale from city and town centres to villages and relatively small residential parks and streets.