Downloading and Metadata

Data is available on a county by county basis only from the mapviewer. The NPWS GIS unit use Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSI) 1:10560 raster scans transformed to the National Grid. The transformation process results in mismatches between county boundaries. For this reason data is only available on a county by county basis.

Please check the Internet Map Viewer online Help viewer for assistance with the download option.

To download by county

1. Click on the Download button. The system opens a form to allow you to specify the county and format required.
2. Select the county required from the dropdown list provided.
3. Select the format that you required the data in from the dropdown list provided.
4. Click the Download button to start the download. When the download is competed a link to a zip file will be displayed and you can download the data to you own machine.

The following download formats are available;

• Autodesk AutoCAD DWG/DXF
• Microstation Design Files (DGN)
• ESRI Shapefile
• MapInfo TAB
• ESRI ArcInfo Export (E00)

The extracted data is placed in a zip file with a randomly generated name. We suggest that you rename this file with the correct county code, or name, as well as the designation type, when saving it to your system. The files contained within the zip file should also be renamed as required.

Metadata

Name: User assigned
Format: User choice
Base Mapping used to generate data: OSI 6" (1:10560) raster scans transformed to Nat. Grid
Data Capture: Heads up digitising using Arc/Info 8.x and 9. ESRI coverage model
Data Storage: The NPWS Internet Map Viewer Oracle/SDE
Attributes: Assuming that the data format requested supports attribute data, the following attribute data should be present:
DESIG: The designation type, either NHA, SAC or SPA.
PTYPE: Used to identify those part of the site which are designated i.e. ptype 1 or 3 are part of the site. Blanks or ptypes of 2 are exclusions.
COUNTY: The county the sites occur in. Please note that due to issues with the Cassini derived OSI 6" maps county boundaries may not match.
SITE_NAME: Designation name
SITECODE: Designation number
VERSION: The update version of the site.
SINUMBER: The statutory instrument number, if assigned.
CO_ID:The county ID assigned by NPWS. Not required.

Updates

This data set in undergoing constant change, both with regard to geographic extent and legal status, due to the appeals procedure and the ongoing process of designation. The updates table shows the date when a county was last updated.