Northern Ireland Sites and Monuments Record
Northern Ireland Environment Agency, 1999. (updated 2014)
Data copyright © Northern Ireland Environment Agency unless otherwise stated
This work is licensed under the ADS Terms of Use and Access.
Primary contact
Northern Ireland Environment Agency
Waterman House
5-33 Hill St
Belfast
BT1 2LA
Northern Ireland
Tel: 028 9054 3004
Fax: 028 9054 3111
Resource identifiers
- ADS Collection: 276
Environment and Heritage Service: Built Heritage maintains the Northern Ireland SMR Sites & Monuments Record for the six counties of Northern Ireland, holding information on approx. 16,300 sites. These range from Mesolithic camp sites, Bronze age landscapes preserved under bog, through the Early Christian monasteries, the castles of the Norman conquest and the defended houses of the Plantation settlers.
The NISMR information is used to identify sites and monuments for statutory protection and is also used to identify sites and monuments which are threatened by proposed land-use changes, such as infrastructure and built development, mineral extraction and agricultural projects and forestry schemes.
The information supplied to the Archaeological database is a subset derived from the SMR, downloaded on 7th April 2014.
The following data is referenced in the on-line version of the SMR:
- Name of resource: Effectively the title
- Description: A short abstract
- Map reference: Ordnance Survey Northern Ireland grid reference, to 10 metre precision (where known)
- Place: The site name (where applicable)
- Townland: Still an important spatial unit in Ireland. There are several townlands within a parish
- Parish: Parish
- District/Unitary Authority: The area a Council has responsibility for
- County: County
- Period: An archaeological period; Bronze Age, Medieval, etc. These are broadly similar to the MIDAS standard used in England but may have different timespans. The Romans did not reach Ireland (at least not significantly) so the Iron Age extends up to the beginning of the Early Christian period which in turn lasts until the Medieval period.
- Subject: The subject of a resource, for example, rath, crannog, etc. With Period, a repeating field
- Depositor ID: SMR number, a unique identifier for a record ( quote this in any correspondence or queries)
Our information is drawn from the Ordnance Survey 6" map series and the contemporary, detailed OS Memoirs, compiled by the Ordnance Surveyors (c1832 onwards), antiquarian and historical sources, EHS own field survey programme, excavations and local knowledge. Fieldwork and research are ongoing and new sites are constantly being discovered - the SMR is not a complete or definitive record of all sites in Northern Ireland, it simply records what we know today - there is always more to be found tomorrow!
Currently, 181 of our sites are in State Care and some 1350 sites and areas are scheduled for protection under the Historic Monuments and Archaeological Objects(NI) Order 1995, as part of an ongoing protection programme. The majority of sites and monuments in private ownership, on private land - inclusion in the NISMR does not imply right of access for the general public.
Apart from the on-line version the NISMR is made available to the public through the Monuments and Buildings Record, which holds information on Listed and other Historic buildings, Historic Parks, Gardens and Demesnes and sites of Industrial Heritage Interest. Information on opening times is available from the number provided.
Please contact MBR if you have any queries about the SMR or require further information, including copyright requests. All data supplied by the SMR is supplied for internal purposes or private research & the user is not entitled to copy or reproduce information from the SMR in the public domain without the written permission of the copyright holder.
