Ancient Woodland

Over 32,000 sq km of woodland exists in the UK, but only 2.5% of that is ancient woodland.

Ancient woodlands have persisted since 1600, however, they now cover just 2.5% of the UK forest, making them rare and endangered habitats with unique and complex communities of plants, fungi, insects, and other microorganisms. 

We can define Ancient woodland by examining historical maps and current records, and by surveying the plants within the woodland. They often have plants that spread slowly, such as Wood anemone, Wood sorrel, and Ransoms (wild garlic), as well as plants whose seeds fall close to the parent, like the Wild service tree. 

Many of our ancient woodlands have been damaged or destroyed over the last hundred years, largely by conversion to conifer plantations or clearance for agriculture and they remain threatened.

Ancient Woodland was first formally mapped and documented in 1980s, forming the Ancient Woodland Inventory (First Edition). SBIS updated these data from 2021-2025 to form the Ancient Woodland Inventory (Second Edition) and added Ancient Wood Pasture and Parkland too. The map below shows project results; the First (1980s) and Second (2025) Edition of the Ancient Woodland Inventory along with the added Ancient Wood Pasture and Parkland (2025). Click on individual sites for more details. For more information on the project, please see our Ancient Woodland Inventory Update (2021-2025) page below.

Natural England maintains and updates this dataset on their map: Ancient Woodland - Revised (England) - Completed Counties | Natural England Open Data Geoportal

Map updated: October 2025