THE DATA
Where it comes from, and how it is asked for.
Every layer is an official dataset published by a public agency under an open licence. Merestone does not copy datasets; it asks each agency's own service for the area on screen, live, and shows the answer with the agency's name and licence beside it.
HOW THE SITE ASKS
- Requests go from your browser to merestonemaps.com, and from there to the agency. The agency sees one well-behaved client identifying itself as MerestoneMaps with this page and a contact address, never hundreds of individual browsers.
- Answers are cached briefly on our side so a popular area is not asked for again and again. The popup on the map shows when each answer was fetched.
- Dense national layers are only asked for once you have zoomed in, so no service is asked for a whole country at once.
- If an agency's service is slow or down, the layer says so on the map, and if only part of the view answered the map says that too. A partial answer is never dressed up as a complete one.
User-Agent: MerestoneMaps/1.0 (+https://merestonemaps.com/about/data; support@merestonemaps.com)
Licences
Each layer carries the licence its publisher states, shown beside it: the Open Government Licence v3.0 in the UK, Creative Commons licences and agencies' own open-data terms in Ireland, Spain and Portugal, and the Licence Ouverte in France. Each permits this use with attribution. Where a publisher's licence does not permit re-use in a product like this, the layer is held back and listed as such rather than shown.
Publishers: a note
If you publish one of these datasets and want to talk about how it is used here, or would like a different attribution, email support@merestonemaps.com.
Every publisher
Ireland
| Environmental Protection Agency (Ireland) | 20 layers | CC-BY 4.0 |
| Geological Survey Ireland | 14 layers | CC BY 4.0 |
| NPWS / Government of Ireland | 11 layers | CC BY 4.0 |
| National Monuments Service (Government of Ireland) | 8 layers | CC-BY 4.0 |
| National Inventory of Architectural Heritage | 2 layers | CC-BY 4.0 |
| DHLGH / Government of Ireland | 2 layers | CC BY 4.0 |
| Tailte Éireann | 1 layer | CC-BY 4.0 |
| Sport Ireland Outdoors | 1 layer | CC-BY |
| Teagasc / Environmental Protection Agency | 1 layer | CC-BY 4.0 |
| Occurrence records via GBIF.org | 1 layer | each record under its own CC0 or CC-BY licence; see the record for its dataset |
France
| Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (INPN) | 29 layers | Licence Ouverte (Etalab) |
| Géoportail de l'urbanisme | 22 layers | Licence Ouverte (Etalab) |
| Géorisques (BRGM / Ministère de la Transition écologique) | 22 layers | Licence Ouverte |
| Sandre / OFB (eaufrance) | 9 layers | Licence Ouverte (Etalab) 2.0 |
| IGN Géoplateforme | 9 layers | Licence Ouverte (Etalab) |
| ONF / IGN Géoplateforme | 2 layers | Licence Ouverte (Etalab) |
| OFB / portail cartographique des EnR | 2 layers | Licence Ouverte (Etalab) |
| INAO | 1 layer | Licence Ouverte |
| Cerema / GéoMCE | 1 layer | Licence Ouverte (Etalab) |
| SCHAPI / Vigicrues via IGN Géoplateforme | 1 layer | Licence Ouverte (Etalab) |
| ODR / INRAE via IGN Géoplateforme | 1 layer | Licence Ouverte (Etalab) |
| Cerema / portail cartographique des EnR | 1 layer | Licence Ouverte (Etalab) |
| DGFiP / IGN Géoplateforme (Parcellaire Express) | 1 layer | Licence Ouverte (Etalab) |
| ASP / IGN Géoplateforme (RPG) | 1 layer | Licence Ouverte (Etalab) |
United Kingdom
| Natural England | 77 layers | OGL v3.0 · OGL v3.0. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2024 · biodiversity gain sites register, OGL v3.0 |
| Natural Resources Wales | 50 layers | OGL v3.0 |
| Environment Agency | 20 layers | OGL v3.0 |
| DAERA / NIEA | 13 layers | OGL v3.0 |
| NatureScot | 12 layers | OGL v3.0 |
| MHCLG / planning.data.gov.uk | 9 layers | OGL v3.0 |
| Cadw | 8 layers | Welsh Government, OGL v3.0 |
| SEPA 2025 | 7 layers | OGL v3.0 |
| Historic Environment Scotland | 6 layers | OGL v3.0 |
| Historic England | 6 layers | OGL |
| Historic Environment Division | 6 layers | DfC NI, OGL v3.0 |
| Scottish Government | 4 layers | OGL v3.0 |
| Scottish Forestry | 4 layers | OGL v3.0 |
| Forestry Commission | 3 layers | OGL v3.0 |
| Rural Payments Agency / Natural England | 2 layers | OGL v3.0 |
| Forestry Commission / Forest Research | 2 layers | OGL v3.0 |
| Marine Management Organisation | 2 layers | OGL v3.0 |
| National Trust | 2 layers | CC BY 4.0 |
| Historic England 2026 | 1 layer | OGL v3.0 · contains OS data © Crown copyright |
| Coal Authority | 1 layer | OGL v3.0 |
| Defra | 1 layer | OGL v3.0 |
| Association of Drainage Authorities | 1 layer | via the Environment Agency, OGL v3.0 |
| Occurrence records via GBIF.org | 1 layer | each record under its own CC0 or CC-BY licence; see the record for its dataset |
| DAERA Marine and Fisheries Division | 1 layer | OGL v3.0 |
| Welsh Government | 1 layer | OGL v3.0 |
Portugal
| ICNF, I.P. | 27 layers | dados abertos |
| Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente, I.P. | 10 layers | |
| Percursos Pedestres Homologados © Direção Regional do Turismo / Governo dos Açores | 8 layers | |
| European Environment Agency | 4 layers | EEA standard re-use policy |
| Direção-Geral do Território (SNIT/SRUP) | 2 layers | CC BY 4.0 — geometria original da APA |
| Occurrence records via GBIF.org | 1 layer | each record under its own CC0 or CC-BY licence; see the record for its dataset |
| Universidade do Minho / ICNF | 1 layer | CC BY 4.0 |
Spain
| Generalitat Valenciana (ICV) | 18 layers | CC BY 4.0 |
| European Environment Agency | 4 layers | EEA standard re-use policy |
| Generalitat de Catalunya | 2 layers | dades obertes |
| REDIAM, Junta de Andalucía | 2 layers | |
| Occurrence records via GBIF.org | 1 layer | each record under its own CC0 or CC-BY licence; see the record for its dataset |