The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH) is a state initiative under the administration of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and established on a statutory basis under the provisions of the Architectural Heritage (National Inventory) and Historic Monuments (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1999.The purpose of the NIAH is to identify, record, and evaluate the post-1700 architectural heritage of Ireland, uniformly and consistently as an aid in the protection and conservation of the built heritage. NIAH surveys provide the basis for the recommendations of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to the planning authorities for the inclusion of particular structures in their Record of Protected Structures (RPS).

This dataset is provided for re-use in a number of ways and the technical options are outlined below. For a live and current view of the data, please use the web services or the data extract tool in the Historic Environment Viewer. The NIAH also provide an Open Data snapshot of its national dataset in CSV as a bulk data download. It contains all the Ministerial Recommendations published to date and is updated as surveys are published.

Open Data Bulk Data Downloads (version date: 11/10/2023)

The NIAH Survey data is provided as a national download in Comma Separated Value (CSV) format. This format can be easily integrated into a number of software clients for re-use and analysis. The Longitude and Latitude coordinates are also provided to aid its re-use in web mapping systems, however, the ITM easting/northings coordinates should be quoted for official purposes.

GIS Web Service APIs (live views):

For users with access to GIS software please note that the NIAH data is also available as spatial data web services. By accessing and consuming the web service users are deemed to have accepted the Terms and Conditions. The web services are available at the URL endpoints advertised below:

NIAH Feature Service: https://services-eu1.arcgis.com/HyjXgkV6KGMSF3jt/arcgis/rest/services/NIAHBuildingsOpenData/FeatureServer

Historic Environment Viewer - Query Tool

The "Query" tool can alternatively be used to selectively filter and download the data represented in the Historic Environment Viewer. The instructions for using this tool in the Historic Environment Viewer are detailed in the associated Help file: https://www.archaeology.ie/sites/default/files/media/pdf/HEV_UserGuide_v01.pdf