Northern Ireland Administrative Boundaries

A resource maintained by Scott Moore

This simple website contains information about the administrative boundaries of Northern Ireland. I envision that it will include:

scanned images of original drawn Ordnance Survey maps - the same maps produced and consulted in decades past
digitized exact boundary data in Shapefile format, allowing you to see where these boundaries lie at the level of individual streets and fields, without quality loss or pixelation
reports of Boundary Commissioners - including provisional, revised and final recommendations, showing details of the processes by which administrative boundaries have been drawn, and why these boundaries are where they are
legislation on boundaries, which in the past specified exact boundaries as lists of townlands and/or as map directions
information from the Gazette, including the Belfast Gazette, which in the past had details of boundaries where this was not provided in legislation
UK Parliament and Northern Ireland Parliament Command Papers (besides commissioner reports) about administrative boundaries.

DD/MM/YYYY format is used throughout the site.

NEW! 1984 Councils and Wards: Interactive map viewer

Highlights

A selection of items that I couldn't find online, which I have scanned and uploaded for anyone to see and use. This will mainly be items which fall under Crown copyright (licensed under the Open Government License v3.0) and which can be freely redistributed under the OGL; or items out of copyright altogether. You can find pretty much all items I've uploaded on the Internet Archive.

These all open as PDFs, and should open in your browser to view - they should not automatically download by default.

The Lockwood Report (1965) - the controversial report that recommended putting a university campus in Coleraine intead of Derry City
The Macrory Report (1970) - the report which recommended scrapping NI's system of urban councils, rural councils, county boroughs and county councils (around 70 councils in all!) and replacing them with a single tier of 26 district councils. The report was written on the assumption that the Stormont Parliament would continue to exist and provide the functions once served by the county councils that formed the ‘upper tier of local government’ (UTLG).
Report of the Local Government Boundaries Commissioner (Maurice Hayes, 1992) - these reports redrew Ward and Local Government District boundaries; District Electoral Area (DEA) boundaries fell under a subsequent, separate process
Report of the Local Government Boundaries Commissioner (Frank Harrison, 1982)
Report of the Local Government Boundaries Commissioner (Frank Harrison, 1972)

Parliamentary Constituencies

(work in progress - check back later!)

Year	Date submitted	UK Parliament elections	NI elections	Legislation	Boundary review	Raster image	Digital boundary data	Notes
2023	27/06/2023	2024 (04/07/2024)	By 06/05/2027 (Assembly)	Parliamentary Constituencies Order 2023 (Access: scottmoore.xyz [webpage] [pdf]; legislation.gov.uk [webpage] [pdf])	Initial Proposals [pdf] Revised Recommendations [pdf] Final Recommendations [pdf]	Initial Map [pdf] Revised Map [pdf] Final Map [pdf]	Shapefile [rar] GeoJSON CSV KML Interactive map [ArcGIS]	Submitted to the Speaker by the Commissioner (along with the other boundary reviews) on 27/06/2023. Approved by Privy Council on 15/11/2023. Became law on 29/11/2023.
2008	14/09/2007	2010 (06/05/2010); 2015; 2017; 2019						Submitted to the Speaker by the Commissioner on 14/09/2007. Approved by Privy Council on 11/06/2008. Became law on 25/06/2008.
1995	20/06/1995	1997; 2001; 2005						Submitted to the Speaker by the Commissioner on 14/09/2007. Approved by Privy Council on 23/11/1995. Became law on 07/12/1995.
1982	27/10/1982	1983; 1987; 1992
1970	10/06/1969	Feb 1974; Oct 1974; 1979						Submitted to the Speaker by the Commissioner on 10/06/1969. Approved by Privy Council on 11/11/1970. Became law on 25/11/1970.
1954	10/11/1954	1948 boundaries retained unchanged						Submitted to the Speaker by the Commissioner on 10/11/1954.
1948	04/09/1947	1950; 1951; 1955; 1959; 1964; 1966; 1970						Submitted to the Speaker by the Commissioner on 04/09/1947.
1920	23/12/1920	1922; 1923; 1924; 1929; 1931; 1935; 1945						Approved on 23/12/1920. Became law on 03/05/1921.
1918	27/11/1917	1918						Submitted to the Speaker by the Commissioner on 27/11/1917.
1885		1885; 1886; 1892; 1895; 1900; 1906; Jan 1910; Dec 1910;

Local Government Political Boundaries, Final Recommendations (1972)