How To Object
An enquiry by the Quarterlands Group into an unexplained change to the name of the Lagan Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty has taken an unexpected turn. On the same day that DAERA confirmed it did not authorise the change and that Northern Ireland’s AONBs remain AONBs, we discovered that Apple Maps is still displaying “Lagan Valley National Landscape”.
During 2024, the Quarterlands Group noticed something unusual on Google Maps. The familiar Lagan Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) was being displayed as “Lagan Valley National Landscape”.
This mattered because “National Landscape” was not simply a new description we had encountered locally. In November 2023, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in England adopted the new National Landscapes identity. Lagan Valley, however, is in Northern Ireland.
Google subsequently reverted the name to Lagan Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, but that left a fairly obvious question:
Why had the name changed in the first place?
We asked DAERA
Quarterlands submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) seeking recorded information relating to the use, consideration, adoption or subsequent discontinuation of the term “Lagan Valley National Landscape”.
You can read the original request and the correspondence with DAERA here:
Read the Quarterlands Freedom of Information request and DAERA correspondence on WhatDoTheyKnow
Our initial request did not establish why the change had happened. We therefore went back to DAERA and asked for clarification.
On 27 August 2026, DAERA provided a further response.
Read DAERA’s latest response on WhatDoTheyKnow
The Department confirmed that the legal designation remains Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and that Northern Ireland’s AONBs continue to be branded as AONBs.
More significantly, DAERA told us that it had not been engaged by Google and had not been involved in any background process or authorisation for the change.
DAERA suggested that Google may have interpreted the National Landscapes rebranding as applying to AONBs across the UK and that somebody may subsequently have used Google’s editing system to have the name corrected.
However, this was an explanation offered by the Department rather than an identified chain of events.
DAERA itself remains unclear about why the change occurred.
Then we looked at Apple Maps
Following DAERA’s response, we checked another major mapping service.
And there it was.
As of 27 August 2026, Apple Maps is displaying “Lagan Valley National Landscape”.
View the Lagan Valley listing on Apple Maps
The name appears directly on Apple’s map of the Lagan Valley.
Perhaps even more strikingly, the associated listing provides DAERA’s website and contact details, despite DAERA having confirmed that the protected landscape remains an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Apple Maps displaying “Lagan Valley National Landscape”, screenshot captured by the Quarterlands Group on 27 August 2026.
That raises a rather different question.
If Google Maps previously displayed “Lagan Valley National Landscape”, and Apple Maps is still displaying it, was this simply an isolated Google Maps error?
Or has the same description entered more than one mapping system through another source?
At present, we don’t know.
There may be a perfectly straightforward explanation. Major mapping services draw information from numerous datasets, mapping partners and user contributions, and information can propagate between systems in unexpected ways.
But for a protected landscape, the provenance of that information matters.
Why does this matter?
This isn’t simply an argument about words on a map.
The Lagan Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is a formally designated protected landscape. Its name, designation and the public understanding of that designation matter, particularly when decisions are being made about development within it.
Online mapping services are also enormously influential. For many people, Google Maps or Apple Maps will be their first encounter with the name and status of a landscape.
If an official designation is being represented differently by major mapping platforms, it is reasonable to ask where that information originated and why.
DAERA has now confirmed something important: the Department didn’t change the designation and didn’t authorise Google to change its name.
The appearance of the same terminology on Apple Maps therefore makes the original question more, rather than less, interesting.
An unanswered question remains
What DAERA’s response does establish is that the Department did not authorise the change and that the legal designation remains Lagan Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
What it does not establish is where the alternative name came from.
The term “National Landscape” has a particular history. In 2019, the Glover Review of England’s National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty recommended bringing National Parks and AONBs together as a stronger family of protected landscapes and proposed that the AONB title should be replaced by “National Landscapes”. The review also proposed strengthening AONBs, including giving them a greater voice in relation to development.
Crucially, however, the Glover Review applied to England. It was not a review of Northern Ireland’s protected landscapes.
Read the Glover Review and its findings on GOV.UK
Some of the review’s recommendations subsequently fed into wider changes to the way protected landscapes are approached in England. The adoption of the National Landscape name did not itself create a new legal designation, but it formed part of a much broader programme intended to strengthen the role, management and ambitions of England’s protected landscapes.
Northern Ireland’s Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty were not part of that process and remain within Northern Ireland’s own legislative and policy framework.
That is why the appearance of “Lagan Valley National Landscape” is worth questioning. It appeared on Google Maps and continues to appear on Apple Maps, despite DAERA confirming that Lagan Valley remains an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and that the Department did not authorise the alternative name.
None of this suggests that words appearing on an online map changed Lagan Valley’s legal designation or its protected status. But it does associate a Northern Ireland protected landscape with terminology arising from a review and subsequent programme that applied elsewhere.
DAERA has now clarified its own position. Lagan Valley remains an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
What remains unexplained is remarkably simple:
If the authority responsible for the designation did not rename it, where did “Lagan Valley National Landscape” come from?
Previous articles in this series
Why Did “Lagan Valley National Landscape” Appear on Google Maps? pt 1
Why Did “Lagan Valley National Landscape” Appear on Google Maps? pt 2
Read the full Freedom of Information request and correspondence with DAERA
Read DAERA’s latest clarification, 27 August 2026
Read the Glover Review and its findings on GOV.UK