Merestone: SSSI & Habitat Map
Protected sites & desk study
Free · In-App Purchases · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.
UK and Ireland: SSSI, SAC, SPA, Ramsar, ancient woodland, flood zones and priority habitats. Search a radius, export a dated PDF. Works with no signal.
Merestone is a desk-study map for ecologists and planners in the UK. Drop a pin and set a radius. The designated sites and planning constraints inside it come back in order of distance, with a dated PDF for the appendix.
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are one purchase. Ireland is in the same app.
ON THE MAP
From Natural England, NatureScot, Natural Resources Wales, DAERA, Historic England, Historic Environment Scotland, Cadw, the Environment Agency, SEPA and the local authorities' planning data.
• SSSI, with unit condition and the date assessed, and SSSI Impact Risk Zones
• ASSI, SAC, SPA, Ramsar, national and local nature reserves
• National Parks, National Landscapes (AONB), National Scenic Areas, open access land
• Ancient woodland and the Priority Habitat Inventory
• Scheduled monuments, listed buildings, registered parks, battlefields, World Heritage Sites
• Flood Zones 2 and 3 in England and Wales. SEPA flood likelihood in Scotland
• England only: Green Belt, conservation areas, TPOs, nutrient neutrality catchments, brownfield land, agricultural land classification, Local Nature Recovery Strategy areas
Grid references are OS National Grid in Great Britain, Irish Grid or ITM in Northern Ireland.
BIODIVERSITY NET GAIN
For BNG work in England.
• Registered gain sites: the official biodiversity gain sites register, land legally secured for off-site BNG units, as a dated snapshot with each site linked to its live register entry.
• A one-tap Net gain preset turns on the National Habitat Network, Priority Habitat Inventory, LNRS areas, gain sites, ancient woodland, open mosaic habitat, agricultural land classification, and Environmental and Countryside Stewardship agreements.
• With gain sites on and a search in England, the PDF adds a section with the nearest registered gain sites, distance and bearing. Off unless you turn it on.
RADIUS SEARCH
From 250 m to 20 km. Results in order of distance, anything on site flagged. Each distance is to the nearest edge of the designation, with a bearing.
THE PDF
Dated, with sources: a site plan, then each record with distance, direction, source and publisher date. Empty layers are listed, and so are layers not searched, with the reason. Your project reference goes at the top and into the filename.
RECORD DETAIL
Tap a feature for its attributes, grid reference, a link to the official record and a short note on what it means for planning. Each record shows the date its data was published, or says that there is none.
OFFLINE
Download a layer or a whole country. Online, Merestone uses live data. Offline it uses the download, and the screen and the report say which was used.
IRELAND
NPWS, the EPA, the Geological Survey of Ireland and the National Monuments Service: SAC, SPA, NHA and proposed NHA, national parks and nature reserves, Ramsar, EPA water, geology and soils, archaeology and architectural heritage, and the National Trails Register. Grid references are Irish Transverse Mercator.
FRANCE, SPAIN AND PORTUGAL
Sold separately, each from its own country's agencies, in its own language and grid, with the same search and report.
BUYING
• The UK is one purchase, on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch. Pay once. Nothing renews.
• Ireland, France, Spain and Portugal are separate one-off purchases, or one subscription covers them all, including any added later. One-offs stay on sale either way.
• No account. No charge per report.
• Free: the statutory core on the map, with a 250 m search.
DATA AND LIMITS
Open government data under OGL v3.0 or CC BY 4.0; the PDF prints each publisher's attribution.
Not included: Local Wildlife Sites and species records (not open data; pair with a LERC search). TPOs and conservation areas are as published by each authority. No flood layer for Northern Ireland yet.
Check the official record before you rely on a boundary.
Ratings & Reviews
- This app has not received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
France is here. Every environmental and planning designation in metropolitan France and Corsica, from the MNHN, the IGN, the Geoportail de l'urbanisme, Georisques, the Sandre and the OFB, in French.
The desk-study PDF is better everywhere. The map now draws the designations it found, with a key that matches it. A new summary lists the nearest record in each layer, so nothing important is buried. Sections are bookmarked, the grid is named, and the small print is readable in print.
Apple Watch now shows the layers you have paid for, not just the free ones.
The developer, LEON NELIO FIGUEIRA, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Provider
- LEON NELIO FIGUEIRA
- Size
- 17.1 MB
- Category
- Reference
- Compatibility
Requires iOS 17.0 or later.
- iPhone
Requires iOS 17.0 or later. - iPad
Requires iPadOS 17.0 or later. - Mac
Requires macOS 14.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later. - Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 1.0 or later. - Apple Watch
Requires watchOS 10.0 or later.
- iPhone
- Languages
English and 3 more
- English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
- Age Rating
4+
- 4+
- In-App Purchases
Yes
- Worldwide Yearly £59.99
- Worldwide Quarterly £22.99
- Worldwide Monthly £8.99
- Merestone Pro Iberia £29.99
- Merestone Pro Portugal £17.99
- Merestone Pro Spain £22.99
- Merestone Pro Ireland £24.99
- 7 days of Pro — free gift £0.00
- Merestone Pro £24.99
- Copyright
- © 2026 Leon Nelio Figueira
