Britain and Ireland's National Parks in the Order They Were Founded, From Killarney in 1932 to the South Downs in 2010

Ireland's first national park, created in 1932 when the Muckross Estate was donated to the Irish Free State. It began at about 43 square kilometers and has grown to about 103, and it holds the only red deer herd on mainland Ireland.

Established in 1952, it is the only national park in the United Kingdom made up largely of coastal landscape. It takes in 420 kilometers of coastline, and the islands of Grassholm, Skomer and Skokholm are important seabird breeding sites.

Designated in 1952 under the same 1949 act as Pembrokeshire, it covers about 1,436 square kilometers. About 440 square kilometers of it is heather moorland, the largest expanse in the United Kingdom.

First designated in 1954, it was extended westward in 2016 in a change that increased its area by nearly a quarter, to about 2,178 square kilometers. Whernside, at 736 meters, is its highest point.

Opened to the public in 1980 in County Galway, it covers about 2,000 hectares of mountains, bogs, heaths and forests, with Benbaun rising to 729 meters. Its blanket bog supports merlin falcons and the native Connemara pony.

Established in the 1980s in County Donegal, it is the second largest national park in Ireland at about 170 square kilometers. It holds Glenveagh Castle and its gardens, the largest red deer population in Ireland and a reintroduced population of golden eagles.

Opened in 1991 in County Clare, it is the smallest of Ireland's eight national parks at about 15 square kilometers. It forms only a small part of the wider Burren karst landscape, which is part of the Burren and Cliffs of Moher Geopark.

Opened in 1991 after a 1988 announcement by the Taoiseach, and since expanded in 2009 and 2016 to about 205 square kilometers. It contains Glendalough, with its early medieval monastic remains associated with Saint Kevin.

Created in 1998 as Ballycroy National Park, then enlarged and renamed Wild Nephin in 2018. It protects one of the largest expanses of blanket bog in Europe and became Ireland's first International Dark Sky Park in 2016.

Established in 2002 as the first of two national parks created by the Scottish Parliament, the Cairngorms being the second. It sits on the Highland Boundary Fault, contains 21 Munro peaks and surrounds Loch Lomond, the largest lake in Great Britain by surface area.

Designated in 2010 as the newest national park in England, it stretches roughly 140 kilometers from Winchester to Eastbourne. The South Downs Way is the only National Trail that lies entirely within a national park's boundaries.