The UK According to Brits: Where the Nation Thinks Famous Landmarks Are Located

We ran a survey to find out where people think the UK’s most famous landmarks are located, and the results may surprise you!

31st March 2022

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The UK According to Brits: Where the Nation Thinks Famous Landmarks Are Located

We asked 2,000 UK adults to tell us where they think some of the UK’s most famous landmarks are located, and the results may surprise you…
Almost half (46%) of those we surveyed have no idea where Stonehenge is, despite it being one of the world’s most famous prehistoric landmarks having been built around 5,000 years ago.
Over 10 million people in the UK can’t place London’s most iconic landmarks, with 15% not knowing that Buckingham Palace or Big Ben are in the capital.
One in ten UK adults aren’t aware that Tower Bridge is in London, either.

Our landmark study

Everyone loves a day out, and thanks to the huge number of exciting landmarks up and down our country, there’s always somewhere new to visit.

But while lots of people look forward to exploring somewhere new, it seems that many of us would struggle to find many of these top attractions without the help of a sat nav! In fact, we discovered that more than 22,500 people ask Google where the UK’s top landmarks can be found each month – that’s 270,000 a year!

To find out more about the nation’s geography knowledge, we asked 2,000 UK adults to tell us where they think Britain's top landmarks are located, and there were some surprising results.

Where does the nation think our most famous landmarks are?

Our map marks where some of the UK’s most popular landmarks actually are, including Sherwood Forest, London’s iconic Big Ben and the Angel of the North.

But, taking into consideration the answers from our survey, we’ve re-plotted these landmarks according to where people thought they were.

The queen’s most famous residence, Buckingham Palace, was shifted up north to England’s former Viking capital, York. Over 15,600 people look up where the palace is every year, showing that the Royal Family’s home might be well known but its location isn’t! Meanwhile, Liverpool’s iconic Royal Albert Dock migrated south to London.

Sherwood Forest is the landmark outside of London that the majority of those we polled successfully located, with 74% correctly placing it in Nottingham. With around 350,000 people visiting the forest every year, it may come as no surprise that this well-loved landmark’s location is widely known. However, while a huge majority (84%) of Notts residents surveyed knew that Sherwood Forest was local to them, one in five (16%) had no clue!

Despite attracting nearly as many visitors as Buckingham Palace each year, only one in four (39%) know that the National Football Museum is in Manchester, with 30% believing it to be in London.

Meanwhile, just over half of the nation knows that the Giant’s Causeway, which is said to have been formed between 50 and 60 million years ago, is located in Northern Ireland. More than one in twenty (6%) placed it 307 miles away in Bristol, instead.

London Calling

Before the pandemic, London’s attractions saw over 7.44 million visits. So, it’s surprising that over 10 million (15%) can’t place the UK capital’s most iconic landmarks. Just over two million UK adults (3%) placed Buckingham Palace up north in County Durham, instead. On top of this, one in fifty (2%) placed Big Ben as being 106 miles away from London, in Bristol. And it seems that some London’s locals may need to brush up on their local knowledge as one in five (20%) Londoners are unaware that Tower Bridge and Big Ben are right on their doorstep.

Age does equal wisdom... at least when it comes to geography

Millennials proved to be the least savvy age group in our survey, while those over 65 had the best knowledge of where UK landmarks are located.

Despite it being Edinburgh Old Town’s main street, only a quarter (26%) of 25–34-year-olds know where The Royal Mile is. This is compared to six in 10 (58%) over 65s. Furthermore, only 15% of millennials know where Somerset’s famous Cheddar Gorge is. In contrast, 64% of over 65’s correctly located it.

Despite the Eden Project having over 850,000 visitors every year and being a major ecological attraction, less than a third (30%) of millennials know that it is in Cornwall.

The men take home the trophy

Of those we surveyed, men gave more correct answers than women to our survey, only just gaining an advantage in their ability to identify key landmark’s locations. 86% of men correctly identified Tower Bridge as being in London, a little more than 83% of women.

The Angel of the North is seen by 33,000,000 motorists every year as they pass the attraction on the A1, and yet less than half (48%) of women correctly guessed it was in Tyne and Wear. In comparison, 56% of men know where the northern icon can be found. As well as this, 6 out of 10 men (58%) know that Stonehenge is in Wiltshire compared to just half of women.

About our research

We surveyed 2,000 UK adults in February 2022 via The Leadership Factor. The search data figures were taken from Google Keyword Planner in February 2022. The figures relate to average monthly UK searches across the last 12 months.

Sources and Methodology

*Figure of 10 million calculated using 15% of the most up-to-date ONS UK population figure, released June 2021:

Survey of 2,000 UK adults completed 15th February 2022. Search data taken from Google Keyword Planner in February 2022. Figures related to average monthly UK searches across the last 12 months.

Search Query	Average monthly searches
where is stonehenge	8100
where is snowdon	3600
where is the angel of the north	1600
where is balmoral castle	1300
where is buckingham palace	1300
where is kew gardens	1300
where is the eden project	1300
where is cheddar gorge	1000
where is big ben	720
where is lands end	720
where is sherwood forest	480
where is giant's causeway	480
where is arthur's seat	210
where is clifton suspension bridge	170
where is tower bridge	110
where is the royal mile	50
where is National Football Museum	40
where is royal albert dock	40