Living Heritage and the UK’s New Intangible Cultural Heritage Inventory

The traditions, knowledge, skills and customs that shape our communities are known as Living Heritage, or Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). These are the cultural practices passed from generation to generation that help people understand their landscape, their history and their shared identity. Living Heritage includes storytelling, music, folklore, traditional craftsmanship, social customs, and local knowledge of nature and the environment.

In 2024, the United Kingdom joined the UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. This international convention recognises the importance of protecting and celebrating living traditions that continue to evolve within communities. As part of this commitment, the UK is now creating its first Living Heritage Inventory, which will document and recognise cultural traditions that communities across the country value and wish to safeguard for future generations.

The Living Heritage Inventory is community-led. Communities of practice, groups and organisations are invited to submit their traditions for inclusion. The first submission window is currently open and will close on 27 March 2026.

For Mourne Gullion Strangford UNESCO Global Geopark, Living Heritage is an important part of how people connect with the landscape. UNESCO Global Geoparks celebrate not only internationally significant geology but also the relationship between people and place. Across Mourne Gullion Strangford, traditions linked to farming, fishing, storytelling, place names, crafts and local ecological knowledge all reflect the deep connections between communities and the landscapes they live within.

From the fishing heritage of Strangford Lough to the folklore of the Ring of Gullion and the farming traditions of the Mourne Mountains, these living traditions help tell the story of the Geopark. They demonstrate how people have understood, used and cared for these landscapes over generations.

The new Living Heritage Inventory provides an opportunity for communities to recognise and celebrate these traditions at a national level. If your community maintains a cultural practice, craft, tradition or body of knowledge that is important to local identity, you may wish to consider submitting it to the Inventory.

By identifying and sharing these traditions, communities can help ensure that the cultural knowledge connected to our landscapes continues to be valued, practised and passed on.

More information about the Living Heritage Inventory and how to submit can be found through the UK Government’s Intangible Cultural Heritage programme. Communities wishing to submit traditions during the first round should do so before 27 March 2026.