# Index UK > An illustrated index of the United Kingdom — England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — written so a person or an answer engine can cite it. Index UK publishes practical briefings and an atlas of places. It is not a government site and not a booking service. Dexter, the guide on the site, answers questions about sightseeing and about arriving from abroad, and tells readers to confirm visas, tickets and times. The four nations are England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Republic of Ireland is a separate state. The Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey are Crown Dependencies, not part of the UK. ## Places - [London](https://indexuk.com/places/london): A dozen towns that share a river and a transport card. (Greater London) - [Edinburgh](https://indexuk.com/places/edinburgh): A capital on a ridge, with a rational city at its feet. (Lothian) - [Bath](https://indexuk.com/places/bath): Roman water under a Georgian stage set. (Somerset) - [York](https://indexuk.com/places/york): Walls, snickelways, and a railway city that still feels medieval after dark. (North Yorkshire) - [The Lake District](https://indexuk.com/places/lake-district): Fells, water, and a holiday geography that fills up in July. (Cumbria) - [The Cotswolds](https://indexuk.com/places/cotswolds): Limestone villages, long views, and a coach circuit that is easy to outwalk. (Gloucestershire and neighbours) - [Cornwall](https://indexuk.com/places/cornwall): A long county of coves, pasties and a summer traffic problem. (Cornwall) - [Isle of Skye](https://indexuk.com/places/skye): Black rock, changing water, and an island that punishes a one-night stand. (Inner Hebrides) - [Cardiff](https://indexuk.com/places/cardiff): A capital on a human scale, with a castle in the middle and the sea at the end of the street. (South Wales) - [Belfast](https://indexuk.com/places/belfast): A red-brick port with a short memory in the stones and a long one in the people. (County Antrim) - [Liverpool](https://indexuk.com/places/liverpool): A maritime city with museums that punch above, and a sense of humour that gets there first. (Merseyside) - [Eryri](https://indexuk.com/places/eryri): Snowdonia by its Welsh name: slate, sharp hills, and towns that exist for more than the car park. (Gwynedd) - [Oxford](https://indexuk.com/places/oxford): A working city that happens to be built of colleges. (Oxfordshire) - [Cambridge](https://indexuk.com/places/cambridge): King’s College, the Backs, and a river that is not the whole university. (Cambridgeshire) - [Windsor](https://indexuk.com/places/windsor): The largest castle in the world still used as a house, and a town that knows it. (Berkshire) - [Durham](https://indexuk.com/places/durham): A cathedral and a castle on a river peninsula, and one of the great small cities of the north. (County Durham) - [Glasgow](https://indexuk.com/places/glasgow): Scotland’s larger city: sandstone, museums, and a humour that does not wait to be asked. (Greater Glasgow) - [St Andrews](https://indexuk.com/places/st-andrews): A ruined cathedral, an old university, and the golf that the town has decided to be famous for. (Fife) - [Whitby](https://indexuk.com/places/whitby): An abbey on a cliff, a harbour full of boats, and a town that earns its fish and chips. (North Yorkshire) - [Conwy](https://indexuk.com/places/conwy): A complete medieval town wall, a castle in the water, and a bridge that used to be the wonder. (North Wales) - [The Peak District](https://indexuk.com/places/peak-district): England’s first national park: gritstone edges, limestone dales, and cities close enough to fill the car parks. (Derbyshire and neighbours) - [Dover](https://indexuk.com/places/dover): The white cliffs, a harbour that faces France, and the shortest serious statement of the island. (Kent) - [Glenfinnan](https://indexuk.com/places/glenfinnan): A viaduct, a loch, and the monument where the Jacobite rising was raised. (The Highlands) ## Briefings - [01 How the kingdom is actually arranged](https://indexuk.com/briefings/how-the-kingdom-is-arranged): Four nations, three devolved legislatures, a shared crown, and a set of neighbours that are not in the United Kingdom at all. - [02 A first week that leaves London](https://indexuk.com/briefings/a-first-week-beyond-london): Seven days, one base in the capital and one beyond it, for someone who wants the country rather than a checklist of queues. - [03 The railway, without the folklore](https://indexuk.com/briefings/the-railway-without-folklore): How to buy a ticket, which names matter, and why the 09:12 is a better idea than a hire car for most first journeys. - [04 Parliament, the Crown, and who decides what](https://indexuk.com/briefings/parliament-crown-devolution): A short civic map: Westminster, Holyrood, the Senedd, Stormont, and a monarchy that reigns more than it rules. - [05 Weather, coast, and when to go](https://indexuk.com/briefings/weather-coast-and-when): A maritime climate with no guaranteed season, a west that is wetter, and a calendar that belongs to schools as much as to weather. - [06 Eating in four nations](https://indexuk.com/briefings/eating-in-four-nations): Not a apology for the food, and not a list of themed pubs. What people actually sit down to, and where a visitor should aim. - [07 Free museums, and what they are for](https://indexuk.com/briefings/free-museums-and-what-they-are-for): General admission is still free at the great national collections. That is a civic fact, not a loophole, and it changes how you should spend a rainy day. - [08 National parks, a working index](https://indexuk.com/briefings/national-parks-a-working-index): Fifteen national parks, none of them a wilderness in the American sense, all of them lived-in landscapes with gates, farms and weather. - [09 London without the queue](https://indexuk.com/briefings/london-without-the-queue): A capital that rewards a neighbourhood, a river and a refusal to see everything. Four days is a good start. Four hours per museum is a mistake. - [10 Scotland north of Edinburgh](https://indexuk.com/briefings/scotland-north-of-edinburgh): Edinburgh is the front door, not the house. How far to go, how not to drive it in a blur, and what the Highlands actually feel like. - [11 Wales, in the language of the place](https://indexuk.com/briefings/wales-in-its-own-language): A country of three million with its own parliament, a living Celtic language, a coal-and-choir past, and a coast that keeps going. - [12 Northern Ireland for a long weekend](https://indexuk.com/briefings/northern-ireland-long-weekend): Belfast, the coast, and a history that is not a theme. How to spend four days without pretending the Troubles were a postcard. - [13 Walking rights, and three classic routes](https://indexuk.com/briefings/walking-rights-and-three-routes): Where you may put your feet, what a right of way is, and three walks that explain more than a viewpoint car park. - [14 Sunday, pubs, and the shape of a day](https://indexuk.com/briefings/sunday-pubs-and-the-shape-of-a-day): Opening hours, the difference between a pub and a bar, and why Monday morning is a bad time to discover a town. ## Ask - [Dexter](https://indexuk.com/ask): the guide at the desk. Questions about routes, seasons, food, and travel into the UK from other countries. ## Optional - [Home](https://indexuk.com/): photographs of palaces, towers and countryside, with Dexter in the corner. - [All places](https://indexuk.com/places) - [All briefings](https://indexuk.com/briefings)