Introducing Tags: A New Way to Discover Historic Places

We've added a new feature to Visit History: tags. Tags let you and other users attach descriptive labels to historic places, making it easier to find exactly what you're looking for.

What Are Tags?

Tags are short labels that describe a place — things like Castle, Dog Friendly, Roman, Free Parking, or Wheelchair Accessible. They appear as coloured chips on a place's detail page, added by the community of Visit History users.

The idea is simple: a single historic site can mean very different things to different visitors. A medieval abbey is a ruin, a pilgrimage site, a Norman structure, and possibly a great picnic spot all at once. Tags let that information accumulate over time as more people visit and contribute.

Tag chips shown on a place detail page.

Six Tag Categories

Tags are grouped into six categories, each with its own colour:

• Period — the era the site is associated with: Prehistoric, Roman, Medieval, Tudor, Georgian, and more
• Type — what kind of place it is: Castle, Abbey, Hillfort, Walled Garden, Lighthouse, and more
• Practical — useful visitor information: Free Parking, Café On Site, EV Charging, Dogs Welcome
• Accessibility — how accessible the site is: Wheelchair Accessible, Level Access, Accessible Toilets
• Feature — what makes the site distinctive: Hilltop Views, Coastal, Ruin, Underground, Living History Events
• Affiliation — historic figures or organisations connected to the site: Henry VIII, English Civil War, Capability Brown, Knight Templar

Adding Tags

When you view any place or heritage listing in Visit History, you'll see a + Add button next to the tag chips. Tap it to open the tag picker, browse by category, and select any tags you think apply. Your selections are saved immediately.

You'll also be prompted to tag a place right after you log a visit — a quick way to contribute while the site is fresh in your mind.

The tag picker, with tags grouped by category.

We Need Your Help

Tags only become powerful when there are enough of them. A single tag on a single site isn't much use — but once hundreds of places have been tagged by the community, it opens up a completely different way to explore. Imagine being able to search for every hilltop hillfort near you, or every free-entry site with café on site, or every Roman monument in a county.

That kind of filtering is built and ready to go. We're just waiting for the tags to accumulate.

So if you visit a site and take 30 seconds to add a few tags, you're not just describing that one place — you're contributing to something that will eventually make the whole app more useful for everyone.

You'll be prompted to add tags right after logging a visit.

Suggesting New Tags

If you think a tag is missing, you can suggest it. In the tag picker, there's a "Suggest a new tag" link at the bottom. Type the name and category you have in mind and submit it. Suggestions are reviewed before going live, but if there's a clear gap in the taxonomy we'll add it.

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Tags are live now for all places and NHLE listings in England and Wales. The more the community contributes, the more powerful they become — if you have feedback or think of a tag category we're missing, let us know.