First pick
Parc du château de la Bretesche
Park or garden
179 ha
6.3 km southfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Stéphane Batigne · CC BY-SA 3.014%of the land protected
Outdoors in Saint-Dolay · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Parks, woods and footpaths in Saint-Dolay
26 km of footpaths cross Saint-Dolay (0.5 km per km²). Protected areas cover 14% of Saint-Dolay’s land. 18% of Saint-Dolay is mapped woodland. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
14%
of the commune’s land
Compared town: 0.1%
Woodland
18%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
26 km
0.5 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
12 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Green space nearby
94%
of residents within 800 m of a park or wood
Compared town: 100%
The sea
17 km
from the town center to the coast
Throughout this page, the Morbihan median and the France median are the median of compared communes (those with an overall grade), each figure its own median.
Against French towns
How Saint-Dolay compares with French towns
Each figure against the 3,798 compared French towns (communes with an overall grade): the marked bar is the town’s, the line the median. Described, not graded.
Protected areas14%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
75out of 100
Woodland18%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
59out of 100
Footpaths0.5 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
15out of 100
Hiking routes0.2 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
42out of 100
Green space nearby94%Share of residents within 800 m of a mapped park or wood
12out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Saint-Dolay has the 9th fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (2,615 to 2,674 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Couzon-au-Mont-d'Or (7.2 km per km²) to Haspres (0.2 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Couzon-au-Mont-d'Or Rhône | 7.2 | 42% | 0% | 261 km |
| 2 | Guilvinec Finistère | 6.2 | 0.8% | 2.7% | On it |
| 3 | La Richardais Ille-et-Vilaine | 3.4 | 9.9% | 100% | On it |
| 4 | Gometz-le-Châtel Essonne | 2.5 | 24% | 0.2% | 155 km |
| 5 | Morzine Haute-Savoie | 2.4 | 33% | 36% | 274 km |
| 6 | Champlan Essonne | 2.2 | 14% | 0% | 161 km |
| 7 | Roissy-en-France Val-d'Oise | 2.1 | 4.3% | 0% | 144 km |
| 8 | Dorlisheim Bas-Rhin | 2.1 | 12% | 0% | 442 km |
| 9 | Les Vans Ardèche | 1.8 | 46% | 78% | 94 km |
| 10 | Coquelles Pas-de-Calais | 1.8 | 1.7% | 0.7% | 2.8 km |
| 11 | Le Bourg-d'Oisans Isère | 1.7 | 33% | 100% | 180 km |
| 12 | Vinassan Aude | 1.7 | 20% | 65% | 9.2 km |
| 13 | Souchez Pas-de-Calais | 1.7 | 9% | 0% | 75 km |
| 14 | Râches Nord | 1.5 | 25% | 99% | 86 km |
| 15 | Saint-Yorre Allier | 1.4 | 23% | 15% | 283 km |
| 16 | Longeville-sur-Mer Vendée | 1.3 | 18% | 100% | On it |
| 17 | Foug Meurthe-et-Moselle | 1.3 | 73% | 1.2% | 342 km |
| 18 | Auboué Meurthe-et-Moselle | 1.2 | 21% | 0% | 311 km |
| 19 | Cauffry Oise | 1.2 | 17% | 0% | 110 km |
| 20 | Châteauneuf-en-Thymerais Eure-et-Loir | 1.2 | 57% | 62% | 115 km |
| 21 | Taden Côtes-d'Armor | 1.1 | 19% | 100% | 3.6 km |
| 22 | La Broque Bas-Rhin | 1.1 | 79% | 8% | 432 km |
| 23 | Villaines-la-Juhel Mayenne | 1 | 0.4% | 0% | 85 km |
| 24 | Vendres Hérault | 1 | 1.9% | 60% | On it |
| 25 | Montréjeau Haute-Garonne | 0.9 | 5.7% | 2.6% | 175 km |
| 26 | Villeneuve-Saint-Germain Aisne | 0.8 | 11% | 0% | 150 km |
| 27 | Marpent Nord | 0.7 | 15% | 0% | 133 km |
| 28 | Le Bugue Dordogne | 0.7 | 53% | 5.1% | 120 km |
| 29 | Brienne-le-Château Aube | 0.6 | 40% | 100% | 287 km |
| 30 | Soual Tarn | 0.6 | 1.4% | 0% | 95 km |
| 31 | Le Thoronet Var | 0.6 | 49% | 31% | 29 km |
| 32 | Rieux-Volvestre Haute-Garonne | 0.6 | 6.6% | 7% | 154 km |
| 33 | Saint-Dolay Morbihan | 0.5 | 18% | 14% | 17 km |
| 34 | Toury Eure-et-Loir | 0.5 | 0.8% | 0% | 180 km |
| 35 | Beychac-et-Caillau Gironde | 0.4 | 16% | 4.7% | 22 km |
| 36 | Montayral Lot-et-Garonne | 0.4 | 10% | 8.3% | 137 km |
| 37 | Cadillac-sur-Garonne Gironde | 0.3 | 7.2% | 5.4% | 47 km |
| 38 | Noyers-sur-Cher Loir-et-Cher | 0.3 | 34% | 0.6% | 221 km |
| 39 | Criquetot-l'Esneval Seine-Maritime | 0.3 | 1.2% | 0% | 8.3 km |
| 40 | Ailly-sur-Noye Somme | 0.2 | 22% | 0% | 68 km |
| 41 | Haspres Nord | 0.2 | 1.8% | 0% | 111 km |
The map
Parks, woods, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park or wood. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is the commune’s boundary.
Green: parks, gardens and woods mapped on OpenStreetMap, named or not.© OpenStreetMap contributors · INPN / PatriNat · IGN
Places to walk
Parks and woods to walk in, in and around Saint-Dolay
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Parc du château de la Bretesche leads, at 179 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Forêt de la Bretesche - Missillac
Wood or forest
203 ha
4.2 km south-westfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Close to home
9 in 10 residents of Saint-Dolay live within 800 m of a park or wood
Each square is 1 resident in 100: in green, those within 800 m, as the crow flies, of a mapped park, garden or woodland edge (INSEE’s 200 m population grid against OpenStreetMap).
94% within 800 m5.7% further
Residents within 800 m of green space · share of residents
Saint-DolayMorbihan medianFrance median
Within 800 m94%
0%50%100%
About 100 residents live further away. The distance is a straight line to the edge of a mapped park or wood, not a walk to a gate, and a wood can be private.
Protected areas
14% of Saint-Dolay lies in protected areas
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Regional nature park
Brière Regional Nature Park
2.4 km from the town center
Natura 2000 site
Marais de Vilaine
14% of the commune1.1 km from the center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area14%
Natura 2000 site14%
Designations overlap (a regional park can hold a Natura 2000 site), so the rows don’t add up; the first counts each piece of land once.
14% of Saint-Dolay’s land is protected, more than in 75% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Morbihan has 4.4%. A regional nature park is a charter between communes to look after a landscape: farming, building and hunting go on inside it.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
Footpaths and woods
26 km of footpaths and 12 km of hiking routes cross Saint-Dolay
Paths, bridleways, steps and tracks open on foot, and waymarked hiking routes, mapped on OpenStreetMap inside the commune; woods are mapped forest and woodland, private woods included.
Footpaths
26 km
0.5 km per km²
Hiking routes
12 km
waymarked: 0.2 km per km²
Woodland
18%
about 8.9 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
Saint-DolayMorbihan medianFrance median
Footpaths0.5
Hiking routes0.2
012 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
Saint-DolayMorbihan medianFrance median
Woodland18%
0%50%100%
That is less than in 85% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 59% of compared French towns. Hiking routes often follow paths and lanes already counted, so the two lengths overlap: don’t add them.
A named hiking route within 2 km
Other named walk
Du Mont-Saint-Michel à La Grande Brière - partie 818 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Saint-Dolay: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Arzal, 16 km away, and the daylight at the town’s latitude. Outlined months have long days, highs of 15 to 30 °C and little rain for the place.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daylight (h) | 8.8 | 10.2 | 11.8 | 13.6 | 15.1 | 15.9 | 15.6 | 14.2 | 12.5 | 10.7 | 9.2 | 8.5 |
| High (°C) | 9 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 19 | 22 | 24 | 24 | 21 | 17 | 13 | 10 |
| Rain (mm) | 97 | 76 | 64 | 66 | 63 | 49 | 47 | 55 | 66 | 93 | 104 | 107 |
July is the driest month (47 mm) and August the warmest (highs of 24 °C). 107 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 28 nights a year. The climate in Saint-Dolay →
Neighbors
Next to Saint-Dolay
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
MissillacNivillacRieuxSaint-Gildas-des-BoisAllaireLa Chapelle-des-MaraisSaint-Dolay
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) | Coast |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Dolay | 14% | 18% | 0.5 | 17 km |
| Missillac 5,709 · 7 km | 100% | 19% | 0 | 16 km |
| Nivillac 4,951 · 7.6 km | 3.7% | 9.4% | 0.5 | 9.4 km |
| Rieux 2,856 · 8.3 km | 28% | 12% | 2 | 23 km |
| Saint-Gildas-des-Bois 3,860 · 9.9 km | 3.5% | 12% | 0.3 | 25 km |
| Allaire 3,955 · 11 km | 6.3% | 17% | 1.2 | 22 km |
| La Chapelle-des-Marais 4,492 · 12 km | 100% | 4.4% | 0.8 | 12 km |
Missillac, Rieux and La Chapelle-des-Marais have at least twice as much protected land.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Protected areas. National-park cores, national parks’ outer areas, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites, from INPN. A national park’s core is strictly protected; its outer area and a regional park are charters between communes, not bans. Designations overlap, so the total counts each piece of land once.
- Woodland. Forest and woods as OpenStreetMap maps them, private woods included: woods nobody has mapped are missing, and a mapped wood isn’t necessarily open to walkers.
- Footpaths and hiking routes. Footpaths, bridleways, steps and tracks open on foot, then waymarked hiking routes (GR and others) measured apart. A route often follows a path or lane already counted: the two overlap. Paths nobody has mapped are missing.
- Green space nearby. The share of residents (INSEE’s 200 m grid) within 800 m, as the crow flies, of a mapped park, garden or wood edge. It measures nearness, not a way in. Guadeloupe and French Guiana have no grid: their pages say whether the town center is within 800 m.
- The coast. The straight-line distance from the town center to OpenStreetMap’s coastline, which follows the tide line into estuaries. A commune is on the coast when the coastline crosses its boundary.
- No grade yet. U.S. and UK towns have an Outdoors Grade; French towns don’t yet. Each figure is set beside the median of compared communes (those with an overall grade) in the département and in France, each figure its own median.
Questions about the outdoors in Saint-Dolay
Is Saint-Dolay in a national or regional nature park?
No, but 14% of its land is in a nature reserve or a Natura 2000 site.
Are there good walks in Saint-Dolay?
OpenStreetMap maps 26 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 0.5 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 12 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Saint-Dolay is woodland?
18% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Saint-Dolay near the sea?
No: the coast is 17 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Saint-Dolay?
April to September: long days, mild highs and little rain, from Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at the nearest suitable station.
Why is there no Outdoors Grade for French towns?
TownRatings grades the outdoors in the U.S. and the UK; the French figures are new and not graded yet. This page sets each one beside the median compared French town instead.
Sources: INPN / PatriNat (protected areas 2026, Natura 2000 2024) · © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL (paths, hiking routes, woods, coast, gardens) · INSEE, Filosofi 2021 200 m grid (residents) · IGN Admin Express (boundaries) · Météo-France normals 1991–2020 · Medians and percentiles: TownRatings, over compared French towns, updated November 8, 2026. Under the Licence Ouverte / Open Licence 2.0 (Etalab).
Contains public sector information under the Licence Ouverte / Open Licence 2.0 (Etalab): INSEE, DGFiP, the Interior Ministry’s statistics service (SSMSI), the Ministry of Education (DEPP), the Health Ministry’s statistics service (DREES) and the Housing Ministry (Carte des loyers). Commune boundaries: IGN Admin Express.