First pick
Curraghbinny Woods
Wood or forest · 380 m outside town
37 ha6.6 km of path
1 h 25 minto walk all 6.6 km of path
1.3 km north-westfrom the centre
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: TheLizardQueen · CC BY 2.074%near a park
Outdoors in Crosshaven · parks, paths & countryside
Crosshaven is on the coast
The sea makes up 44% of the area within 5 km. Parks and playing fields in Crosshaven add up to 1.2 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical Irish town has 4.1. A park or playing field is within a 5-minute walk for 74% of residents.
Near a park
74%
of residents within 400 m
Typical Irish town: 92%
Green space
1.2 ha
per 1,000 residents
Typical Irish town: 4.1 ha
Footpaths
20 km
1.2 km per km², town + 1 km
Typical Irish town: 2.1 km per km²
Protected for nature
0.4%
of the land within 5 km
Nearest: Cork Harbour SPA
Woodland
8.9%
of the town and 1 km around it
Typical Irish town: 2.7%
The sea
44%
of the area within 5 km
A coastal town
Character
What kind of outdoors town is Crosshaven?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
On the coast44% of the area within 5 km is sea.Hills with a view5 mapped viewpoints, about 42× as many per resident as the typical Irish town.Protected land nearbyCork Harbour SPA reaches the edge of Crosshaven.Less park per person1.2 ha of parks and playing fields per 1,000 residents; the typical Irish town has 4.1.
Crosshaven’s strongest suit is the sea, followed by its views. Where it falls short is park space per person.
Against other towns
How Crosshaven compares with Irish towns
Each figure against Ireland’s 321 towns and city neighbourhoods of 2,500+ (city hubs left out): the marked bar is the town’s, the line the median. Ireland has no Outdoors Grade yet: the figures are described, each against other Irish towns, and none of them counts towards the overall grade.
A park within a walk74%of residents within 400 m (a 5-minute walk)
25out of 100
Public green space1.2 haper 1,000 residents: parks, gardens, playing fields, play spaces
9out of 100
Footpaths1.2 kmper km², the town and 1 km around it
37out of 100
Protected for nature0.4%of the land within 5 km
35out of 100
Woodland8.9%of the town and 1 km around it, as mapped
92out of 100
The sea44%of the area within 5 km
96out of 100
Parks, paths and woods: OpenStreetMap; residents: CSO Census 2022 Small Areas; protected sites: NPWS; sea: CSO and ONS land outlines. A 0 means nothing is mapped.
Towns its size
Crosshaven has the 17th most footpaths per km² of 40 towns its size
The 40 Irish towns nearest in population (2,846 to 3,720 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Ballybrack (8.6 km per km²) to Gort (0.2 km per km²).
Footpath, km per km²
Crosshaven1.2
Towns its size1.1
Co. Cork towns1.8
Typical Irish town2.1
Green space, ha per 1,000 residents
Crosshaven1.2
Towns its size3.3
Co. Cork towns4.3
Typical Irish town4.1
Residents within 400 m of a park
Crosshaven74%
Towns its size85%
Co. Cork towns90%
Typical Irish town92%
Against towns its size, Crosshaven stands out most for path per km²: only 16 of the other 39 have more. It falls furthest behind on park space per resident, where 36 of the others do better.
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | The sea | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ballybrack Dublin | 8.6 | 8% | 0.2% | 36% |
| 2 | Shandon Cork | 7.3 | 1.9% | 0.9% | – |
| 3 | Ballyfermot Dublin | 6.8 | 8.7% | 0% | – |
| 4 | Cork City Centre Cork | 6.7 | 1.5% | 1.8% | – |
| 5 | Blackpool Cork | 6.6 | 3% | 1.4% | – |
| 6 | Carna Dublin | 5.4 | 1.7% | 0% | – |
| 7 | Taylor's Hill Galway | 5.1 | 1.2% | 15% | 37% |
| 8 | Togher Cork | 5 | 1.5% | 0.5% | – |
| 9 | Mayfield Cork | 4.7 | 5.3% | 3.3% | – |
| 10 | Limerick City Centre Limerick | 3.5 | 1% | 11% | – |
| 11 | Ballynanty Limerick | 2.5 | 5.7% | 12% | – |
| 12 | Rahoon Galway | 2.3 | 2.3% | 27% | 20% |
| 13 | Murrough Galway | 2.3 | 5.1% | 10% | 26% |
| 14 | Annacotty Limerick | 2 | 2% | 6.2% | – |
| 15 | Ballinacurra Limerick | 1.8 | 1.4% | 11% | – |
| 16 | Westbury Clare | 1.7 | 3.3% | 9.6% | – |
| 17 | Crosshaven Cork | 1.2 | 8.9% | 0.4% | 44% |
| 18 | Rathnew Wicklow | 1.2 | 1.3% | 3.9% | 17% |
| 19 | Cleaboy Waterford | 1.2 | 0% | 5.8% | – |
| 20 | Virginia Cavan | 1.1 | 18% | 0.2% | – |
| 21 | Enfield Meath | 1.1 | 3.9% | 0% | – |
| 22 | Bantry Cork | 1 | 4.4% | 0% | 18% |
| 23 | Cahir Tipperary | 1 | 7.5% | 3.4% | – |
| 24 | Ballina Tipperary | 0.9 | 1.8% | 4.7% | – |
| 25 | Riverstown Cork | 0.8 | 14% | 2.9% | – |
| 26 | Moate Westmeath | 0.7 | 2.4% | 2.4% | – |
| 27 | Tower Cork | 0.7 | 13% | 0% | – |
| 28 | Kingscourt Cavan | 0.7 | 12% | 0% | – |
| 29 | Newtownmountkennedy Wicklow | 0.6 | 12% | 4.9% | 6.2% |
| 30 | Muinebeag (Bagenalstown) Carlow | 0.5 | 3.9% | 2.9% | – |
| 31 | Skibbereen Cork | 0.5 | 1.7% | 1.6% | – |
| 32 | Rathangan Kildare | 0.5 | 4.5% | 0% | – |
| 33 | Kinnegad Westmeath | 0.3 | 4.5% | 4.5% | – |
| 34 | Boyle Roscommon | 0.3 | 3.2% | 0% | – |
| 35 | Bailieborough Cavan | 0.3 | 10% | 0% | – |
| 36 | Stamullen Meath | 0.3 | 1.7% | 0.5% | 12% |
| 37 | Ballinrobe Mayo | 0.3 | 0.5% | 11% | – |
| 38 | Ballyjamesduff Cavan | 0.2 | 7.6% | 0% | – |
| 39 | Clara Offaly | 0.2 | 6.1% | 6.4% | – |
| 40 | Gort Galway | 0.2 | 4.3% | 24% | – |
The map
Parks, woods, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Crosshaven’s urban area.
Green: parks, gardens, playing fields, play spaces and woods, named or not.© OpenStreetMap contributors · NPWS · Sport Ireland · CSO
Places to walk
Parks to walk in, in and around Crosshaven
The biggest is Curraghbinny Woods, 37 ha (91 acres).
Coolmore Wood
Wood or forest · 190 m outside town
31 ha
2.6 km westfrom the centre
Directionsto a point inside
Named parks, gardens, commons and woods in the town or within 400 m of it, from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL); pieces of one name that touch are one place. Sizes are the whole site; directions go to a point inside.
Close to home
7 in 10 Crosshaven residents live within a 5-minute walk of a park
Each square is 1 in 100 residents: green lives within 400 m of a public park, garden or playing field (CSO Census 2022 Small Areas against OpenStreetMap).
Within 400 m (74%)Further (26%)
Crosshaven74%
Co. Cork towns90%
Typical Irish town92%
About 900 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees.
Protected areas
Cork Harbour SPA reaches Crosshaven
Special Areas of Conservation, Special Protection Areas and Natural Heritage Areas designated by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, within 5 km of the town’s edge.
Inside Crosshaven0%
Within 5 km0.4%
Co. Cork towns1.5%
Typical Irish town1.8%
One protected site lies within 5 km of Crosshaven. Ireland’s National Parks have a block of their own on this page; much of their land also lies inside these sites.
Cork Harbour SPASpecial Protection Area (birds) · 27 km² · reaches Crosshaven
NPWS pageProtected sites: National Parks and Wildlife Service designated site boundaries (CC BY 4.0), 2026; land within 5 km from CSO Small Areas and, over the border, ONS. Overlapping sites are counted once.
National Parks
Killarney National Park is 82 km away
Ireland’s National Parks within 100 km, and the nearest always, by direction and distance from the town’s edge; circle size shows each park’s area.
National ParkThe 5 km around the town
National Park
Killarney National Park
82 km west104 km²
National Park boundaries: National Parks and Wildlife Service, generalised to 50 m (CC BY 4.0, © Government of Ireland), 2022. Distances from the town’s outline (CSO Small Areas).
Footpaths and woods
20 km of footpaths cross Crosshaven
Footways that aren’t pavements, paths, bridleways, steps and tracks open on foot, and mapped woods and forest, in the town and 1 km around it, each beside the county’s and Ireland’s typical town of 2,500+.
Footpaths
20 km
over 16.4 km² of town and the 1 km around it
Woodland
8.9%
about 1.4 km² of mapped woods
Registered trails
1
walking trails within 5 km
Km per km², town and 1 km around · mapped on OpenStreetMap
CrosshavenCo. Cork townsTypical Irish town
Footpaths1.2
01.53 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
CrosshavenCo. Cork townsTypical Irish town
Woodland8.9%
0%50%100%
Crosshaven has less footpath per km² than 63% of Irish towns and more woodland than 92% of Irish towns.
Footpaths and woods: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), Geofabrik extract, October 2026. Woods are mapped cover, private and Coillte forests included.
Footpaths & trails
One waymarked trail starts near Crosshaven
20 km of footpaths are mapped in Crosshaven and the kilometre around it, 1.2 km for every square kilometre (the typical Irish town has 2.1).
Greenway
Carrigaline to Crosshaven Greenway Walking Trail5.0 km
2 cycling or paddling trails also start within 5 km.
Trails: Sport Ireland National Trails Register (CC BY 4.0), registered trails within 5 km; footpaths: OpenStreetMap (ODbL). Coillte’s own forest trails and recreation sites aren’t included: Coillte’s terms limit its data to research or private study. Its trails on the National Trails Register are listed.
When to get out
The best walking months in Crosshaven: May to September
Met Éireann’s 1991–2020 averages for the town’s 1 km square and the daylight at its 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) | 8.3 | 9.9 | 11.7 | 13.8 | 15.6 | 16.7 | 16.2 | 14.6 | 12.6 | 10.5 | 8.7 | 7.8 |
| High (°C) | 9 | 10 | 11 | 13 | 15 | 18 | 19 | 19 | 18 | 14 | 11 | 10 |
| Rain (mm) | 109 | 83 | 81 | 71 | 69 | 71 | 76 | 85 | 81 | 115 | 113 | 122 |
May is the driest month (69 mm) and August the warmest (highs of 19 °C). Winter days are short, about 7.8 hours of daylight in December, and 122 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. The climate in Crosshaven →
The coast
The coast and bathing waters near Crosshaven
44% of the area within 5 km of Crosshaven is sea. One bathing water is within 5 km.
FountainstownGood (2025) · 2.0 km from town
beaches.ieIt isn’t rated excellent this season.
Bathing water classes: EPA, latest season (CC BY 4.0). Sea: the area outside CSO and ONS land outlines. Check today’s water quality on beaches.ie
Things to do
5 viewpoints and 1 playground
Mapped on OpenStreetMap in the town and 2 km around it; each count per resident beside Irish towns’ typical town of 2,500+. Beaches are on the coast’s list, from the EPA.
Per resident, viewpoints stand out most: Crosshaven has 41.9× as many as the typical Irish town.
Every named place, with directions
Viewpoints 5
Plus 5 viewpoints without a name on the map.
Nature reserves 1
Loughbeg Bird Reserve26 ha · 1.0 km from town
DirectionsPlaygrounds 1
Plus 1 playground without a name on the map.
Slipways 3
Torpedo Launch Rail0.0 km from town
DirectionsRoches Point1.4 km from town
DirectionsPlus 1 slipway more.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), Geofabrik extract, October 2026. Unnamed places are counted, not listed.
Next door
Next to Crosshaven
The nearest towns of 1,000+ within 20 km, coloured by the share of the land within 5 km protected for nature.
WhitegateCobhAghada-RostellanCarrigalinePassage West-MonkstownDouglasCrosshaven
Under 1%1–10%10–25%25–50%50%+
| Town | Near a park | Green space, ha per 1,000 | Paths (km/km²) | Protected within 5 km |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crosshaven | 74% | 1.2 | 1.2 | 0.4% |
| Whitegate 5.6 km | 100% | 1.3 | 0.4 | 2.4% |
| Cobh 5.9 km | 83% | 0.8 | 0.8 | 13% |
| Aghada-Rostellan 6.8 km | 58% | 66.3 | 0.4 | 6.2% |
| Carrigaline 7.3 km | 73% | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.2% |
| Passage West-Monkstown 8.1 km | 70% | 1.4 | 1.2 | 10% |
| Douglas 12 km | 57% | 2.5 | 1.7 | 5% |
In Whitegate, 100% of residents live within a 5-minute walk of a park, more than here. Aghada-Rostellan and Douglas have at least twice Crosshaven’s green space per resident.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Green space nearby. The share of residents (CSO Small Areas, by where people live) within 400 m of a park, garden, common or playing field mapped on OpenStreetMap. Mapping is uneven: a town whose parks nobody has mapped looks greyer than it is.
- Protected areas. Land in a Special Area of Conservation, Special Protection Area or Natural Heritage Area within 5 km, overlaps counted once. Protected for nature doesn’t always mean open to walkers.
- Footpaths and hiking routes. Footways that aren’t pavements, paths, bridleways, steps and tracks open on foot, in the town and 1 km around it, from OpenStreetMap. Trails are the registered ones within 5 km; a trail often follows mapped paths, so the two aren’t added.
- Woodland. Woods and forest as OpenStreetMap maps them, private and Coillte forests included: mapped cover, not access.
- No grade yet. Ireland’s grades don’t include the outdoors yet: these figures describe the town and stand beside the median Irish town.
Questions about the outdoors in Crosshaven
What is the biggest park in Crosshaven?
Soldiers Gardens, 0.2 ha (0 acres). 1 named park, garden or playing field is in the town or within 400 m of it.
Is there protected countryside near Crosshaven?
One protected site lies within 5 km, though it covers under 1% of the land.
What are the best walks near Crosshaven?
One waymarked trail starts within 5 km: the Carrigaline to Crosshaven Greenway Walking Trail.
Where can you swim near Crosshaven?
The nearest bathing water is Fountainstown, 2.0 km from town: Good (2025). Check beaches.ie before swimming: a notice can close a beach for the day.
How many people in Crosshaven live near a park?
74% of residents live within 400 m, about a 5-minute walk, of a park or playing field; in the typical Irish town it is 92%.
When is the best time of year for walking in Crosshaven?
On the town’s 1991–2020 averages and its daylight: May to September, when days are long, highs reach 15 °C and rain is light for the place.
Is Crosshaven near a National Park?
The nearest of Ireland’s six National Parks is Killarney National Park, 82 km west of the town’s edge; it covers about 104 km².
What is there to do outdoors around Crosshaven?
Within 2 km, OpenStreetMap maps 5 viewpoints and 1 nature reserve; the named ones are listed under Things to do, with directions.
Sources
Where Crosshaven’s outdoors figures come from
- Parks, woods and paths. OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL): parks, woods and footpaths, Geofabrik extract, October 2026
- Protected sites. National Parks and Wildlife Service: designated sites (SAC, SPA, NHA), 2026
- Trails. Sport Ireland: National Trails Register, 2026
- Residents. CSO: Census 2022 Small Areas (residents)
- National Parks. National Parks and Wildlife Service: National Park boundaries, generalised to 50 m (CC BY 4.0), 2022
- Things to do. OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL): viewpoints, hills, waterfalls, nature reserves, picnic sites, playgrounds, campsites and waymarked walks, Geofabrik extract, October 2026
- Bathing water. EPA: bathing water quality, 2025 season
- Weather. Met Éireann: 1991–2020 averages (Copyright Met Éireann)
Protected sites: National Parks and Wildlife Service (CC BY 4.0). Trails: Sport Ireland National Trails Register (CC BY 4.0). Bathing water: EPA (CC BY 4.0). Parks, woods and paths: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Not on this page yet: Coillte’s forest trails (its terms) and bike routes.
Contains Central Statistics Office (CSO) data, Census 2022, and Tailte Éireann boundaries (CSO Urban Areas, Small Areas, local electoral areas, constituencies), under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).