First pick
John O'Callaghan Park
Park or garden
5.4 ha1.2 km of path
15 minto walk all 1.2 km of path
0.9 km southfrom the centre
Directionsto a point inside
70%near a park
Outdoors in Riverstown · parks, paths & countryside
Riverstown is more wooded than 9 in 10 Irish towns
Mapped woodland takes up 14% of Riverstown and the kilometre around it. 70% of residents live within a 5-minute walk of a park or playing field. Footpaths add up to 9 km in the neighbourhood and the kilometre around it, 0.8 for every square kilometre.
Near a park
70%
of residents within 400 m
Typical Irish town: 92%
Green space
3.7 ha
per 1,000 residents
Typical Irish town: 4.1 ha
Footpaths
9 km
0.8 km per km², town + 1 km
Typical Irish town: 2.1 km per km²
Protected for nature
2.9%
of the land within 5 km
Nearest: Cork Harbour SPA
Woodland
14%
of the town and 1 km around it
Typical Irish town: 2.7%
Character
What kind of outdoors neighbourhood is Riverstown?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Wooded country14% mapped woodland in and around town, more than 97% of Irish towns.Parks can be a walk away30% of residents live more than 400 m from a park or playing field.
Riverstown’s strongest suit is its woods. Where it falls short is how far some homes are from a park.
Against other towns
How Riverstown 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 walk70%of residents within 400 m (a 5-minute walk)
21out of 100
Public green space3.7 haper 1,000 residents: parks, gardens, playing fields, play spaces
47out of 100
Footpaths0.8 kmper km², the town and 1 km around it
25out of 100
Protected for nature2.9%of the land within 5 km
57out of 100
Woodland14%of the town and 1 km around it, as mapped
98out 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
Riverstown has the 13th fewest footpaths per km² of 40 towns its size
The 40 Irish towns nearest in population (3,124 to 4,278 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Shandon (7.3 km per km²) to Charleville (0 km per km²).
Footpath, km per km²
Riverstown0.8
Towns its size1.2
Co. Cork towns1.8
Typical Irish town2.1
Green space, ha per 1,000 residents
Riverstown3.7
Towns its size4.5
Co. Cork towns4.3
Typical Irish town4.1
Residents within 400 m of a park
Riverstown70%
Towns its size85%
Co. Cork towns90%
Typical Irish town92%
Riverstown falls furthest behind on path per km², where 27 of the 39 others do better.
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | The sea | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shandon Cork | 7.3 | 1.9% | 0.9% | – |
| 2 | Ballyfermot Dublin | 6.8 | 8.7% | 0% | – |
| 3 | Cork City Centre Cork | 6.7 | 1.5% | 1.8% | – |
| 4 | Blackpool Cork | 6.6 | 3% | 1.4% | – |
| 5 | St Luke's Cork | 6 | 3.5% | 2.8% | – |
| 6 | Farranree Cork | 6 | 3% | 0.5% | – |
| 7 | Montenotte Cork | 5.5 | 5.6% | 3.5% | – |
| 8 | Newcastle Galway | 5.4 | 1.7% | 15% | 29% |
| 9 | Shanakiel Cork | 5.3 | 5.7% | 0.1% | – |
| 10 | Taylor's Hill Galway | 5.1 | 1.2% | 15% | 37% |
| 11 | Mervue Galway | 4.3 | 3.6% | 11% | 25% |
| 12 | Prospect and Newtown Pery Limerick | 3.6 | 1.5% | 9.9% | – |
| 13 | Limerick City Centre Limerick | 3.5 | 1% | 11% | – |
| 14 | Rahoon Galway | 2.3 | 2.3% | 27% | 20% |
| 15 | Annacotty Limerick | 2 | 2% | 6.2% | – |
| 16 | Rathbane Limerick | 1.8 | 1.1% | 6% | – |
| 17 | Ballinacurra Limerick | 1.8 | 1.4% | 11% | – |
| 18 | Westbury Clare | 1.7 | 3.3% | 9.6% | – |
| 19 | Crosshaven Cork | 1.2 | 8.9% | 0.4% | 44% |
| 20 | Rathnew Wicklow | 1.2 | 1.3% | 3.9% | 17% |
| 21 | Cleaboy Waterford | 1.2 | 0% | 5.8% | – |
| 22 | Lehenagh Cork | 1.2 | 2.5% | 0.3% | – |
| 23 | Virginia Cavan | 1.1 | 18% | 0.2% | – |
| 24 | Enfield Meath | 1.1 | 3.9% | 0% | – |
| 25 | Grange Waterford | 1 | 0.8% | 5% | – |
| 26 | Cahir Tipperary | 1 | 7.5% | 3.4% | – |
| 27 | Castleblayney Monaghan | 1 | 3.8% | 0% | – |
| 28 | Riverstown Cork | 0.8 | 14% | 2.9% | – |
| 29 | Kilcullen Kildare | 0.8 | 5.3% | 0% | – |
| 30 | Kill Kildare | 0.8 | 2.1% | 0% | – |
| 31 | Tower Cork | 0.7 | 13% | 0% | – |
| 32 | Newtownmountkennedy Wicklow | 0.6 | 12% | 4.9% | 6.2% |
| 33 | Rathangan Kildare | 0.5 | 4.5% | 0% | – |
| 34 | Claremorris Mayo | 0.4 | 7.1% | 0% | – |
| 35 | Macroom Cork | 0.4 | 4.9% | 3.9% | – |
| 36 | Mitchelstown Cork | 0.3 | 0% | 0% | – |
| 37 | Stamullen Meath | 0.3 | 1.7% | 0.5% | 12% |
| 38 | Ballinrobe Mayo | 0.3 | 0.5% | 11% | – |
| 39 | Clara Offaly | 0.2 | 6.1% | 6.4% | – |
| 40 | Charleville Cork | 0 | 0.3% | 0.2% | – |
The map
Parks, woods, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Riverstown’s neighbourhood.
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 Riverstown
The biggest is John O'Callaghan Park, 5.4 ha (13 acres).
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 Riverstown 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 (70%)Further (30%)
Riverstown70%
Co. Cork towns90%
Typical Irish town92%
About 1,100 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees.
Protected areas
Protected sites cover 2.9% of the land within 5 km of Riverstown
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 Riverstown0%
Within 5 km2.9%
Co. Cork towns1.5%
Typical Irish town1.8%
2 protected sites lie within 5 km of Riverstown. Proposed Natural Heritage Areas cover 3% of the land within 5 km as well; many have been proposed since 1995 and aren’t counted here. Ireland’s National Parks have a block of their own on this page; much of their land also lies inside these sites.
Protected 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 74 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
74 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
9 km of footpaths cross Riverstown
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
9.5 km
over 11.2 km² of town and the 1 km around it
Woodland
14%
about 1.5 km² of mapped woods
Km per km², town and 1 km around · mapped on OpenStreetMap
RiverstownCo. Cork townsTypical Irish town
Footpaths0.8
01.53 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
RiverstownCo. Cork townsTypical Irish town
Woodland14%
0%50%100%
Riverstown has less footpath per km² than 75% of Irish towns and more woodland than 98% of Irish towns.
Footpaths and woods: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), Geofabrik extract, October 2026. Woods are mapped cover, private and Coillte forests included.
Footpaths & trails
Footpaths in and around Riverstown
9 km of footpaths are mapped in Riverstown and the kilometre around it, 0.8 km for every square kilometre (the typical Irish town has 2.1).
No waymarked trail starts within 5 km of Riverstown; its footpaths are counted above.
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 Riverstown: 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) | 8.2 | 9.9 | 11.7 | 13.8 | 15.6 | 16.7 | 16.3 | 14.6 | 12.6 | 10.5 | 8.7 | 7.8 |
| High (°C) | 9 | 10 | 11 | 13 | 16 | 18 | 20 | 20 | 18 | 15 | 11 | 10 |
| Rain (mm) | 125 | 95 | 90 | 85 | 79 | 80 | 84 | 94 | 89 | 128 | 125 | 133 |
May is the driest month (79 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 20 °C). Winter days are short, about 7.8 hours of daylight in December, and 133 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. The climate in Riverstown →
Things to do
3 playgrounds
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.
Every named place, with directions
Picnic sites 2
Plus 2 picnic sites without a name on the map.
Playgrounds 3
Glanmire Playground0.1 km from town
DirectionsMonkey Maze1.1 km from town
DirectionsPlus 1 playground without a name on the map.
Campsites 1
Plus 1 campsite without a name on the map.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), Geofabrik extract, October 2026. Unnamed places are counted, not listed.
Next door
Next to Riverstown
The nearest towns of 1,000+ within 20 km, coloured by the share of the land within 5 km protected for nature.
GlanmireBallyvolaneMayfieldTivoliGlounthauneMontenotteRiverstown
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riverstown | 70% | 3.7 | 0.8 | 2.9% |
| Glanmire 1.6 km | 79% | 3.5 | 1.7 | 6.6% |
| Ballyvolane 2.5 km | 92% | 8.2 | 1.6 | 2.8% |
| Mayfield 4.0 km | 100% | 11.6 | 4.7 | 3.3% |
| Tivoli 4.1 km | 88% | 10.5 | 4.0 | 4.8% |
| Glounthaune 4.4 km | 45% | 8.7 | 1.2 | 6.1% |
| Montenotte 4.7 km | 100% | 12.2 | 5.5 | 3.5% |
In Mayfield, 100% of residents live within a 5-minute walk of a park, more than here. Ballyvolane, Mayfield and Tivoli have at least twice Riverstown’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 Riverstown
What is the biggest park in Riverstown?
John O'Callaghan Park, 5.4 ha (13 acres). 1 named park, garden or playing field is in the neighbourhood or within 400 m of it.
Is there protected countryside near Riverstown?
Yes: 2.9% of the land within 5 km is protected, across 2 sites. The nearest is Cork Harbour SPA, 1.3 km from the edge of town.
How many people in Riverstown live near a park?
70% 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 Riverstown?
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 Riverstown near a National Park?
The nearest of Ireland’s six National Parks is Killarney National Park, 74 km west of the town’s edge; it covers about 104 km².
What is there to do outdoors around Riverstown?
Within 2 km, OpenStreetMap maps 2 picnic sites; the named ones are listed under Things to do, with directions.
Sources
Where Riverstown’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
- 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).