First pick
Bishop Lucey Park
Park or garden · 370 m outside town
0.4 ha0.3 km of path
0.7 km southfrom the centre
Christ Church Lane
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: psyberartist · CC BY 2.0100%near a park
Outdoors in Shandon · parks, paths & countryside
Shandon has more footpath per square kilometre than 9 in 10 Irish towns
43 km of footpaths run through the neighbourhood and the kilometre around it, 7.3 for every square kilometre. A park or playing field is within a 5-minute walk for 100% of residents. There are 3.4 ha of parks and playing fields for every 1,000 people in Shandon, against 4.1 in the typical Irish town.
Near a park
100%
of residents within 400 m
Typical Irish town: 92%
Green space
3.4 ha
per 1,000 residents
Typical Irish town: 4.1 ha
Footpaths
43 km
7.3 km per km², town + 1 km
Typical Irish town: 2.1 km per km²
Protected for nature
0.9%
of the land within 5 km
Nearest: Cork Harbour SPA
Woodland
1.9%
of the town and 1 km around it
Typical Irish town: 2.7%
Character
What kind of outdoors neighbourhood is Shandon?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
A neighbourhood of footpaths7.3 km of path per km², more than 92% of Irish towns. The typical town has 2.1.A park on every doorstep100% of residents live within 400 m of a park or playing field.Hills with a view4 mapped viewpoints, about 31× as many per resident as the typical Irish town.
Shandon’s strongest suit is dense footpaths, followed by parks close to every home.
Against other towns
How Shandon 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 walk100%of residents within 400 m (a 5-minute walk)
83out of 100
Public green space3.4 haper 1,000 residents: parks, gardens, playing fields, play spaces
43out of 100
Footpaths7.3 kmper km², the town and 1 km around it
93out of 100
Protected for nature0.9%of the land within 5 km
42out of 100
Woodland1.9%of the town and 1 km around it, as mapped
36out 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
Shandon has the most footpaths per km² of 40 towns its size
The 40 Irish towns nearest in population (3,030 to 4,126 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
Shandon7.3
Towns its size1.2
Co. Cork towns1.8
Typical Irish town2.1
Green space, ha per 1,000 residents
Shandon3.4
Towns its size4.5
Co. Cork towns4.3
Typical Irish town4.1
Residents within 400 m of a park
Shandon100%
Towns its size85%
Co. Cork towns90%
Typical Irish town92%
Against towns its size, Shandon stands out most for path per km²: none of the other 39 has more. It falls furthest behind on park space per resident, where 24 of the 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 | Farranree Cork | 6 | 3% | 0.5% | – |
| 6 | Montenotte Cork | 5.5 | 5.6% | 3.5% | – |
| 7 | Newcastle Galway | 5.4 | 1.7% | 15% | 29% |
| 8 | Shanakiel Cork | 5.3 | 5.7% | 0.1% | – |
| 9 | Taylor's Hill Galway | 5.1 | 1.2% | 15% | 37% |
| 10 | Mervue Galway | 4.3 | 3.6% | 11% | 25% |
| 11 | Prospect and Newtown Pery Limerick | 3.6 | 1.5% | 9.9% | – |
| 12 | Limerick City Centre Limerick | 3.5 | 1% | 11% | – |
| 13 | Ballynanty Limerick | 2.5 | 5.7% | 12% | – |
| 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 | Virginia Cavan | 1.1 | 18% | 0.2% | – |
| 23 | Enfield Meath | 1.1 | 3.9% | 0% | – |
| 24 | Grange Waterford | 1 | 0.8% | 5% | – |
| 25 | Cahir Tipperary | 1 | 7.5% | 3.4% | – |
| 26 | Castleblayney Monaghan | 1 | 3.8% | 0% | – |
| 27 | Riverstown Cork | 0.8 | 14% | 2.9% | – |
| 28 | Kilcullen Kildare | 0.8 | 5.3% | 0% | – |
| 29 | Kill Kildare | 0.8 | 2.1% | 0% | – |
| 30 | Tower Cork | 0.7 | 13% | 0% | – |
| 31 | Newtownmountkennedy Wicklow | 0.6 | 12% | 4.9% | 6.2% |
| 32 | Rathangan Kildare | 0.5 | 4.5% | 0% | – |
| 33 | Claremorris Mayo | 0.4 | 7.1% | 0% | – |
| 34 | Macroom Cork | 0.4 | 4.9% | 3.9% | – |
| 35 | Mitchelstown Cork | 0.3 | 0% | 0% | – |
| 36 | Kinnegad Westmeath | 0.3 | 4.5% | 4.5% | – |
| 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 Shandon’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 Shandon
The biggest is Bishop Lucey Park, 0.4 ha (1 acres).
Bell's Field
Park or garden · 120 m outside town
0.8 ha
Centralin the middle of Shandon
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
Everyone in Shandon lives 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 (100%)Further (0%)
Shandon100%
Co. Cork towns90%
Typical Irish town92%
Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees.
Protected areas
Cork Harbour SPA is the nearest protected area, 3.0 km away
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 Shandon0%
Within 5 km0.9%
Co. Cork towns1.5%
Typical Irish town1.8%
One protected site lies within 5 km of Shandon. Proposed Natural Heritage Areas cover 1.9% 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.
Cork Harbour SPASpecial Protection Area (birds) · 27 km² · 3.0 km from the edge
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 69 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
69 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
Footpaths and woods in and around Shandon
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
43 km
over 6 km² of town and the 1 km around it
Woodland
1.9%
about 0.1 km² of mapped woods
Km per km², town and 1 km around · mapped on OpenStreetMap
ShandonCo. Cork townsTypical Irish town
Footpaths7.3
04.59 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
ShandonCo. Cork townsTypical Irish town
Woodland1.9%
0%50%100%
Shandon has more footpath per km² than 93% of Irish towns and less woodland than 64% of Irish towns.
Footpaths and woods: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), Geofabrik extract, October 2026. Woods are mapped cover, private and Coillte forests included.
Footpaths & trails
1 waymarked walk passes through or near Shandon
43 km of footpaths are mapped in Shandon and the kilometre around it, 7.3 km for every square kilometre (the typical Irish town has 2.1).
One more waymarked walk on OpenStreetMap
National
Mardyke walk0.7 km
Trails: Sport Ireland National Trails Register (CC BY 4.0), registered trails within 5 km; footpaths: OpenStreetMap (ODbL). More waymarked walks: OpenStreetMap route relations (ODbL) within 2 km, those already on the register left out. 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 Shandon: 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) | 10 | 10 | 11 | 14 | 16 | 19 | 20 | 20 | 18 | 15 | 12 | 10 |
| Rain (mm) | 117 | 87 | 80 | 76 | 70 | 71 | 73 | 81 | 79 | 115 | 115 | 122 |
May is the driest month (70 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 20 °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 Shandon →
Things to do
4 viewpoints and 20 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.
4Viewpoints30.9× the typical Irish town, per resident2Picnic sites20Playgrounds4.3× the typical Irish town, per resident3Slipways
Per resident, viewpoints stand out most: Shandon has 30.9× as many as the typical Irish town.
Every named place, with directions
Viewpoints 4
Shandon Bells View0.1 km from town
DirectionsBell's Field (Audley Place)0.2 km from town
DirectionsDublin Hill1.4 km from town
DirectionsPlus 1 viewpoint without a name on the map.
Picnic sites 2
Plus 2 picnic sites without a name on the map.
Playgrounds 20
Toddler Play Park0.5 km from town
DirectionsPlanet Leisure Centre1.6 km from town
DirectionsPlus 18 playgrounds without a name on the map.
Slipways 3
Plus 3 slipways without a name on the map.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), Geofabrik extract, October 2026. Unnamed places are counted, not listed.
Next door
Next to Shandon
The nearest towns of 1,000+ within 20 km, coloured by the share of the land within 5 km protected for nature.
Cork City CentreBlackpoolGurranebraherFarranreeSt Luke'sSouth GateShandon
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shandon | 100% | 3.4 | 7.3 | 0.9% |
| Cork City Centre 0.5 km | 100% | 0.9 | 6.7 | 1.8% |
| Blackpool 0.7 km | 100% | 14.5 | 6.6 | 1.4% |
| Gurranebraher 0.7 km | 100% | 2.3 | 7.4 | 0.5% |
| Farranree 0.9 km | 100% | 5.5 | 6.0 | 0.5% |
| St Luke's 1.0 km | 100% | 12.0 | 6.0 | 2.8% |
| South Gate 1.2 km | 100% | 2.3 | 6.8 | 1.3% |
None of the neighbours has many more of its people near a park than Shandon. Blackpool and St Luke's have at least twice Shandon’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 Shandon
What is the biggest park in Shandon?
Bell's Field, 0.8 ha (2 acres), just outside the built-up area. Bishop Lucey Park (0.4 ha) is second. 4 named parks, gardens and playing fields are in the neighbourhood or within 400 m of it.
Is there protected countryside near Shandon?
One protected site lies within 5 km, though it covers under 1% of the land. The nearest is Cork Harbour SPA, 3.0 km from the edge of town.
How many people in Shandon live near a park?
100% 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 Shandon?
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 Shandon near a National Park?
The nearest of Ireland’s six National Parks is Killarney National Park, 69 km west of the town’s edge; it covers about 104 km².
What is there to do outdoors around Shandon?
Within 2 km, OpenStreetMap maps 4 viewpoints and 2 picnic sites; the named ones are listed under Things to do, with directions.
Sources
Where Shandon’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).