Photo: David Hawgood · CC BY-SA 2.0Woods cover more of Tower than of 9 in 10 Irish towns
Woods cover 13% of Tower and the kilometre around it. 4 waymarked trails start within 5 km of Tower, among them the Ballincollig Gunpowder Trails - Military Trail and Ballincollig Gunpowder Trails - Powdermills Trail. Parks and playing fields in Tower add up to 1.1 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical Irish town has 4.1.
What kind of outdoors town is Tower?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Tower’s strongest suit is its woods. Where it falls short is park space per person.
How Tower 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.
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.
Tower has the 15th fewest footpaths per km² of 40 towns its size
The 40 Irish towns nearest in population (2,870 to 3,744 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).
Tower falls furthest behind on park space per resident, where 38 of the 39 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 | Limerick City Centre Limerick | 3.5 | 1% | 11% | – |
| 10 | Ballynanty Limerick | 2.5 | 5.7% | 12% | – |
| 11 | Rahoon Galway | 2.3 | 2.3% | 27% | 20% |
| 12 | Murrough Galway | 2.3 | 5.1% | 10% | 26% |
| 13 | Annacotty Limerick | 2 | 2% | 6.2% | – |
| 14 | Ballinacurra Limerick | 1.8 | 1.4% | 11% | – |
| 15 | Westbury Clare | 1.7 | 3.3% | 9.6% | – |
| 16 | Crosshaven Cork | 1.2 | 8.9% | 0.4% | 44% |
| 17 | Rathnew Wicklow | 1.2 | 1.3% | 3.9% | 17% |
| 18 | Cleaboy Waterford | 1.2 | 0% | 5.8% | – |
| 19 | Virginia Cavan | 1.1 | 18% | 0.2% | – |
| 20 | Enfield Meath | 1.1 | 3.9% | 0% | – |
| 21 | Bantry Cork | 1 | 4.4% | 0% | 18% |
| 22 | Cahir Tipperary | 1 | 7.5% | 3.4% | – |
| 23 | Ballina Tipperary | 0.9 | 1.8% | 4.7% | – |
| 24 | Riverstown Cork | 0.8 | 14% | 2.9% | – |
| 25 | Moate Westmeath | 0.7 | 2.4% | 2.4% | – |
| 26 | Tower Cork | 0.7 | 13% | 0% | – |
| 27 | Kingscourt Cavan | 0.7 | 12% | 0% | – |
| 28 | Newtownmountkennedy Wicklow | 0.6 | 12% | 4.9% | 6.2% |
| 29 | Muinebeag (Bagenalstown) Carlow | 0.5 | 3.9% | 2.9% | – |
| 30 | Skibbereen Cork | 0.5 | 1.7% | 1.6% | – |
| 31 | Rathangan Kildare | 0.5 | 4.5% | 0% | – |
| 32 | Mitchelstown Cork | 0.3 | 0% | 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% | – |
Parks, woods, footpaths & countryside
Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Tower’s urban area.
6 in 10 Tower 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).
About 1,300 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees.
No protected site lies within 5 km of Tower
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.
No site protected for nature lies within 5 km of Tower.
Killarney National Park is 59 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.
Killarney National Park
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).
8 km of footpaths cross Tower
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+.
Km per km², town and 1 km around · mapped on OpenStreetMap
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
Tower has less footpath per km² than 81% of Irish towns and more woodland than 97% of Irish towns.
Footpaths and woods: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), Geofabrik extract, October 2026. Woods are mapped cover, private and Coillte forests included.
4 waymarked trails start near Tower
8 km of footpaths are mapped in Tower and the kilometre around it, 0.7 km for every square kilometre (the typical Irish town has 2.1).
For a shorter walk, the Ballincollig Gunpowder Trails - Military Trail is 6.4 km, graded easy.
One more waymarked walk on OpenStreetMap
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.
The best walking months in Tower: 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 | 14 | 16 | 19 | 20 | 20 | 18 | 15 | 11 | 10 |
| Rain (mm) | 121 | 89 | 81 | 79 | 69 | 74 | 76 | 85 | 83 | 119 | 118 | 126 |
May is the driest month (69 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 20 °C). Winter days are short, about 7.8 hours of daylight in December, and 126 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. The climate in Tower →
2 viewpoints and 2 waterfalls
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
Viewpoints 2
Plus 2 viewpoints without a name on the map.
Waterfalls 2
Plus 2 waterfalls without a name on the map.
Picnic sites 5
Plus 5 picnic sites without a name on the map.
Playgrounds 4
Plus 3 playgrounds without a name on the map.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), Geofabrik extract, October 2026. Unnamed places are counted, not listed.
A garden or nature site to visit near Tower
Gardens, national parks, nature sites and islands within 15 km of the town’s edge, each with its own page.
Places to visit: Fáilte Ireland open data (CC BY 4.0), OpenStreetMap and Wikidata.
Next to Tower
The nearest towns of 1,000+ within 20 km, coloured by the share of the land within 5 km protected for nature.
| Town | Near a park | Green space, ha per 1,000 | Paths (km/km²) | Protected within 5 km |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tower | 62% | 1.1 | 0.7 | 0% |
| Blarney 3.1 km | 88% | 3.0 | 1.4 | 0% |
| Ballincollig 4.6 km | 59% | 4.4 | 1.3 | 0% |
| Killumney 6.9 km | 56% | 5.3 | 0.4 | 0% |
| Shanakiel 7.2 km | 94% | 6.1 | 5.3 | 0.1% |
| Hollyhill and Ballincolly 7.3 km | 72% | 12.3 | 2.1 | 0.5% |
| Bishopstown 7.5 km | 100% | 6.2 | 3.2 | 0.2% |
In Bishopstown, 100% of residents live within a 5-minute walk of a park, more than here. Blarney, Ballincollig and Killumney have at least twice Tower’s green space per resident.
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 Tower
What are the best walks near Tower?
4 waymarked trails start within 5 km, including the Ballincollig Gunpowder Trails - Military Trail, Ballincollig Gunpowder Trails - Powdermills Trail and Ballincollig Gunpowder Trails - Ash Trail.
How many people in Tower live near a park?
62% 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 Tower?
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 Tower near a National Park?
The nearest of Ireland’s six National Parks is Killarney National Park, 59 km west of the town’s edge; it covers about 104 km².
What is there to do outdoors around Tower?
Within 2 km, OpenStreetMap maps 2 viewpoints, 2 waterfalls and 5 picnic sites; the named ones are listed under Things to do, with directions.
Where Tower’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).