First pick
Rathcoole Park
Park or garden
23 ha3.3 km of path
45 minto walk all 3.3 km of path
1.1 km eastfrom the centre
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: 瑞丽江的河水 · CC BY-SA 4.068%near a park
Outdoors in Rathcoole · parks, paths & countryside
3 waymarked trails start within 5 km of Rathcoole
Wicklow Mountains National Park begins 7.3 km away. A park or playing field is within a 5-minute walk for 68% of residents. 15 km of footpaths run through the town and the kilometre around it, 1.6 for every square kilometre.
Near a park
68%
of residents within 400 m
Typical Irish town: 92%
Green space
4.4 ha
per 1,000 residents
Typical Irish town: 4.1 ha
Footpaths
15 km
1.6 km per km², town + 1 km
Typical Irish town: 2.1 km per km²
Woodland
2.4%
of the town and 1 km around it
Typical Irish town: 2.7%
Character
What kind of outdoors town is Rathcoole?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Countryside close byWicklow Mountains National Park starts 7.3 km south-east.Parks can be a walk away32% of residents live more than 400 m from a park or playing field.
Rathcoole’s strongest suit is Wicklow Mountains National Park close by. Where it falls short is how far some homes are from a park.
Against other towns
How Rathcoole 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 walk68%of residents within 400 m (a 5-minute walk)
17out of 100
Public green space4.4 haper 1,000 residents: parks, gardens, playing fields, play spaces
56out of 100
Footpaths1.6 kmper km², the town and 1 km around it
44out of 100
Protected for nature0%of the land within 5 km
11out of 100
Woodland2.4%of the town and 1 km around it, as mapped
44out 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
Rathcoole has the 16th fewest footpaths per km² of 40 towns its size
The 40 Irish towns nearest in population (5,228 to 6,355 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From St Stephen's Green (7.4 km per km²) to Oranmore (0.3 km per km²).
Footpath, km per km²
Rathcoole1.6
Towns its size2.5
Co. Dublin towns5.4
Typical Irish town2.1
Green space, ha per 1,000 residents
Rathcoole4.4
Towns its size4.4
Co. Dublin towns7.6
Typical Irish town4.1
Residents within 400 m of a park
Rathcoole68%
Towns its size98%
Co. Dublin towns100%
Typical Irish town92%
Rathcoole falls furthest behind on path per km², where 24 of the 39 others do better.
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | The sea | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | St Stephen's Green Dublin | 7.4 | 0.9% | 0.3% | 11% |
| 2 | Portobello Dublin | 7.2 | 1.2% | 0.1% | 8.8% |
| 3 | Gillabbey Cork | 7.1 | 2.6% | 0.5% | – |
| 4 | Glasheen Cork | 6.4 | 2.3% | 0.5% | – |
| 5 | Castleknock Dublin | 6.2 | 9.1% | 0% | – |
| 6 | Ballyboden Dublin | 5.9 | 4.3% | 0.5% | – |
| 7 | The Glen Cork | 5.7 | 4% | 1.8% | – |
| 8 | Edmondstown Dublin | 5.1 | 7.5% | 4.5% | – |
| 9 | Ballinlough Cork | 4.9 | 3.2% | 3.8% | – |
| 10 | Rathgar Dublin | 4.8 | 3.5% | 0.1% | – |
| 11 | Knocknaheeny Cork | 4.7 | 2.4% | 0.2% | – |
| 12 | Knockrea Cork | 4.7 | 3.1% | 3.7% | – |
| 13 | Inchicore Dublin | 4.5 | 3.9% | 0% | – |
| 14 | Ayrfield Dublin | 3.8 | 1.8% | 5.3% | 19% |
| 15 | Garryowen Limerick | 3.4 | 0.5% | 9.6% | – |
| 16 | Salthill Galway | 3.3 | 1% | 15% | 46% |
| 17 | Marino Dublin | 3.3 | 2% | 2.8% | 10% |
| 18 | Harmonstown Dublin | 3.2 | 3.8% | 5.3% | 23% |
| 19 | Galvone Limerick | 2.9 | 0.7% | 8.3% | – |
| 20 | Dock Limerick | 2.5 | 1.3% | 12% | – |
| 21 | Sutton Dublin | 2.5 | 0.7% | 12% | 48% |
| 22 | Lisduggan Waterford | 1.8 | 0% | 5.8% | – |
| 23 | Carrigtwohill Cork | 1.8 | 5.1% | 12% | – |
| 24 | Ballinfoile and Terryland Galway | 1.7 | 2.1% | 22% | 13% |
| 25 | Rathcoole Dublin | 1.6 | 2.4% | 0% | – |
| 26 | Sallins Kildare | 1.6 | 0.8% | 0% | – |
| 27 | Blessington Wicklow | 1.4 | 10% | 1.9% | – |
| 28 | Passage West-Monkstown Cork | 1.2 | 3.5% | 10% | 12% |
| 29 | Inishkenny Cork | 1.1 | 4.2% | 0.2% | – |
| 30 | Ardee Louth | 0.9 | 0.7% | 0.8% | – |
| 31 | Kinsale Cork | 0.9 | 1.3% | 0% | 21% |
| 32 | Ferrybank Kilkenny | 0.8 | 4.1% | 6.6% | – |
| 33 | Monasterevin Kildare | 0.6 | 16% | 2% | – |
| 34 | Carrick-on-Suir Tipperary | 0.5 | 9.9% | 4% | – |
| 35 | Ballybofey-Stranorlar Donegal | 0.4 | 7.7% | 2.3% | – |
| 36 | Loughrea Galway | 0.4 | 1.7% | 4.7% | – |
| 37 | Carrickmacross Monaghan | 0.3 | 5.5% | 0% | – |
| 38 | Tipperary Tipperary | 0.3 | 0.7% | 0.8% | – |
| 39 | Roscrea Tipperary | 0.3 | 3.4% | 7.9% | – |
| 40 | Oranmore Galway | 0.3 | 2% | 5.2% | 13% |
The map
Parks, woods, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Rathcoole’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 Rathcoole
The biggest is Rathcoole Park, 23 ha (56 acres).
Olympic Garden
Park or garden
0.3 ha0.2 km of path
1.1 km eastfrom 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 Rathcoole 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 (68%)Further (32%)
Rathcoole68%
Co. Dublin towns100%
Typical Irish town92%
About 1,900 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees.
Protected areas
No protected site lies within 5 km of Rathcoole
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 Rathcoole.
National Parks
Wicklow Mountains National Park is 7.3 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
Wicklow Mountains National Park
7.3 km south-east223 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
15 km of footpaths cross Rathcoole
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
15 km
over 9.4 km² of town and the 1 km around it
Woodland
2.4%
about 0.2 km² of mapped woods
Registered trails
3
walking trails within 5 km
Km per km², town and 1 km around · mapped on OpenStreetMap
RathcooleCo. Dublin townsTypical Irish town
Footpaths1.6
03.57 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
RathcooleCo. Dublin townsTypical Irish town
Woodland2.4%
0%50%100%
Rathcoole has less footpath per km² than 56% of Irish towns and less woodland than 56% of Irish towns.
Footpaths and woods: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), Geofabrik extract, October 2026. Woods are mapped cover, private and Coillte forests included.
Footpaths & trails
3 waymarked trails start near Rathcoole
15 km of footpaths are mapped in Rathcoole and the kilometre around it, 1.6 km for every square kilometre (the typical Irish town has 2.1).
Walking trailLong-distance way
Slievethoul Lugg Walk6.9 km
Saggart Hill Loop3.4 km
Grand Canal Way117.1 km
For a shorter walk, the Slievethoul Lugg Walk is 6.9 km, graded easy.
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 Rathcoole: 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) | 8.0 | 9.7 | 11.7 | 13.9 | 15.8 | 17.0 | 16.5 | 14.8 | 12.6 | 10.4 | 8.5 | 7.5 |
| High (°C) | 8 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 15 | 18 | 20 | 19 | 17 | 14 | 10 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 73 | 64 | 58 | 60 | 61 | 68 | 67 | 76 | 71 | 90 | 94 | 86 |
March is the driest month (58 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 20 °C). Winter days are short, about 7.5 hours of daylight in December, and 94 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. The climate in Rathcoole →
Things to do
1 hill or peak and 18 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.
Per resident, playgrounds stand out most: Rathcoole has 2.4× as many as the typical Irish town.
Every named place, with directions
Hills and peaks 1
Athgoe Hill1.9 km from town
DirectionsNature reserves 1
Plus 1 nature reserve without a name on the map.
Playgrounds 18
Sand Pit0.1 km from town
DirectionsSlide0.1 km from town
DirectionsSwings0.1 km from town
DirectionsSaggart Playground1.1 km from town
DirectionsPlus 14 playgrounds without a name on the map.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), Geofabrik extract, October 2026. Unnamed places are counted, not listed.
Gardens & nature
A garden or nature site to visit near Rathcoole
Gardens, national parks, nature sites and islands within 15 km of the town’s edge, each with its own page.
Saint Stephen's GreenGarden · 15 km from town
Its pagePlaces to visit: Fáilte Ireland open data (CC BY 4.0), OpenStreetMap and Wikidata.
Next door
Next to Rathcoole
The nearest towns of 1,000+ within 20 km, coloured by the share of the land within 5 km protected for nature.
SaggartNewcastleJobstownFettercairnDeansrathTallaghtRathcoole
Under 1%1–10%10–25%25–50%50%+
In Tallaght, 100% of residents live within a 5-minute walk of a park, more than here. Fettercairn, Deansrath and Tallaght have at least twice Rathcoole’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 Rathcoole
What is the biggest park in Rathcoole?
Rathcoole Park, 23 ha (56 acres). Olympic Garden (0.3 ha) is second. 2 named parks, gardens and playing fields are in the town or within 400 m of it.
What are the best walks near Rathcoole?
3 waymarked trails start within 5 km, including the Slievethoul Lugg Walk, Saggart Hill Loop and Grand Canal Way.
How many people in Rathcoole live near a park?
68% 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 Rathcoole?
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 Rathcoole near a National Park?
The nearest of Ireland’s six National Parks is Wicklow Mountains National Park, 7.3 km south-east of the town’s edge; it covers about 223 km².
What is there to do outdoors around Rathcoole?
Within 2 km, OpenStreetMap maps 1 hill or peak and 1 nature reserve; the named ones are listed under Things to do, with directions.
Sources
Where Rathcoole’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).