First pick
Junior Garden
Park or garden
0.4 ha0.6 km of path
10 minto walk all 0.6 km of path
Centralin the middle of Maynooth
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: William Murphy · CC BY-SA 2.085%near a park
Outdoors in Maynooth · parks, paths & countryside
Maynooth is on the National Famine Way
3 waymarked trails start within 5 km of Maynooth, among them the National Famine Way and Royal Canal Way. Wicklow Mountains National Park begins 19 km away. There are 1.9 ha of parks and playing fields for every 1,000 people in Maynooth, against 4.1 in the typical Irish town.
Near a park
85%
of residents within 400 m
Typical Irish town: 92%
Green space
1.9 ha
per 1,000 residents
Typical Irish town: 4.1 ha
Footpaths
74 km
3.7 km per km², town + 1 km
Typical Irish town: 2.1 km per km²
Protected for nature
0.5%
of the land within 5 km
Nearest: Rye Water Valley/Carton SAC
Woodland
3.9%
of the town and 1 km around it
Typical Irish town: 2.7%
Character
What kind of outdoors town is Maynooth?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
On a long-distance trailThe National Famine Way passes through.Countryside close byWicklow Mountains National Park starts 19 km south-east.Less park per person1.9 ha of parks and playing fields per 1,000 residents; the typical Irish town has 4.1.
Maynooth’s strongest suit is the National Famine Way, followed by Wicklow Mountains National Park close by. Where it falls short is park space per person.
Against other towns
How Maynooth 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 walk85%of residents within 400 m (a 5-minute walk)
37out of 100
Public green space1.9 haper 1,000 residents: parks, gardens, playing fields, play spaces
22out of 100
Footpaths3.7 kmper km², the town and 1 km around it
65out of 100
Protected for nature0.5%of the land within 5 km
38out of 100
Woodland3.9%of the town and 1 km around it, as mapped
65out 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
Maynooth has the 20th fewest footpaths per km² of 40 towns its size
The 40 Irish towns nearest in population (14,529 to 20,608 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Esker (10.5 km per km²) to Tullamore (0.7 km per km²).
Footpath, km per km²
Maynooth3.7
Towns its size3.7
Co. Kildare towns1.0
Typical Irish town2.1
Green space, ha per 1,000 residents
Maynooth1.9
Towns its size5.3
Co. Kildare towns2.2
Typical Irish town4.1
Residents within 400 m of a park
Maynooth85%
Towns its size98%
Co. Kildare towns79%
Typical Irish town92%
Maynooth falls furthest behind on park space per resident, where 34 of the 39 others do better.
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | The sea | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Esker Dublin | 10.5 | 2.1% | 0.1% | – |
| 2 | Tallaght Dublin | 8.8 | 3.8% | 0.6% | – |
| 3 | Old Bawn Dublin | 8.5 | 3% | 1.8% | – |
| 4 | Dolphins Barn Dublin | 8.4 | 2.9% | 0% | – |
| 5 | Ballyowen Dublin | 7.5 | 6% | 0% | – |
| 6 | Stoneybatter Dublin | 7.5 | 1.6% | 0% | – |
| 7 | The Liberties Dublin | 7.4 | 0.5% | 0% | – |
| 8 | Mulhuddart Dublin | 6.6 | 4% | 0% | – |
| 9 | Stillorgan Dublin | 6.5 | 3% | 0.1% | 17% |
| 10 | Ashtown Dublin | 6.3 | 6.9% | 0% | – |
| 11 | Ballinteer Dublin | 6.2 | 7.1% | 2.8% | – |
| 12 | Dundrum Dublin | 6.2 | 4.7% | 1.3% | 6.7% |
| 13 | Rathmines East Dublin | 5.9 | 2.3% | 0.1% | 13% |
| 14 | Rathfarnham Dublin | 5.5 | 4.8% | 0.1% | – |
| 15 | Crumlin Dublin | 5.4 | 0.8% | 0% | – |
| 16 | Templeogue Dublin | 5.2 | 3.8% | 0.1% | – |
| 17 | Cabinteely Dublin | 5.1 | 7.6% | 1.1% | 29% |
| 18 | Kimmage Dublin | 4.3 | 0.1% | 0% | – |
| 19 | East Wall Dublin | 4.1 | 1% | 3.5% | 27% |
| 20 | Belmayne Dublin | 3.8 | 1.9% | 5.2% | 25% |
| 21 | Maynooth Kildare | 3.7 | 3.9% | 0.5% | – |
| 22 | Leixlip Kildare | 3.6 | 7.7% | 0.5% | – |
| 23 | Clontarf West Dublin | 3.2 | 2.2% | 3.5% | 17% |
| 24 | Bishopstown Cork | 3.2 | 6% | 0.2% | – |
| 25 | Clontarf East Dublin | 3.1 | 3% | 6.1% | 38% |
| 26 | Dún Laoghaire Dublin | 3 | 0.5% | 0.3% | 56% |
| 27 | Beaumont Dublin | 2.9 | 2% | 3.4% | 9.7% |
| 28 | Darndale Dublin | 2.7 | 1.9% | 3.7% | 11% |
| 29 | Celbridge Kildare | 2.4 | 6.9% | 0.5% | – |
| 30 | Castletroy Limerick | 2.4 | 1.8% | 6.6% | – |
| 31 | Malahide Dublin | 2.4 | 3.4% | 2.1% | 32% |
| 32 | Ashbourne Meath | 1.6 | 0.3% | 0% | – |
| 33 | Knocknacarra Galway | 1.6 | 3.4% | 32% | 34% |
| 34 | Ballybane Galway | 1.5 | 3.9% | 12% | 15% |
| 35 | Laytown-Bettystown-Mornington-Donacarney Meath | 1.2 | 0.5% | 4.4% | 39% |
| 36 | Sligo Sligo | 1.2 | 6.1% | 9.5% | 18% |
| 37 | Clonmel Tipperary | 1.1 | 14% | 3.9% | – |
| 38 | Dooradoyle Limerick | 1 | 2.6% | 7.7% | – |
| 39 | Carrigaline Cork | 0.9 | 6.5% | 0.2% | 6.7% |
| 40 | Tullamore Offaly | 0.7 | 10% | 3.8% | – |
The map
Parks, woods, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Maynooth’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 Maynooth
The biggest is Junior Garden, 0.4 ha (1 acres).
Pound Park
Park or garden
0.6 ha0.2 km of path
Centralin the middle of Maynooth
Directionsto a point inside
Saint Mary's Square
Park or garden
0.5 ha0.1 km of path
0.6 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
8 in 10 Maynooth 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 (85%)Further (16%)
Maynooth85%
Co. Kildare towns79%
Typical Irish town92%
About 2,700 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees.
Protected areas
Rye Water Valley/Carton SAC is the nearest protected area, 0.3 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 Maynooth0%
Within 5 km0.5%
Co. Kildare towns0.5%
Typical Irish town1.8%
One protected site lies within 5 km of Maynooth. Ireland’s National Parks have a block of their own on this page; much of their land also lies inside these sites.
Rye Water Valley/Carton SACSpecial Area of Conservation · 0.7 km² · 0.3 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
Wicklow Mountains National Park is 19 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
19 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
74 km of footpaths cross Maynooth
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
74 km
over 20.1 km² of town and the 1 km around it
Woodland
3.9%
about 0.8 km² of mapped woods
Registered trails
3
walking trails within 5 km
Km per km², town and 1 km around · mapped on OpenStreetMap
MaynoothCo. Kildare townsTypical Irish town
Footpaths3.7
02.55 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
MaynoothCo. Kildare townsTypical Irish town
Woodland3.9%
0%50%100%
Maynooth has more footpath per km² than 65% of Irish towns and more woodland than 65% 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 Maynooth
74 km of footpaths are mapped in Maynooth and the kilometre around it, 3.7 km for every square kilometre (the typical Irish town has 2.1).
Long-distance wayGreenway
National Famine Way168.6 km
Royal Canal Way146.3 km
Royal Canal Greenway Walking Trail121.4 km
The National Famine Way (169 km end to end) passes through Maynooth. One cycling or paddling trail also starts within 5 km.
2 more waymarked walks on OpenStreetMap
NationalLocal
The Royal Canal Way7.1 km
The Carton trails: Red3.3 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 Maynooth: 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 | 15.9 | 17.0 | 16.5 | 14.8 | 12.6 | 10.4 | 8.5 | 7.5 |
| High (°C) | 8 | 9 | 11 | 13 | 16 | 19 | 20 | 20 | 18 | 14 | 11 | 9 |
| Rain (mm) | 68 | 59 | 54 | 57 | 57 | 67 | 65 | 75 | 68 | 85 | 88 | 81 |
March is the driest month (54 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 20 °C). Winter days are short, about 7.5 hours of daylight in December, and 88 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. The climate in Maynooth →
Things to do
1 viewpoint and 5 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
Viewpoints 1
Carton Tower1.4 km from town
DirectionsPicnic sites 1
Plus 1 picnic site without a name on the map.
Playgrounds 5
Carton Wood Playgroundin town
DirectionsClós rang na coille0.1 km from town
DirectionsPlus 3 playgrounds without a name on the map.
Slipways 1
Plus 1 slipway 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 Maynooth
Gardens, national parks, nature sites and islands within 15 km of the town’s edge, each with its own page.
Hamwood House and GardensGarden · 5.0 km from town
Its pagePlaces to visit: Fáilte Ireland open data (CC BY 4.0), OpenStreetMap and Wikidata.
Next door
Next to Maynooth
The nearest towns of 1,000+ within 20 km, coloured by the share of the land within 5 km protected for nature.
CelbridgeKilcockLeixlipStraffanDunboyneLucanMaynooth
Under 1%1–10%10–25%25–50%50%+
In Dunboyne, 100% of residents live within a 5-minute walk of a park, more than here. Celbridge, Leixlip and Lucan have at least twice Maynooth’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 Maynooth
What is the biggest park in Maynooth?
Pound Park, 0.6 ha (1 acres). Saint Mary's Square (0.5 ha) is second. 3 named parks, gardens and playing fields are in the town or within 400 m of it.
Is there protected countryside near Maynooth?
One protected site lies within 5 km, though it covers under 1% of the land. The nearest is Rye Water Valley/Carton SAC, 0.3 km from the edge of town.
What are the best walks near Maynooth?
3 waymarked trails start within 5 km, including the National Famine Way, Royal Canal Way and Royal Canal Greenway Walking Trail.
How many people in Maynooth live near a park?
85% 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 Maynooth?
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 Maynooth near a National Park?
The nearest of Ireland’s six National Parks is Wicklow Mountains National Park, 19 km south-east of the town’s edge; it covers about 223 km².
What is there to do outdoors around Maynooth?
Within 2 km, OpenStreetMap maps 1 viewpoint and 1 picnic site; the named ones are listed under Things to do, with directions.
Sources
Where Maynooth’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).