First pick
McGuigan Gardens
Park or garden
1.1 ha0.3 km of path
Centralin the middle of Clones
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: C Michael Hogan · CC BY-SA 2.0100%near a park
Outdoors in Clones · parks, paths & countryside
Clones borders Kilroosky Lough Cluster SAC
A park or playing field is within a 5-minute walk for 100% of residents. Footpaths add up to 6 km in the town and the kilometre around it, 0.5 for every square kilometre. There are 3.7 ha of parks and playing fields for every 1,000 people in Clones, against 4.1 in the typical Irish town.
Near a park
100%
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
6 km
0.5 km per km², town + 1 km
Typical Irish town: 2.1 km per km²
Protected for nature
0.4%
of the land within 5 km
Nearest: Kilroosky Lough Cluster SAC
Woodland
2.3%
of the town and 1 km around it
Typical Irish town: 2.7%
Character
What kind of outdoors town is Clones?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Protected land nearbyKilroosky Lough Cluster SAC reaches the edge of Clones.A park on every doorstep100% of residents live within 400 m of a park or playing field.Few mapped footpaths0.5 km of path per km²; the typical Irish town has 2.1.
Clones’ strongest suit is protected land close by, followed by parks close to every home. Where it falls short is footpaths.
Against other towns
How Clones 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 space3.7 haper 1,000 residents: parks, gardens, playing fields, play spaces
47out of 100
Footpaths0.5 kmper km², the town and 1 km around it
14out of 100
Protected for nature0.4%of the land within 5 km
35out of 100
Woodland2.3%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
Clones has the 16th fewest footpaths per km² of 40 towns its size
The 40 Irish towns nearest in population (1,885 to 3,141 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 Sixmilebridge (0 km per km²).
Footpath, km per km²
Clones0.5
Towns its size0.7
Co. Monaghan towns1.0
Typical Irish town2.1
Green space, ha per 1,000 residents
Clones3.7
Towns its size3.9
Co. Monaghan towns1.4
Typical Irish town4.1
Residents within 400 m of a park
Clones100%
Towns its size87%
Co. Monaghan towns67%
Typical Irish town92%
Against towns its size, Clones stands out most for homes near a park: none of the other 39 has more. It falls furthest behind on path per km², where 24 of the 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 | Sunday's Well Cork | 7.3 | 2.7% | 0.4% | – |
| 3 | Blackpool Cork | 6.6 | 3% | 1.4% | – |
| 4 | Carna Dublin | 5.4 | 1.7% | 0% | – |
| 5 | Taylor's Hill Galway | 5.1 | 1.2% | 15% | 37% |
| 6 | Togher Cork | 5 | 1.5% | 0.5% | – |
| 7 | Decies Dublin | 4.8 | 7.2% | 0% | – |
| 8 | Mayfield Cork | 4.7 | 5.3% | 3.3% | – |
| 9 | Kylemore Dublin | 4 | 3% | 0% | – |
| 10 | Edenmore Dublin | 2.8 | 3.6% | 5.9% | 24% |
| 11 | Ballynanty Limerick | 2.5 | 5.7% | 12% | – |
| 12 | Claddagh Galway | 2.4 | 0.2% | 17% | 46% |
| 13 | Murrough Galway | 2.3 | 5.1% | 10% | 26% |
| 14 | Grange Upper Waterford | 1.4 | 1.5% | 6.6% | – |
| 15 | Blarney Cork | 1.4 | 14% | 0% | – |
| 16 | Kilbarry Waterford | 1.3 | 1.6% | 5.1% | – |
| 17 | Bantry Cork | 1 | 4.4% | 0% | 18% |
| 18 | Ballina Tipperary | 0.9 | 1.8% | 4.7% | – |
| 19 | Moate Westmeath | 0.7 | 2.4% | 2.4% | – |
| 20 | Callan Kilkenny | 0.7 | 0.1% | 2.3% | – |
| 21 | Kingscourt Cavan | 0.7 | 12% | 0% | – |
| 22 | Kenmare Kerry | 0.6 | 7.2% | 6.5% | 6.4% |
| 23 | Athboy Meath | 0.6 | 1.1% | 1.5% | – |
| 24 | Bundoran Donegal | 0.5 | 2% | 5.1% | 35% |
| 25 | Clones Monaghan | 0.5 | 2.3% | 0.4% | – |
| 26 | Muinebeag (Bagenalstown) Carlow | 0.5 | 3.9% | 2.9% | – |
| 27 | Skibbereen Cork | 0.5 | 1.7% | 1.6% | – |
| 28 | Kinnegad Westmeath | 0.3 | 4.5% | 4.5% | – |
| 29 | Donegal Donegal | 0.3 | 4% | 4.1% | 12% |
| 30 | Boyle Roscommon | 0.3 | 3.2% | 0% | – |
| 31 | Bailieborough Cavan | 0.3 | 10% | 0% | – |
| 32 | Castleisland Kerry | 0.3 | 1.7% | 12% | – |
| 33 | Kanturk Cork | 0.3 | 0% | 5.1% | – |
| 34 | Baltinglass Wicklow | 0.2 | 4.9% | 0.5% | – |
| 35 | Ballyhaunis Mayo | 0.2 | 2.8% | 3.4% | – |
| 36 | Kilrush Clare | 0.2 | 9.8% | 37% | – |
| 37 | Ballyjamesduff Cavan | 0.2 | 7.6% | 0% | – |
| 38 | Gort Galway | 0.2 | 4.3% | 24% | – |
| 39 | Carndonagh Donegal | 0.1 | 4.9% | 5.1% | 5.8% |
| 40 | Sixmilebridge Clare | 0 | 0.7% | 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 Clones’ 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 Clones
The biggest is McGuigan Gardens, 1.1 ha (3 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
Everyone in Clones 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%)
Clones100%
Co. Monaghan towns67%
Typical Irish town92%
Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees.
Protected areas
The protected site within 5 km of Clones
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 Clones0%
Within 5 km0.4%
Co. Monaghan towns0%
Typical Irish town1.8%
One protected site lies within 5 km of Clones. Ireland’s National Parks have a block of their own on this page; much of their land also lies inside these sites.
Kilroosky Lough Cluster SACSpecial Area of Conservation · 0.6 km² · reaches Clones
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
Glenveagh National Park is 97 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
Glenveagh National Park
97 km north-west155 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
6 km of footpaths cross Clones
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
6.2 km
over 12.3 km² of town and the 1 km around it
Woodland
2.3%
about 0.3 km² of mapped woods
Km per km², town and 1 km around · mapped on OpenStreetMap
ClonesCo. Monaghan townsTypical Irish town
Footpaths0.5
01.53 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
ClonesCo. Monaghan townsTypical Irish town
Woodland2.3%
0%50%100%
Clones has less footpath per km² than 86% 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
Footpaths in and around Clones
6 km of footpaths are mapped in Clones and the kilometre around it, 0.5 km for every square kilometre (the typical Irish town has 2.1).
No waymarked trail starts within 5 km of Clones; 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 Clones: May to July and 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) | 7.9 | 9.7 | 11.7 | 14.0 | 16.0 | 17.1 | 16.7 | 14.9 | 12.6 | 10.4 | 8.4 | 7.4 |
| High (°C) | 8 | 8 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 18 | 19 | 19 | 17 | 13 | 10 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 95 | 79 | 75 | 66 | 65 | 73 | 83 | 93 | 75 | 98 | 98 | 104 |
May is the driest month (65 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 19 °C). Winter days are short, about 7.4 hours of daylight in December, and 104 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. The climate in Clones →
Things to do
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.
Per resident, playgrounds stand out most: Clones has 2× as many as the typical Irish town.
Every named place, with directions
Picnic sites 1
Plus 1 picnic site without a name on the map.
Playgrounds 5
Plus 5 playgrounds without a name on the map.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), Geofabrik extract, October 2026. Unnamed places are counted, not listed.
Next door
Next to Clones
The nearest towns of 1,000+ within 20 km, coloured by the share of the land within 5 km protected for nature.
CootehillBelturbetMonaghanClones
Under 1%1–10%10–25%25–50%50%+
None of the neighbours has many more of its people near a park than Clones.
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 Clones
What is the biggest park in Clones?
McGuigan Gardens, 1.1 ha (3 acres). 1 named park, garden or playing field is in the town or within 400 m of it.
Is there protected countryside near Clones?
One protected site lies within 5 km, though it covers under 1% of the land. Kilroosky Lough Cluster SAC reaches Clones.
How many people in Clones 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 Clones?
On the town’s 1991–2020 averages and its daylight: May to July and September, when days are long, highs reach 15 °C and rain is light for the place.
Is Clones near a National Park?
The nearest of Ireland’s six National Parks is Glenveagh National Park, 97 km north-west of the town’s edge; it covers about 155 km².
What is there to do outdoors around Clones?
Within 2 km, OpenStreetMap maps 1 picnic site; the named ones are listed under Things to do, with directions.
Sources
Where Clones’ 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
- 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).