Photo: Sarah777 at English Wikipedia · Public domainBoyle is on the Miner's Way & Historical Trail - Slí an Mhianadóra & Conair Stairiúil
8 waymarked trails start within 5 km of Boyle, among them the Miner's Way & Historical Trail - Slí an Mhianadóra & Conair Stairiúil and Lough Key - The Bog Garden Trail. A park or playing field is within a 5-minute walk for 49% of residents. Footpaths add up to 6 km in the town and the kilometre around it, 0.3 for every square kilometre.
What kind of outdoors town is Boyle?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Boyle’s strongest suit is the Miner's Way & Historical Trail - Slí an Mhianadóra & Conair Stairiúil. Where it falls short is footpaths.
How Boyle 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.
Boyle has the 11th fewest footpaths per km² of 40 towns its size
The 40 Irish towns nearest in population (2,596 to 3,300 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).
Boyle falls furthest behind on path per km², where 29 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 | 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 | Edenmore Dublin | 2.8 | 3.6% | 5.9% | 24% |
| 10 | Ballynanty Limerick | 2.5 | 5.7% | 12% | – |
| 11 | Claddagh Galway | 2.4 | 0.2% | 17% | 46% |
| 12 | Murrough Galway | 2.3 | 5.1% | 10% | 26% |
| 13 | Blarney Cork | 1.4 | 14% | 0% | – |
| 14 | Kilbarry Waterford | 1.3 | 1.6% | 5.1% | – |
| 15 | Crosshaven Cork | 1.2 | 8.9% | 0.4% | 44% |
| 16 | Virginia Cavan | 1.1 | 18% | 0.2% | – |
| 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 | Tower Cork | 0.7 | 13% | 0% | – |
| 22 | Kingscourt Cavan | 0.7 | 12% | 0% | – |
| 23 | Athboy Meath | 0.6 | 1.1% | 1.5% | – |
| 24 | Bundoran Donegal | 0.5 | 2% | 5.1% | 35% |
| 25 | Muinebeag (Bagenalstown) Carlow | 0.5 | 3.9% | 2.9% | – |
| 26 | Skibbereen Cork | 0.5 | 1.7% | 1.6% | – |
| 27 | Rathangan Kildare | 0.5 | 4.5% | 0% | – |
| 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 | Kanturk Cork | 0.3 | 0% | 5.1% | – |
| 33 | Ballinrobe Mayo | 0.3 | 0.5% | 11% | – |
| 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% | – |
Parks, woods, footpaths & countryside
Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Boyle’s urban area.
5 in 10 Boyle 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 1,500 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees.
Tullaghan Bog (Roscommon) NHA is the nearest protected area, 5.0 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.
One protected site lies within 5 km of Boyle. Proposed Natural Heritage Areas cover 1.5% 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.
Protected 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.
Wild Nephin National Park is 74 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.
Wild Nephin 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).
6 km of footpaths cross Boyle
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
Boyle has less footpath per km² than 92% of Irish towns and more 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.
8 waymarked trails start near Boyle
6 km of footpaths are mapped in Boyle and the kilometre around it, 0.3 km for every square kilometre (the typical Irish town has 2.1).
The Miner's Way & Historical Trail - Slí an Mhianadóra & Conair Stairiúil (145 km end to end) passes through Boyle.
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 Boyle: 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) | 7.9 | 9.7 | 11.7 | 14.0 | 15.9 | 17.1 | 16.6 | 14.8 | 12.6 | 10.4 | 8.4 | 7.4 |
| High (°C) | 8 | 8 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 18 | 19 | 19 | 17 | 13 | 10 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 127 | 103 | 97 | 80 | 80 | 77 | 90 | 96 | 86 | 118 | 129 | 136 |
June is the driest month (77 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 19 °C). Winter days are short, about 7.4 hours of daylight in December, and 136 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. The climate in Boyle →
1 hill or peak and 2 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
Hills and peaks 1
Plus 1 peak without a name on the map.
Playgrounds 2
Plus 2 playgrounds without a name on the map.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), Geofabrik extract, October 2026. Unnamed places are counted, not listed.
Next to Boyle
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boyle | 49% | 1.7 | 0.3 | 0% |
| Carrick-On-Shannon 14 km | 64% | 2.0 | 0.2 | 0% |
| Drumshanbo 19 km | 48% | 1.2 | 0.7 | 2.5% |
In Carrick-On-Shannon, 64% of residents live within a 5-minute walk of a park, more than here.
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 Boyle
Is there protected countryside near Boyle?
One protected site lies within 5 km, though it covers under 1% of the land. The nearest is Tullaghan Bog (Roscommon) NHA, 5.0 km from the edge of town.
What are the best walks near Boyle?
8 waymarked trails start within 5 km, including the Miner's Way & Historical Trail - Slí an Mhianadóra & Conair Stairiúil, Lough Key - The Bog Garden Trail and Lough Key - Drummans Island Trail.
How many people in Boyle live near a park?
49% 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 Boyle?
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 Boyle near a National Park?
The nearest of Ireland’s six National Parks is Wild Nephin National Park, 74 km west of the town’s edge; it covers about 171 km².
What is there to do outdoors around Boyle?
Within 2 km, OpenStreetMap maps 1 hill or peak; the named ones are listed under Things to do, with directions.
Where Boyle’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
- 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).