Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Colin Park · CC BY-SA 2.0The sea makes up 31% of the area within 5 km. The Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park and the Loch Lomond National Scenic Area both begin about a mile from the town’s edge. Parks and playing fields in Helensburgh add up to 1.0 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical town in England and Wales has 2.1. Helensburgh has no Outdoors Grade: Scottish towns aren’t graded on the outdoors yet.
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Helensburgh’s strongest suit is the sea, followed by two protected landscapes close by.
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Helensburgh’s locality.
The biggest is Hermitage Park, 4.0 ha (10 acres). Directions go to the park’s nearest public entrance where Ordnance Survey maps one.
The two biggest, Hermitage Park and Eastend Public Park, are 78% of the named green space. 3 of the 4 are under 2 ha: small gardens, play spaces and pitches.
Each square is 1 in 100 residents: green lives within 400 m of a public park, garden or playing field (NRS Census 2022 output areas against OS Open Greenspace).
About 3,900 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 22 playgrounds are mapped in and around the town, about one for every 642 residents.
Protected landscapes within 30 km, by direction and distance from the edge of the locality; circle size shows each one’s area. National Scenic Areas are Scotland’s finest landscapes, chosen by NatureScot.
24% of the land within 5 km of Helensburgh is National Park or National Scenic Area. Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park covers 1,861 km² and has been a National Park since 2002.
50 km of footpaths, tracks and core paths are mapped in Helensburgh and the kilometre around it, 2.4 km for every square kilometre (the typical town in England and Wales has 3.0). Bars show each route’s kilometres within 2 km of the town.
The Three Lochs Way, a national route, passes Helensburgh.
Waymarked walks are OpenStreetMap walking routes. Scotland has no rights-of-way register: everyone has a right of responsible access to most land, so tracks and councils’ core paths count. Paths are only as complete as the map in each area.
The town’s 1991–2020 averages (Met Office HadUK-Grid) and the daylight at its latitude. Outlined months have 12½+ hours of daylight, highs of 15 °C or more and little rain for the town.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daylight (h) | 7.6 | 9.5 | 11.6 | 14.1 | 16.3 | 17.6 | 17.0 | 15.1 | 12.6 | 10.3 | 8.1 | 7.0 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 7 | 8 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 18 | 18 | 16 | 12 | 9 | 6 |
| Rain (mm) | 171 | 158 | 139 | 94 | 91 | 106 | 118 | 136 | 139 | 186 | 179 | 192 |
May is the driest month (91 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 18 °C). Winter days are short, about 7 hours of daylight in December, and 192 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 38 nights a year. The climate in Helensburgh →
31% of the area within 5 km of Helensburgh is sea. 6 beaches are mapped within 5 km, 0 with a name.
Sea: the area outside the ONS coastline (mean high water). Bathing water quality is published by SEPA; check it before swimming.
Mapped within 2 km of the town in OpenStreetMap. Named places are listed with directions; unnamed ones are only counted.
Plus 22 playgrounds without a name on the map.
The nearest towns of 1,000+ within 12 miles. Tap a town for its outdoors page.
| Town | Outdoors | Green space, ha per 1,000 | Near a park | Protected within 5 km |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helensburgh | – | 1.0 | 72% | 24% |
| Greenock 4.6 mi | – | 1.5 | 77% | 0% |
| Gourock 5.4 mi | – | 2.5 | 78% | 0% |
| Alexandria 5.5 mi | – | 3.2 | 97% | 33% |
| Port Glasgow 5.8 mi | – | 2.9 | 72% | 0% |
| Balloch and Haldane 5.9 mi | – | 11.4 | 92% | 45% |
| Bonhill 6.4 mi | – | 4.1 | 97% | 26% |
Gourock, Alexandria and Port Glasgow have at least twice Helensburgh’s green space per resident.
Hermitage Park, 4.0 ha (10 acres), with 1.6 km of path. Eastend Public Park (1.7 ha) is second. 4 named parks, gardens and playing fields are in the town or within 400 m of it.
Yes. Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park begins 0.6 mi north of the town’s edge. It covers 1,861 km² and has been a National Park since 2002.
2 waymarked walking routes pass within 2 km of the town, including the Three Lochs Way and John Muir Way (Helensburgh to Balloch).
72% of residents live within 400 m, about a 5-minute walk, of a public park, garden or playing field (NRS Census 2022 output areas against OS Open Greenspace). The typical town in England and Wales is 83%.
June to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
From five measures, each placed among UK towns of 1,000 or more: public green space per resident, the share living near a park, National Park or National Scenic Area within 5 km, footpaths per square kilometre, and the sea within 5 km. It is a character grade and isn’t part of Helensburgh’s overall grade.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.