Photo: John Welford · CC BY-SA 2.0

Outdoors in Ely · parks, paths & countryside

88% of Ely’s residents live within a 5-minute walk of a park

68 km of footpaths run through the town and the kilometre around it, 3.3 for every square kilometre. Parks and playing fields in Ely add up to 2.7 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. Ely grades B for the outdoors: #9 of 50 in Cambridgeshire. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.

4named parks 6waymarked walks

Green space

2.7 ha

per 1,000 residents

Typical UK town 2.1

Near a park

88%

of residents within 400 m

Typical UK town 83%

Footpaths

68 km

3.3 km per km², town + 1 km

Typical UK town 3.0 per km²

Protected landscape

of the land within 5 km

Outdoors grade

Ely grades B for the outdoors

Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Ely, the dashed line the typical town. The number is the share of towns it beats; the five are averaged and the average ranked again.

Better than 58% of UK towns#9 of 50 in Cambridgeshire · 34th of 60 UK towns its size

Public green space2.7 haper 1,000 residents: parks, gardens, playing fields, play spaces

65out of
100

A park within a walk88%of residents within 400 m (a 5-minute walk)

64out of
100

National Park or National Landscape0%of the land within 5 km · None within 5 km

31out of
100

Footpaths3.3 kmper km², the town and 1 km around it

67out of
100

The sea0%of the area within 5 km · Inland

42out of
100

Graded, never part of the overall grade (like History and Civic life). It measures what is mapped: OS Open Greenspace leaves out woodland and open-access land that isn’t a park, and OpenStreetMap’s rural paths are more complete in some places than others.

Towns its size

Ely is 34th of 60 UK towns its size for the outdoors

The 60 UK towns and cities of 17,800 to 20,500 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.

Outdoors score: the share of UK towns each one beats

Footpath, km per km²

Ely3.3

Towns its size3.3

Cambridgeshire towns2.0

All UK towns3.0

Green space, ha per 1,000 residents

Ely2.7

Towns its size2.3

Cambridgeshire towns1.9

All UK towns2.1

Residents within 400 m of a park

Ely88%

Towns its size86%

Cambridgeshire towns79%

All UK towns83%

Against towns its size, Ely stands out most for park space per resident: only 20 of the other 59 have more.

Show as a table

	Town	Outdoors	Green space	Near a park	Path per km²	Protected
1	Camborne Cornwall	A⁺	2.2	93%	4	8%
2	Littlehampton West Sussex	A⁺	2.1	99%	3.1	18%
3	Litherland Merseyside	A	7.3	94%	3.3	0%
4	Buxton Derbyshire	A	3.5	86%	3.8	61%
5	Houghton Regis Bedfordshire	A	3.5	81%	8	20%
6	Brixham Devon	A	3.1	76%	2.5	30%
7	Colne Lancashire	A	3.2	86%	5.3	8%
8	Waltham Abbey Essex	A	11.9	92%	6.7	0%
9	Farnham Surrey	A	5.1	73%	4.3	35%
10	Hazlemere Buckinghamshire	A	2.5	81%	4.7	68%
11	Forest Town Nottinghamshire	A	6.4	94%	5.7	0%
12	Northwich Cheshire	A	8.8	92%	4.8	0%
13	Leek Staffordshire	A	4.2	83%	3.6	19%
14	Keynsham Somerset	A	2.1	95%	4.6	11%
15	Abbots Langley and Kings Langley Hertfordshire	A	3.8	88%	3.6	3%
16	Harwich Essex	A⁻	1.7	95%	2.1	20%
17	Peterlee County Durham	A⁻	2.3	85%	4.2	0%
18	Ebbw Vale Gwent	A⁻	2	92%	3.3	29%
19	Mansfield Woodhouse Nottinghamshire	A⁻	2.8	94%	4.9	0%
20	Devizes Wiltshire	A⁻	1.8	91%	3.2	38%
21	Alton Hampshire	B⁺	2.6	82%	3	27%
22	Walkden Greater Manchester	B⁺	3.4	92%	3.4	0%
23	Belper Derbyshire	B⁺	2.4	94%	4.1	0%
24	Eastwood Nottinghamshire	B⁺	2.6	93%	3.9	0%
25	Hythe and Dibden Purlieu Hampshire	B⁺	0.8	49%	4.4	44%
26	Sandhurst Berkshire	B⁺	5.1	79%	3.9	0%
27	Warminster Wiltshire	B⁺	1.7	86%	3	44%
28	Hazel Grove Greater Manchester	B⁺	2.9	62%	4.2	3%
29	Mirfield West Yorkshire	B	2.5	90%	3.7	0%
30	Ripley Derbyshire	B	2.4	91%	3.7	0%
31	Irlam Greater Manchester	B	3.1	95%	2.8	0%
32	Cradley Heath West Midlands	B	3.3	76%	4.3	0%
33	Penwortham Lancashire	B	2.9	91%	3.1	0%
34	Ely Cambridgeshire	B	2.7	88%	3.3	0%
35	Stanley County Durham	B	1.7	88%	5.2	0%
36	Shaw Greater Manchester	B	1.9	96%	3.7	0%
37	Stourport-on-Severn Worcestershire	B	3.1	79%	3.8	0%
38	Romsey Hampshire	B⁻	1.2	82%	4.5	2%
39	Ware Hertfordshire	B⁻	2	81%	4.9	0%
40	Guisborough North Yorkshire	B⁻	1.5	80%	2.6	35%
41	Calne Wiltshire	B⁻	1.3	88%	2.4	33%
42	Wednesbury West Midlands	B⁻	2.7	93%	2.3	0%
43	Carterton Oxfordshire	B⁻	2.1	82%	2	13%
44	Failsworth Greater Manchester	C⁺	1.8	77%	4.6	0%
45	Rawmarsh South Yorkshire	C⁺	2	84%	3.2	0%
46	Maesteg Mid Glamorgan	C⁺	2	94%	2.5	0%
47	Melksham Wiltshire	C⁺	2.2	87%	2.7	0%
48	Bideford Devon	C⁺	0.9	83%	1	11%
49	Newmarket Suffolk	C⁺	1.9	91%	2.6	0%
50	Knowle and Dorridge West Midlands	C⁺	2.7	82%	2.4	0%
51	Adwick le Street South Yorkshire	C⁺	2.8	89%	1.8	0%
52	Spennymoor County Durham	C⁺	2.1	84%	2.7	0%
53	Thornton Lancashire	C	2.1	71%	1.6	0%
54	Nantwich Cheshire	C	2.2	86%	2.3	0%
55	Sleaford Lincolnshire	C	1.7	93%	2	0%
56	Maghull Merseyside	C⁻	1.6	86%	2.2	0%
57	Willerby and Anlaby East Riding of Yorkshire	C⁻	1.6	46%	1.7	0%
58	Selby North Yorkshire	C⁻	1.6	81%	1.9	0%
59	Goole East Riding of Yorkshire	D	1.7	81%	1.4	0%
60	Tiverton Devon	D	1.5	59%	2.6	0%

The map

Parks, footpaths & countryside

Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Ely’s built-up area.

Green space: parks, gardens, playing fields and play spaces, named or not.© OpenStreetMap contributors · Contains OS data © Crown copyright · Natural England / NRW

Places to walk

Parks to walk in, in and around Ely

The biggest is Ely Common, 3.2 ha (8 acres). Directions go to the park’s nearest public entrance where Ordnance Survey maps one.

All 4 named parks by size: 7 ha (16 acres) and 1 km of path

Parks & gardens 6.6 ha

The two biggest, Ely Common and The Park, are 92% of the named green space.

Ely’s biggest

Ely Common

Park or garden

3.2 ha (8 acres)1.1 km of path

15 minto walk all 1.1 km of path

5 pitchesfootball pitches would fit

0.5 mi eastfrom the centre

Directionsto the nearest entrance

The Park

Park or garden

2.8 ha (7 acres)

4 pitchesfootball pitches would fit

0.5 mi southfrom the centre

Directionsto the nearest entrance

Palace Green

Park or garden

0.4 ha (1 acres)0.1 km of path

Centralin the middle of Ely

2 listed

Directionsto the nearest entrance

St Mary's Green

Park or garden

0.1 ha (0 acres)

Centralin the middle of Ely

Directionsto the nearest entrance

Close to home

How close Ely’s homes are to a park

Each square is 1 in 100 residents: green lives within 400 m of a public park, garden or playing field (Census 2021 output areas against OS Open Greenspace).

Within 400 m (88%)Further (12%)

Ely88%

Towns its size86%

Cambridgeshire towns79%

All UK towns83%

About 2,300 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 26 playgrounds are mapped in and around the town, about one for every 738 residents.

Footpaths & waymarked walks

6 waymarked walks pass through or near Ely

68 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Ely and the kilometre around it, 3.3 km for every square kilometre (the typical UK town has 3.0). Bars show each route’s kilometres within 2 km of the town.

RegionalLocal

The Bishop's Way13.5 km

Hereward Way8.6 km

Ouse Valley Way 3 (Eaton Socon to Brandon Creek)8.3 km

Fen Rivers Way (Cambridge to Ely)4.8 km

Fen Rivers Way (Ely to King's Lynn)3.5 km

Via Beata1.2 km

Close to home, the The Bishop's Way has 14 km of local walk within 2 km of the town. 5 regional routes pass through, including the Hereward Way, Ouse Valley Way 3 (Eaton Socon to Brandon Creek), Fen Rivers Way (Cambridge to Ely) and Fen Rivers Way (Ely to King's Lynn).

Waymarked walks are OpenStreetMap walking routes. Public rights of way are only as complete as the map in each area.

When to get out

The best walking months in Ely: May to September

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)	8.2	9.8	11.7	13.8	15.7	16.8	16.3	14.7	12.6	10.5	8.6	7.7
High (°C)	8	8	11	14	18	21	23	23	20	15	11	8
Rain (mm)	49	37	36	37	44	50	57	57	51	60	56	50

March is the driest month (36 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 23 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 60 mm of rain falls in October, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 45 nights a year. The climate in Ely →

Things to do

3 viewpoints, 26 playgrounds and the nearest beaches

Mapped within 2 km of the town in OpenStreetMap, against the typical UK town its size per resident. Named places are listed with directions; unnamed ones are only counted.

3Viewpoints6.4× towns its size 1Hills and peaks 2Nature reserves 26Playgroundsabout the same as towns its size

The nearest beaches

Ely is inland. These are the nearest named beaches, measured from the edge of the town.

The Beach15 mi from Ely’s edge

Directions

Good to know

Check the water before you swim. The Environment Agency tests designated bathing waters from May to September and publishes a rating for each beach.

Up high. Mill Mound, at 24 m, is the highest named top within 2 km of Ely.

Every named place, with directions

Viewpoints 3

"Division Bell" view of the Cathedral0.1 mi from town

Directions

Sustrans waymark0.9 mi from town

Directions

Plus 1 viewpoint without a name on the map.

Hills and peaks 1

Mill Mound24 m (79 ft) · in town

Directions

Nature reserves 2

Roswell Pits21 ha · 0.1 mi from town

Directions

Chettisham Meadow0.6 ha · 0.4 mi from town

Directions

Playgrounds 26

Plus 26 playgrounds without a name on the map.

Next door

The outdoors in nearby towns

The nearest towns of 1,000+ within 12 miles. Tap a town for its outdoors page.

Little DownhamWitchfordLittleportStrethamSohamHaddenhamEly

ABCDOutdoors Grade

Town	Outdoors	Green space, ha per 1,000	Near a park	Protected within 5 km
Ely	B	2.7	88%	0%
Little Downham 2.2 mi	C⁻	2.8	61%	0%
Witchford 2.7 mi	C⁺	1.9	100%	0%
Littleport 4.0 mi	D	1.0	71%	0%
Stretham 4.2 mi	D	1.4	60%	0%
Soham 5.5 mi	A⁻	4.7	97%	0%
Haddenham 5.8 mi	C	2.2	86%	0%

Soham, 5.5 miles away, grades A−, the best next door: 97% of its residents live within 400 m of a park. None of the neighbours has a protected landscape within 5 km either.

Questions about the outdoors in Ely

What is the biggest park in Ely?

Ely Common, 3.2 ha (8 acres), with 1.1 km of path. The Park (2.8 ha) is second. 4 named parks, gardens and playing fields are in the town or within 400 m of it.

Is Ely near a National Park?

No National Park or National Landscape is within 30 km (about 19 miles) of Ely.

What are the best walks near Ely?

6 waymarked walking routes pass within 2 km of the town, including the The Bishop's Way, Hereward Way and Ouse Valley Way 3 (Eaton Socon to Brandon Creek).

What is the nearest beach to Ely?

The Beach, 15 mi from the edge of the town. Ely itself is inland.

How many people in Ely live near a park?

88% of residents live within 400 m, about a 5-minute walk, of a public park, garden or playing field (Census 2021 output areas against OS Open Greenspace). The typical UK town is 83%.

When is the best time of year for walking in Ely?

May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.

Is Ely good for walking?

For paths, yes: 3.3 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 67% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 65% (2.7 ha per 1,000 residents).

How is the Outdoors Grade worked out?

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 Landscape within 5 km, footpaths per square kilometre, and the sea within 5 km. It is a character grade and isn’t part of Ely’s overall grade.

Sources

Where Ely’s outdoors figures come from

Parks and green space: Ordnance Survey OS Open Greenspace (parks and gardens, playing fields, play spaces, and their access points). Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026, Open Government Licence v3.0.
National Parks and National Landscapes: Natural England and Natural Resources Wales boundaries, areas and designation dates, Open Government Licence v3.0.
Footpaths, walking routes, beaches and things to do: © OpenStreetMap contributors, Open Database License (ODbL), via Geofabrik, 16 October 2026.
Historic parks, listed buildings and monuments: Historic England, National Heritage List for England, Open Government Licence v3.0.
Rain and temperature: Met Office HadUK-Grid 1991–2020 averages for the town; daylight calculated from its latitude.
The sea: ONS Countries (December 2024) boundaries clipped to mean high water. Residents near a park: ONS Census 2021 output areas.
Grade: TownRatings’ Outdoors Grade, ranked against UK towns only.

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.