Photo: Stephen Charles · CC BY-SA 2.0Parks and walks in Soughton
The Bryniau Clwyd A Dyffryn Dyfrdwy/clwydian Range and Dee Valley National Landscape begins 2.0 mi from the village’s edge. Parks and playing fields in Soughton add up to 0.4 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. 9 km of footpaths run through the village and the kilometre around it, 1.3 for every square kilometre. Soughton grades D for the outdoors. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
What kind of outdoors village is Soughton?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Soughton’s strongest suit is the Bryniau Clwyd A Dyffryn Dyfrdwy/clwydian Range and Dee Valley National Landscape close by. Where it falls short is park space per person.
Soughton grades D for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Soughton, the dashed line the typical town. The number is the share of towns it beats; the five are averaged and the average ranked again.
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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.
Soughton is 54th of 60 UK villages its size for the outdoors
The 60 UK towns and cities of 1,600 to 1,800 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Soughton falls furthest behind on park space per resident, where 54 of the 59 others do better.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pease Pottage West Sussex | A+ | 4.1 | 100% | 7.4 | 65% |
| 2 | Manningtree Essex | A+ | 5.6 | 100% | 2.5 | 43% |
| 3 | Guston Kent | A+ | 5.8 | 100% | 2.5 | 25% |
| 4 | Trimley St Martin Suffolk | A+ | 1.7 | 100% | 2.9 | 43% |
| 5 | Penwithick Cornwall | A | 15 | 100% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 6 | Wroxall Isle of Wight | A | 1.2 | 84% | 4.6 | 33% |
| 7 | Eccles Kent | A | 3.7 | 100% | 2.4 | 30% |
| 8 | Hutton Somerset | A | 1.8 | 100% | 2.2 | 22% |
| 9 | Flimby Cumbria | A | 1.7 | 100% | 2.3 | 2% |
| 10 | Southwell Dorset | A | 0.7 | 100% | 5.4 | 0% |
| 11 | Upchurch Kent | A | 4 | 76% | 2.3 | 7% |
| 12 | Wickwar Gloucestershire | A− | 2 | 100% | 3.5 | 15% |
| 13 | Lynemouth Northumberland | A− | 3.5 | 100% | 1.7 | 0% |
| 14 | Hemyock Devon | A− | 3.2 | 100% | 1.3 | 82% |
| 15 | Seascale Cumbria | A− | 2.1 | 81% | 2.2 | 27% |
| 16 | Clayhanger West Midlands | A− | 17.4 | 100% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 17 | Harrold Bedfordshire | A− | 19.1 | 100% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 18 | Bathampton Somerset | A− | 1 | 85% | 5.5 | 62% |
| 19 | Ripley Surrey | A− | 15 | 64% | 3.6 | 2% |
| 20 | Appledore Devon | B+ | 1.2 | 100% | 1.6 | 16% |
| 21 | Starcross Devon | B+ | 1.9 | 100% | 0.9 | 1% |
| 22 | Aldbourne Wiltshire | B+ | 3.2 | 84% | 1.8 | 100% |
| 23 | Kingsdown Kent | B+ | 1.1 | 67% | 3.4 | 12% |
| 24 | Blewbury Oxfordshire | B | 3.1 | 54% | 2.7 | 79% |
| 25 | Great Kingshill Buckinghamshire | B | 2.7 | 55% | 2.9 | 84% |
| 26 | Silkstone South Yorkshire | B | 1 | 100% | 5.2 | 0% |
| 27 | Bryn Dyfed | B− | 2.9 | 67% | 1.4 | 1% |
| 28 | Streethouse West Yorkshire | B− | 2.2 | 100% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 29 | Shaldon Devon | B− | 1.7 | 85% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 30 | Eynsford Kent | B− | 2.1 | 81% | 1.9 | 46% |
| 31 | Woodsetts South Yorkshire | B− | 2 | 100% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 32 | Allhallows Kent | B− | 3.2 | 76% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 33 | Trethomas Gwent | B− | 6.9 | 48% | 3.4 | 0% |
| 34 | Feniton Devon | C+ | 1.3 | 100% | 1.4 | 17% |
| 35 | Langho Lancashire | C+ | 1.6 | 74% | 3 | 7% |
| 36 | Pilling Lancashire | C+ | 4.2 | 46% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 37 | Seahouses and North Sunderland Northumberland | C+ | 1.6 | 17% | 1.7 | 21% |
| 38 | Chipperfield Hertfordshire | C+ | 2.4 | 37% | 2.8 | 17% |
| 39 | Rocester Staffordshire | C+ | 15.2 | 58% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 40 | Harvington Worcestershire | C+ | 2.6 | 100% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 41 | Minsterley Shropshire | C+ | 1.1 | 77% | 2.4 | 38% |
| 42 | Leeming North Yorkshire | C− | 5 | 76% | 0.5 | 0% |
| 43 | Embsay North Yorkshire | C− | 0.9 | 38% | 2.5 | 47% |
| 44 | High Bentham North Yorkshire | C− | 0.1 | 0% | 2.9 | 45% |
| 45 | Lower Quinton Warwickshire | C− | 2 | 49% | 1.3 | 18% |
| 46 | Modbury Devon | C− | 1.7 | 39% | 1.2 | 41% |
| 47 | Whitehill County Durham | C− | 0.3 | 0% | 7.7 | 0% |
| 48 | Holt Wiltshire | D | 1.1 | 45% | 2.1 | 2% |
| 49 | Shrewton Wiltshire | D | 1.4 | 42% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 50 | Leverington Cambridgeshire | D | 2.8 | 59% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 51 | Dobwalls Cornwall | D | 1.4 | 28% | 1.5 | 15% |
| 52 | Tiddington Warwickshire | D | 0.2 | 79% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 53 | Point Clear Essex | D | 0.1 | 0% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 54 | Soughton Clwyd | D | 0.4 | 67% | 1.3 | 3% |
| 55 | Monk Fryston and Hillam North Yorkshire | D | 2.7 | 40% | 0.7 | 0% |
| 56 | Skirlaugh East Riding of Yorkshire | D | 1 | 85% | 0.7 | 0% |
| 57 | Ulceby Lincolnshire | D− | 1.2 | 72% | 0.5 | 0% |
| 58 | Welford-on-Avon Warwickshire | D− | 0.4 | 48% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 59 | Swffryd Gwent | D− | 1.4 | 17% | 0.4 | 0% |
| 60 | Hambleton North Yorkshire | D− | 0.1 | 52% | 1.1 | 0% |
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Soughton’s built-up area.
7 in 10 Soughton 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 (Census 2021 output areas against OS Open Greenspace).
About 600 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 16 playgrounds are mapped in and around the village, about one for every 106 residents.
The Bryniau Clwyd A Dyffryn Dyfrdwy/clwydian Range and Dee Valley National Landscape is 2.0 mi away
Protected landscapes within 30 km, by direction and distance from the edge of the built-up area; circle size shows each one’s area. National Landscapes were called Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty until 2023.
Bryniau Clwyd A Dyffryn Dyfrdwy/clwydian Range and Dee Valley
3% of the land within 5 km of Soughton is National Park or National Landscape, more than 65% of UK towns.
1 waymarked walk passes through or near Soughton
9 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Soughton and the kilometre around it, 1.3 km for every square kilometre (the typical UK town has 3.0). Bars show each route’s kilometres within 2 km of the village.
The regional route here is the Llwybr Clawdd Wat.
Waymarked walks are OpenStreetMap walking routes. Public rights of way are only as complete as the map in each area.
The best walking months in Soughton: May to September
The village’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) | 8.1 | 9.7 | 11.7 | 13.9 | 15.8 | 16.9 | 16.5 | 14.8 | 12.6 | 10.5 | 8.5 | 7.6 |
| High (°C) | 8 | 8 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 18 | 20 | 20 | 18 | 14 | 10 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 71 | 58 | 59 | 59 | 60 | 66 | 61 | 64 | 71 | 89 | 86 | 97 |
February is the driest month (58 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 20 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 97 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 42 nights a year. The climate in Soughton →
16 playgrounds and the nearest beaches
Mapped within 2 km of the village in OpenStreetMap, against the typical UK village its size per resident. Named places are listed with directions; unnamed ones are only counted.
The nearest beaches
Soughton is inland. These are the nearest named beaches, measured from the edge of the village.
Check the water before you swim. Natural Resources Wales tests designated bathing waters from May to September and publishes a rating for each beach.
Up high. Bailey Hill, at 143 m, is the highest named top within 2 km of Soughton.
Every named place, with directions
Hills and peaks 2
Playgrounds 16
Plus 16 playgrounds without a name on the map.
The outdoors in nearby towns
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soughton | D | 0.4 | 67% | 3% |
| Northop 1.3 mi | D | 1.6 | 70% | 0% |
| Mynydd Isa 1.5 mi | C | 0.9 | 87% | 3% |
| Mold 1.6 mi | C+ | 1.9 | 86% | 17% |
| Northop Hall 1.9 mi | B | 2.6 | 100% | 0% |
| Buckley 2.6 mi | C+ | 2.6 | 82% | 0% |
| Connah's Quay 3.3 mi | A | 5.8 | 97% | 0% |
Connah's Quay, 3.3 miles away, grades A, the best next door: 97% of its residents live within 400 m of a park. Northop, Mynydd Isa and Mold have at least twice Soughton’s green space per resident.
Questions about the outdoors in Soughton
Is Soughton near a National Park?
The nearest protected landscape is the Bryniau Clwyd A Dyffryn Dyfrdwy/clwydian Range and Dee Valley National Landscape, 2.0 mi south-west of the village’s edge. It covers 389 km² and was designated in 2011.
What are the best walks near Soughton?
1 waymarked walking route passes within 2 km of the village, including the Llwybr Clawdd Wat.
What is the nearest beach to Soughton?
East Hoyle Bank, 14 mi from the edge of the village, then Tranmere Beach (14 mi). Soughton itself is inland.
How many people in Soughton live near a park?
67% 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 Soughton?
May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Is Soughton good for walking?
Paths are thinner than most towns: 1.3 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 11% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 3% (0.4 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 Soughton’s overall grade.
Where Soughton’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.