Photo: Dave Dunford Dave.Dunford · Public domainFurness Vale has more footpath per square kilometre than 9 in 10 UK towns
46 km of footpaths run through the village and the kilometre around it, 5.0 for every square kilometre. The Peak District National Park begins 0.7 mi from the village’s edge. 78% of residents live within a 5-minute walk of a park or playing field. Furness Vale grades A− for the outdoors. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
What kind of outdoors village is Furness Vale?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Furness Vale’s strongest suit is dense footpaths, followed by protected countryside on the doorstep.
Furness Vale grades A− for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Furness Vale, 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.
Furness Vale is 13th of 60 UK villages its size for the outdoors
The 60 UK towns and cities of 1,000 to 1,100 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Against villages its size, Furness Vale stands out most for path per km²: only 2 of the other 59 have more. It falls furthest behind on park space per resident, where 36 of the others do better.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Giggleswick North Yorkshire | A+ | 14.2 | 100% | 4.1 | 75% |
| 2 | Lympne Kent | A+ | 4 | 100% | 2.7 | 34% |
| 3 | Frampton on Severn Gloucestershire | A+ | 11 | 100% | 3.6 | 0% |
| 4 | Bromham Wiltshire | A+ | 5.8 | 100% | 3.3 | 13% |
| 5 | Blagdon Somerset | A | 3.3 | 100% | 2.9 | 62% |
| 6 | Colney Heath Hertfordshire | A | 8.7 | 100% | 7.4 | 0% |
| 7 | Alston Cumbria | A | 5.8 | 100% | 2.1 | 100% |
| 8 | Newnham Gloucestershire | A | 4.2 | 100% | 3.2 | 0% |
| 9 | Heather Leicestershire | A | 16.9 | 100% | 4.7 | 0% |
| 10 | Blockley Gloucestershire | A | 2.9 | 100% | 2.5 | 86% |
| 11 | Silverdale Lancashire | A | 2.3 | 46% | 3.9 | 76% |
| 12 | North Curry Somerset | A | 6.2 | 100% | 3.5 | 0% |
| 13 | Furness Vale Derbyshire | A− | 2 | 78% | 5 | 36% |
| 14 | Old Langho Lancashire | A− | 7.6 | 73% | 2.9 | 20% |
| 15 | Plumpton Green East Sussex | A− | 4.6 | 54% | 3.6 | 37% |
| 16 | Winford Isle of Wight | A− | 1.7 | 0% | 4.4 | 39% |
| 17 | Cwmgwrach West Glamorgan | B+ | 3.2 | 100% | 1.7 | 6% |
| 18 | Calver Derbyshire | B+ | 2.2 | 44% | 4.8 | 99% |
| 19 | Groombridge East Sussex | B+ | 2.3 | 77% | 2.8 | 92% |
| 20 | Crowlas Cornwall | B+ | 3.3 | 73% | 1.1 | 23% |
| 21 | Blackfordby Leicestershire | B+ | 3.5 | 100% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 22 | Five Ash Down East Sussex | B+ | 2.8 | 0% | 4.1 | 43% |
| 23 | Avening Gloucestershire | B | 0.9 | 100% | 2.3 | 97% |
| 24 | Flamstead Hertfordshire | B | 2.1 | 82% | 2.7 | 33% |
| 25 | Fishtoft Lincolnshire | B | 2.3 | 100% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 26 | Holt Clwyd | B | 0.9 | 100% | 5.1 | 0% |
| 27 | Pentre Halkyn Clwyd | B | 1.3 | 59% | 3.6 | 3% |
| 28 | Nanpean Cornwall | B | 4.4 | 100% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 29 | Sharnford Leicestershire | B− | 1.9 | 100% | 2.9 | 0% |
| 30 | Tackley Oxfordshire | B− | 1.9 | 100% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 31 | Twyning Gloucestershire | B− | 1 | 100% | 2.5 | 10% |
| 32 | Ettington Warwickshire | B− | 3.3 | 100% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 33 | South Wingfield Derbyshire | B− | 5.4 | 75% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 34 | Coopersale Essex | B− | 1.1 | 100% | 3.5 | 0% |
| 35 | Carleton-in-Craven North Yorkshire | C+ | 0.4 | 100% | 2.3 | 10% |
| 36 | Chillington Devon | C+ | 0.6 | 78% | 1.3 | 55% |
| 37 | Milford Derbyshire | C+ | 1.4 | 100% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 38 | Draycott Somerset | C+ | 2.1 | 68% | 2.1 | 46% |
| 39 | Sutterton Lincolnshire | C+ | 2.8 | 100% | 0.4 | 0% |
| 40 | Upper Basildon Berkshire | C+ | 2.3 | 0% | 2 | 97% |
| 41 | Weston Staffordshire | C+ | 1.3 | 100% | 1 | 4% |
| 42 | Simister Greater Manchester | C | 16.6 | 0% | 2.7 | 0% |
| 43 | Huby (Hambleton) North Yorkshire | C | 2.4 | 75% | 1.5 | 2% |
| 44 | Charlton Marshall Dorset | C | 0.5 | 78% | 2 | 50% |
| 45 | Kimbolton Cambridgeshire | C− | 2.4 | 50% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 46 | Pattishall and Astcote Northamptonshire | C− | 2.9 | 39% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 47 | Stebbing Essex | C− | 2.4 | 70% | 2 | 0% |
| 48 | North Leverton with Habblesthorpe Nottinghamshire | C− | 0.5 | 100% | 1.4 | 0% |
| 49 | Tolleshunt Knights Essex | C− | 3.4 | 41% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 50 | Gorefield Cambridgeshire | D | 2.9 | 67% | 0.5 | 0% |
| 51 | Snitterfield Warwickshire | D | 2.4 | 63% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 52 | Crundale Dyfed | D | 1.5 | 57% | 0.5 | 5% |
| 53 | Napton on the Hill Warwickshire | D | 0.4 | 69% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 54 | Aberporth Dyfed | D | 0.6 | 38% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 55 | Wisbech St Mary Cambridgeshire | D | 1.8 | 69% | 0.2 | 0% |
| 56 | Hockliffe Bedfordshire | D− | 1.2 | 49% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 57 | South Hykeham Lincolnshire | D− | 0.2 | 0% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 58 | Pencader Dyfed | D− | 1.2 | 30% | 0.1 | 0% |
| 59 | Netheravon Wiltshire | D− | 0.4 | 0% | 1.3 | 0% |
| 60 | Leeming Bar North Yorkshire | D− | 0.7 | 0% | 0.9 | 0% |
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Furness Vale’s built-up area.
8 in 10 Furness Vale 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 200 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 village, about one for every 49 residents.
The Peak District National Park is 0.7 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.
36% of the land within 5 km of Furness Vale is National Park or National Landscape, more than 86% of UK towns. Peak District National Park covers 1,438 km² and has been a National Park since 1951.
7 waymarked walks pass through or near Furness Vale
46 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Furness Vale and the kilometre around it, 5.0 km for every square kilometre (the typical UK town has 3.0). Bars show each route’s kilometres within 2 km of the village.
Close to home, the Goyt Way has 7 km of local walk within 2 km of the village. 3 regional routes pass through, including the Midshires Way, Peak District Boundary Walk Stage 19 and Peak District Boundary Walk Stage 20.
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 Furness Vale: 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) | 8.0 | 9.7 | 11.7 | 13.9 | 15.8 | 17.0 | 16.5 | 14.8 | 12.6 | 10.4 | 8.5 | 7.5 |
| High (°C) | 6 | 7 | 9 | 12 | 16 | 18 | 20 | 20 | 17 | 13 | 9 | 7 |
| Rain (mm) | 94 | 81 | 71 | 65 | 65 | 80 | 92 | 86 | 86 | 106 | 103 | 110 |
April is the driest month (65 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 20 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 110 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 44 nights a year. The climate in Furness Vale →
22 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
Furness Vale is inland. These are the nearest named beaches, measured from the edge of the village.
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. Kiln Knoll, at 298 m, is the highest named top within 2 km of Furness Vale.
Every named place, with directions
Hills and peaks 3
Nature reserves 2
Playgrounds 22
Plus 20 playgrounds without a name on the map.
Slipways 1
Plus 1 slipway 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.
Hayfield, 2.8 miles away, grades A+, the best next door: every resident lives within 400 m of a park.
Questions about the outdoors in Furness Vale
Is Furness Vale near a National Park?
Yes. Peak District National Park begins 0.7 mi east of the village’s edge. It covers 1,438 km² and has been a National Park since 1951.
What are the best walks near Furness Vale?
7 waymarked walking routes pass within 2 km of the village, including the Midshires Way, Goyt Way and The Steel Cotton Rail Trail.
What is the nearest beach to Furness Vale?
Stone Beach, 20 mi from the edge of the village, then Wader Point (20 mi). Furness Vale itself is inland.
How many people in Furness Vale live near a park?
78% 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 Furness Vale?
May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Is Furness Vale good for walking?
For paths, yes: 5.0 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 93% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 45% (2.0 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 Furness Vale’s overall grade.
Where Furness Vale’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.