Melbourne’s biggest
Isaac Hatton Gardens
Play space
0.2 ha (0 acres)
Centralin the middle of Melbourne
Directionsto the nearest entrance
Photo: Alan Murray-Rust · CC BY-SA 2.0C−Outdoors Grade
Outdoors in Melbourne · parks, paths & countryside
Parks and walks in Melbourne
67% of residents live within a 5-minute walk of a park or playing field. Parks and playing fields in Melbourne add up to 1.5 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. 32 km of footpaths run through the town and the kilometre around it, 2.7 for every square kilometre. Melbourne grades C− for the outdoors: #56 of 59 in Derbyshire. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
Green space
1.5 ha
per 1,000 residents
Typical UK town 2.1
Near a park
67%
of residents within 400 m
Typical UK town 83%
Footpaths
32 km
2.7 km per km², town + 1 km
Typical UK town 3.0 per km²
Protected landscape
0%
of the land within 5 km
Nearest: Peak District National Park
Character
What kind of outdoors town is Melbourne?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Historic parksMelbourne Hall is a registered historic park (Grade I).Less park per person1.5 ha of parks and playing fields per 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1.
Melbourne’s strongest suit is its historic parks. Where it falls short is park space per person.
Outdoors grade
Melbourne grades C− for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Melbourne, the dashed line the typical town. The number is the share of towns it beats; the five are averaged and the average ranked again.
C−
Better than 16% of UK towns#56 of 59 in Derbyshire · 50th of 60 UK towns its size
Public green space1.5 haper 1,000 residents: parks, gardens, playing fields, play spaces
29out of
100
100
A park within a walk67%of residents within 400 m (a 5-minute walk)
27out of
100
100
National Park or National Landscape0%of the land within 5 km · None within 5 km
31out of
100
100
Footpaths2.7 kmper km², the town and 1 km around it
51out of
100
100
The sea0%of the area within 5 km · Inland
42out of
100
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
Melbourne is 50th of 60 UK towns its size for the outdoors
The 60 UK towns and cities of 4,700 to 5,000 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
Melbourne2.7
Towns its size2.7
Derbyshire towns3.6
All UK towns3.0
Green space, ha per 1,000 residents
Melbourne1.5
Towns its size2.2
Derbyshire towns2.2
All UK towns2.1
Residents within 400 m of a park
Melbourne67%
Towns its size82%
Derbyshire towns86%
All UK towns83%
Melbourne falls furthest behind on park space per resident, where 41 of the 59 others do better.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rye East Sussex | A+ | 3.5 | 89% | 3.5 | 46% |
| 2 | Pill Somerset | A+ | 5.2 | 100% | 3.8 | 0% |
| 3 | Frinton-on-Sea Essex | A+ | 7.5 | 100% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 4 | Windermere Cumbria | A+ | 3 | 94% | 3.6 | 100% |
| 5 | Rownhams and Nursling Hampshire | A+ | 4.9 | 86% | 6.7 | 12% |
| 6 | Burry Port Dyfed | A+ | 11.8 | 75% | 2.8 | 17% |
| 7 | Wilford Nottinghamshire | A | 7.7 | 93% | 9.6 | 0% |
| 8 | Wirksworth Derbyshire | A | 2 | 100% | 4.6 | 8% |
| 9 | Holmfirth West Yorkshire | A | 2.2 | 88% | 4.6 | 27% |
| 10 | Carleton Lancashire | A | 3 | 86% | 3.8 | 0% |
| 11 | Rudheath Cheshire | A | 5.5 | 100% | 3.7 | 0% |
| 12 | Joyden's Wood Kent | A− | 2.7 | 82% | 5.6 | 4% |
| 13 | Fordingbridge Hampshire | A− | 3.6 | 92% | 2 | 56% |
| 14 | Dersingham Norfolk | A− | 3.1 | 76% | 1.9 | 39% |
| 15 | Elvetham Heath Hampshire | A− | 8.7 | 100% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 16 | Liss Hampshire | A− | 2.3 | 87% | 2.6 | 98% |
| 17 | Binfield Berkshire | A− | 8.5 | 100% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 18 | Saxmundham Suffolk | B+ | 3.3 | 100% | 1.9 | 3% |
| 19 | Bodicote Oxfordshire | B+ | 10.2 | 86% | 3.2 | 0% |
| 20 | Cranbrook Devon | B+ | 6.4 | 87% | 1.9 | 1% |
| 21 | Hildenborough Kent | B+ | 6.5 | 40% | 2.8 | 46% |
| 22 | Sturry Kent | B+ | 2.7 | 80% | 3.4 | 1% |
| 23 | Aspull Greater Manchester | B | 7.6 | 92% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 24 | Market Rasen Lincolnshire | B | 2.6 | 94% | 1.6 | 16% |
| 25 | Sedgefield County Durham | B | 6.2 | 81% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 26 | Headley Down and Headley Hampshire | B | 2.1 | 55% | 3.4 | 44% |
| 27 | Lenham and Harrietsham Kent | B− | 1.4 | 88% | 2.4 | 47% |
| 28 | Kelvedon and Feering Essex | B− | 3.5 | 94% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 29 | Handsacre and Armitage Staffordshire | B− | 1.8 | 89% | 2.1 | 12% |
| 30 | Dudley Tyne and Wear | C+ | 2.6 | 69% | 4 | 0% |
| 31 | Dickens Heath West Midlands | C+ | 3.2 | 82% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 32 | Wotton-under-Edge Gloucestershire | C+ | 0.4 | 32% | 5.4 | 60% |
| 33 | Stokesley North Yorkshire | C+ | 0.9 | 100% | 1.7 | 16% |
| 34 | Cross Hills North Yorkshire | C+ | 1.9 | 86% | 3 | 0% |
| 35 | Ripponden West Yorkshire | C+ | 2.1 | 75% | 3.8 | 0% |
| 36 | Moulton Northamptonshire | C+ | 3.3 | 88% | 1.7 | 0% |
| 37 | Edwalton Nottinghamshire | C+ | 2.1 | 58% | 4.5 | 0% |
| 38 | Barton-le-Clay Bedfordshire | C+ | 1.3 | 43% | 3.2 | 38% |
| 39 | Shortstown Bedfordshire | C | 2.4 | 82% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 40 | Billinge Merseyside | C | 0.9 | 94% | 3 | 0% |
| 41 | Datchet Berkshire | C | 8.4 | 72% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 42 | Copthorne West Sussex | C | 1.2 | 62% | 2.9 | 13% |
| 43 | Bowburn County Durham | C | 1.5 | 71% | 3.8 | 0% |
| 44 | Minster (Thanet) Kent | C | 2.3 | 64% | 1.2 | 0% |
| 45 | Northway Gloucestershire | C | 0.9 | 58% | 3.1 | 13% |
| 46 | Winterton Lincolnshire | C | 1.6 | 82% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 47 | Middleton St George County Durham | C− | 1.8 | 94% | 1 | 0% |
| 48 | Bailrigg Lancashire | C− | 0 | 0% | 3.4 | 18% |
| 49 | Shavington Cheshire | C− | 1.1 | 87% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 50 | Melbourne Derbyshire | C− | 1.5 | 67% | 2.7 | 0% |
| 51 | Halesworth Suffolk | C− | 1.4 | 55% | 1.9 | 5% |
| 52 | Tickhill South Yorkshire | D | 1.7 | 69% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 53 | Gresford Clwyd | D | 1.4 | 76% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 54 | South Cave East Riding of Yorkshire | D | 1.5 | 43% | 0.9 | 0% |
| 55 | Markfield Leicestershire | D | 0.8 | 63% | 2.7 | 0% |
| 56 | Melbourn Cambridgeshire | D | 1.2 | 45% | 2.7 | 0% |
| 57 | Fleckney Leicestershire | D | 0.8 | 63% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 58 | Lepton West Yorkshire | D− | 0.9 | 36% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 59 | Bulford Wiltshire | D− | 0.9 | 51% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 60 | Shotton Colliery County Durham | D− | 0.9 | 40% | 1.5 | 0% |
The map
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Melbourne’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 Melbourne
The biggest is Isaac Hatton Gardens, 0.2 ha (0 acres). Directions go to the park’s nearest public entrance where Ordnance Survey maps one.
Lothian Gardens
Play space
0.1 ha (0 acres)
Centralin the middle of Melbourne
Directionsto the nearest entrance
Close to home
7 in 10 Melbourne 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).
Within 400 m (67%)Further (33%)
Melbourne67%
Towns its size82%
Derbyshire towns86%
All UK towns83%
About 1,600 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 8 playgrounds are mapped in and around the town, about one for every 608 residents.
National Parks & National Landscapes
The Peak District National Park is 18 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.
National ParkNational LandscapeThe 5 km the grade counts
Peak District National Park covers 1,438 km² and has been a National Park since 1951.
Footpaths & waymarked walks
5 waymarked walks pass through or near Melbourne
32 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Melbourne and the kilometre around it, 2.7 km for every square kilometre (the typical UK town has 3.0). Bars show each route’s kilometres within 2 km of the town.
RegionalOther waymarked
Trent Valley Way8.0 km
Derby Nomad Way2.3 km
National Forest Way1.8 km
Purple Walk1.8 km
Blue Walk0.8 km
3 regional routes pass through, including the Trent Valley Way, Derby Nomad Way and National Forest Way.
Waymarked walks are OpenStreetMap walking routes. Public rights of way are only as complete as the map in each area.
History along the way
A registered historic park in Melbourne
Historic England’s register of parks and gardens, and the listed buildings and scheduled monuments that stand inside Melbourne’s named parks.
Registered · Grade IMelbourne Hall2.1 ha
A listed building or monument counts when it sits inside the park’s OS Open Greenspace outline (to about 15 m), so a few at the boundary are included. Historic England, National Heritage List for England.
When to get out
The best walking months in Melbourne: 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) | 8.1 | 9.8 | 11.7 | 13.9 | 15.8 | 16.9 | 16.4 | 14.7 | 12.6 | 10.5 | 8.6 | 7.6 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 8 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 19 | 22 | 21 | 19 | 14 | 10 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 64 | 46 | 44 | 47 | 47 | 64 | 64 | 58 | 55 | 65 | 61 | 65 |
March is the driest month (44 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 22 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 65 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 44 nights a year. The climate in Melbourne →
Things to do
2 viewpoints, 8 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.
The nearest beaches
Melbourne is inland. These are the nearest named beaches, measured from the edge of the town.
library20 mi from Melbourne’s edge
DirectionsThe Beach27 mi from Melbourne’s edge
DirectionsGood 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.
Every named place, with directions
Viewpoints 2
Plus 2 viewpoints without a name on the map.
Hills and peaks 1
Plus 1 peak without a name on the map.
Picnic sites 4
Plus 4 picnic sites without a name on the map.
Playgrounds 8
Weston on Trent Under 8's Play Area1.1 mi from town
DirectionsPlus 7 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.
Aston-on-TrentCastle DoningtonShardlowReptonAshby-de-la-ZouchLong WhattonMelbourne
ABCDOutdoors Grade
| Town | Outdoors | Green space, ha per 1,000 | Near a park | Protected within 5 km |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Melbourne | C− | 1.5 | 67% | 0% |
| Aston-on-Trent 2.9 mi | D | 1.5 | 44% | 0% |
| Castle Donington 3.6 mi | C | 1.8 | 85% | 0% |
| Shardlow 4.2 mi | D | 1.5 | 73% | 0% |
| Repton 5.2 mi | D | 0.8 | 36% | 0% |
| Ashby-de-la-Zouch 5.7 mi | C | 1.1 | 90% | 0% |
| Long Whatton 5.8 mi | D | 2.8 | 63% | 0% |
Castle Donington, 3.6 miles away, grades C, the best next door: 85% 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 Melbourne
What is the biggest park in Melbourne?
Isaac Hatton Gardens, 0.2 ha (0 acres). Lothian Gardens (0.1 ha) is second. 2 named parks, gardens and playing fields are in the town or within 400 m of it.
Is Melbourne near a National Park?
Yes. Peak District National Park begins 18 mi north-west of the town’s edge. It covers 1,438 km² and has been a National Park since 1951.
What are the best walks near Melbourne?
5 waymarked walking routes pass within 2 km of the town, including the Trent Valley Way, Derby Nomad Way and National Forest Way.
What is the nearest beach to Melbourne?
library, 20 mi from the edge of the town, then The Beach (27 mi). Melbourne itself is inland.
How many people in Melbourne 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 Melbourne?
May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Which parks in Melbourne are historic?
Melbourne Hall (Grade I) is on Historic England’s register of parks and gardens.
Is Melbourne good for walking?
About average for paths: 2.7 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 51% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 29% (1.5 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 Melbourne’s overall grade.
Sources
Where Melbourne’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.