Photo: Simon Cobb · CC0Almost everyone in Clyst St Mary lives within a 5-minute walk of a park
Parks and playing fields in Clyst St Mary add up to 5.8 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. The East Devon National Landscape begins 3.2 mi from the village’s edge. 12 km of footpaths run through the village and the kilometre around it, 1.6 for every square kilometre. Clyst St Mary grades B for the outdoors. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
What kind of outdoors village is Clyst St Mary?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Clyst St Mary’s strongest suit is parks close to every home, followed by plenty of park space. Where it falls short is footpaths.
Clyst St Mary grades B for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Clyst St Mary, 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.
Clyst St Mary is 20th of 60 UK villages its size for the outdoors
The 60 UK towns and cities of 1,100 to 1,300 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Against villages its size, Clyst St Mary stands out most for park space per resident: only 7 of the other 59 have more. It falls furthest behind on path per km², where 43 of the others do better.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Porlock Somerset | A+ | 2.9 | 75% | 5.2 | 71% |
| 2 | Carlin How North Yorkshire | A+ | 3.1 | 100% | 2.3 | 13% |
| 3 | Sundridge Kent | A+ | 9.1 | 100% | 2.3 | 73% |
| 4 | Shamley Green Surrey | A | 2.9 | 100% | 3 | 69% |
| 5 | Dawlish Warren Devon | A | 21.1 | 73% | 2.9 | 1% |
| 6 | Niton Isle of Wight | A | 2.6 | 76% | 3.1 | 37% |
| 7 | Donisthorpe Leicestershire | A | 38.4 | 100% | 4.3 | 0% |
| 8 | Egloshayle Cornwall | A | 7.3 | 100% | 2.6 | 12% |
| 9 | Bures Suffolk | A | 5.4 | 100% | 2.5 | 14% |
| 10 | Ruardean Gloucestershire | A | 4.5 | 100% | 2.2 | 29% |
| 11 | Great Bedwyn Wiltshire | A | 3 | 76% | 3.7 | 100% |
| 12 | Brighstone Isle of Wight | A | 2.2 | 55% | 3.4 | 56% |
| 13 | Lower Halstow Kent | A− | 1.5 | 100% | 2.5 | 4% |
| 14 | Low Bradley North Yorkshire | A− | 1.2 | 100% | 6.2 | 2% |
| 15 | Hurst Green East Sussex | B+ | 2.3 | 100% | 1.1 | 100% |
| 16 | Oxspring South Yorkshire | B+ | 2.7 | 77% | 4 | 1% |
| 17 | Stallingborough Lincolnshire | B+ | 2.3 | 100% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 18 | King's Somborne Hampshire | B+ | 5.2 | 100% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 19 | St Bees Cumbria | B | 8.5 | 78% | 1.2 | 0% |
| 20 | Clyst St Mary Devon | B | 5.8 | 100% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 21 | Bodedern Gwynedd | B | 1.2 | 100% | 0 | 16% |
| 22 | Woodchurch Kent | B | 2.3 | 78% | 2.8 | 12% |
| 23 | Moresby Parks Cumbria | B− | 1.2 | 100% | 2 | 0% |
| 24 | Stradbroke Suffolk | B− | 3 | 100% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 25 | Trawden Lancashire | B− | 4 | 0% | 6.1 | 0% |
| 26 | Welford Northamptonshire | B− | 3.5 | 100% | 1.4 | 0% |
| 27 | Rushwick Worcestershire | B− | 5 | 71% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 28 | Datchworth Hertfordshire | C+ | 10.8 | 76% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 29 | Lyne Surrey | C+ | 4 | 71% | 3 | 0% |
| 30 | Tansley Derbyshire | C+ | 1.6 | 73% | 3.4 | 4% |
| 31 | Coldeast Devon | C+ | 1.6 | 47% | 3.6 | 30% |
| 32 | Haswell County Durham | C+ | 3.2 | 100% | 0.9 | 0% |
| 33 | Chesterton Oxfordshire | C+ | 1.8 | 100% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 34 | Bottom Boat West Yorkshire | C | 0.8 | 100% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 35 | Stalmine Lancashire | C | 3.1 | 67% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 36 | Rearsby Leicestershire | C | 1.5 | 100% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 37 | Barrington Cambridgeshire | C | 3.6 | 69% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 38 | Croughton Northamptonshire | C | 3.6 | 73% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 39 | Hill Brow and Rake Hampshire | C− | 0 | 0% | 2.9 | 97% |
| 40 | Wolverley Worcestershire | C− | 7.2 | 23% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 41 | Methley West Yorkshire | C− | 0.2 | 100% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 42 | Abbotskerswell Devon | C− | 4.2 | 49% | 1.4 | 0% |
| 43 | Kirby-le-Soken Essex | C− | 0.7 | 0% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 44 | Parson Drove Cambridgeshire | D | 3.5 | 60% | 0.9 | 0% |
| 45 | Shardlow Derbyshire | D | 1.5 | 73% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 46 | Kingswood Warwickshire | D | 1.7 | 42% | 2.7 | 0% |
| 47 | Coup Green Lancashire | D | 0.6 | 70% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 48 | Puddletown Dorset | D | 0.2 | 0% | 2.1 | 15% |
| 49 | Llanybydder Dyfed | D | 2.2 | 60% | 0.3 | 0% |
| 50 | Beckingham Nottinghamshire | D | 2.6 | 28% | 0.9 | 0% |
| 51 | Melton Constable Norfolk | D | 1.6 | 76% | 0.7 | 0% |
| 52 | Stoke Ferry Norfolk | D | 1.1 | 73% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 53 | Ifold West Sussex | D | 0 | 0% | 1.9 | 5% |
| 54 | Bretforton Worcestershire | D− | 0.2 | 0% | 1.4 | 9% |
| 55 | Standlake Oxfordshire | D− | 1.7 | 42% | 1.3 | 0% |
| 56 | Rillington North Yorkshire | D− | 1 | 75% | 0.6 | 0% |
| 57 | Wrawby Lincolnshire | D− | 1.8 | 26% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 58 | Darrington West Yorkshire | D− | 0.5 | 72% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 59 | Blackwell Worcestershire | D− | 0.7 | 29% | 2 | 0% |
| 60 | Fiskerton Lincolnshire | D− | 0 | 0% | 1.9 | 0% |
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Clyst St Mary’s built-up area.
How close Clyst St Mary’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).
Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 14 playgrounds are mapped in and around the village, about one for every 85 residents.
The East Devon National Landscape is 3.2 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.
Protected landscape begins just outside the 5 km ring the Outdoors Grade measures, so Clyst St Mary scores 0% on it even though the East Devon National Landscape is 3.2 mi away. Dartmoor National Park covers 956 km² and has been a National Park since 1951.
Footpaths in and around Clyst St Mary
12 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Clyst St Mary and the kilometre around it, 1.6 km for every square kilometre (the typical UK town has 3.0).
No named walking route is mapped within 2 km of Clyst St Mary; its footpaths are on the map above.
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 Clyst St Mary: 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) | 8.4 | 10.0 | 11.7 | 13.7 | 15.5 | 16.5 | 16.1 | 14.5 | 12.5 | 10.6 | 8.9 | 8.0 |
| High (°C) | 9 | 9 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 20 | 22 | 22 | 19 | 16 | 12 | 9 |
| Rain (mm) | 82 | 65 | 64 | 62 | 51 | 54 | 47 | 60 | 57 | 89 | 100 | 95 |
July is the driest month (47 mm) and the warmest (highs of 22 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 100 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 35 nights a year. The climate in Clyst St Mary →
14 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
Clyst St Mary 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.
Every named place, with directions
Nature reserves 2
Playgrounds 14
Plus 13 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clyst St Mary | B | 5.8 | 100% | 0% |
| Topsham 1.6 mi | B− | 1.9 | 76% | 0% |
| Clyst Honiton 1.9 mi | B+ | 8.0 | 83% | 0% |
| West Clyst 2.7 mi | C− | 0.6 | 59% | 0% |
| Exminster 2.8 mi | A− | 2.5 | 100% | 0% |
| Exeter 2.9 mi | B− | 1.8 | 81% | 0% |
| Exton 3.1 mi | A− | 2.2 | 100% | 7% |
Exminster, 2.8 miles away, grades A−, the best next door: every resident lives within 400 m of a park.
Questions about the outdoors in Clyst St Mary
Is Clyst St Mary near a National Park?
Yes. Dartmoor National Park begins 8.6 mi west of the village’s edge. It covers 956 km² and has been a National Park since 1951. The nearest protected landscape of any kind is the East Devon National Landscape, 3.2 mi away.
What is the nearest beach to Clyst St Mary?
Pirate Cove, 6.0 mi from the edge of the village, then Exmouth Beach (6.2 mi). Clyst St Mary itself is inland.
How many people in Clyst St Mary live near a park?
100% 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 Clyst St Mary?
May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Is Clyst St Mary good for walking?
Paths are thinner than most towns: 1.6 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 19% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 90% (5.8 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 Clyst St Mary’s overall grade.
Where Clyst St Mary’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.