Fordton Farmhouse · Photo: Simon Cobb · CC0Whimple has more park space per resident than nearly 9 in 10 UK towns
Parks and playing fields in Whimple add up to 5.2 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. The East Devon National Landscape begins 2.5 mi from the village’s edge. Footpaths add up to 7 km in the village and the kilometre around it, 0.9 for every square kilometre. Whimple grades C+ for the outdoors. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
What kind of outdoors village is Whimple?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Whimple’s strongest suit is plenty of park space, followed by two protected landscapes close by. Where it falls short is footpaths.
Whimple grades C+ for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Whimple, 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.
Whimple is 35th of 60 UK villages its size for the outdoors
The 60 UK towns and cities of 1,100 to 1,200 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Against villages its size, Whimple stands out most for park space per resident: only 4 of the other 59 have more. It falls furthest behind on path per km², where 51 of the others do better.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Corton Suffolk | A+ | 4.4 | 100% | 3 | 5% |
| 2 | Upton St Leonards Gloucestershire | A+ | 5.2 | 80% | 7.5 | 43% |
| 3 | Fairlands Surrey | A+ | 2.8 | 100% | 5 | 11% |
| 4 | Chagford Devon | A+ | 4.7 | 100% | 2.5 | 98% |
| 5 | Masham North Yorkshire | A+ | 3.7 | 100% | 3 | 44% |
| 6 | Ditchling East Sussex | A | 7.4 | 77% | 4 | 57% |
| 7 | Tolvaddon Cornwall | A | 11.9 | 24% | 4.5 | 9% |
| 8 | Leigh Kent | A | 3 | 100% | 2.6 | 49% |
| 9 | Barns Green West Sussex | A | 6.6 | 100% | 3.5 | 0% |
| 10 | Horsted Keynes West Sussex | A− | 2.2 | 100% | 2.3 | 83% |
| 11 | Wenvoe South Glamorgan | A− | 5.9 | 100% | 2.9 | 0% |
| 12 | Chatburn Lancashire | A− | 1.7 | 100% | 2.6 | 59% |
| 13 | Boosbeck North Yorkshire | A− | 2.9 | 100% | 1.9 | 22% |
| 14 | Camber East Sussex | A− | 0.9 | 100% | 2.4 | 5% |
| 15 | Grange Moor West Yorkshire | A− | 4.3 | 100% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 16 | St Erth Cornwall | B+ | 0.9 | 100% | 2.5 | 4% |
| 17 | Gotherington Gloucestershire | B+ | 2.7 | 72% | 3.7 | 33% |
| 18 | Grassington North Yorkshire | B+ | 1.3 | 79% | 4.1 | 100% |
| 19 | South Bents Tyne and Wear | B+ | 4.9 | 62% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 20 | Borth Dyfed | B | 3.1 | 74% | 1.2 | 0% |
| 21 | Oakley Buckinghamshire | B | 2.9 | 100% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 22 | Cropston Leicestershire | B | 3.1 | 100% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 23 | Jacobs Well Surrey | B | 1.4 | 77% | 4.7 | 8% |
| 24 | Goudhurst Kent | B | 1.5 | 100% | 1.2 | 65% |
| 25 | Bishop Middleham County Durham | B− | 2.6 | 100% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 26 | Shipham Somerset | B− | 1.2 | 63% | 4 | 55% |
| 27 | Plaxtol Kent | B− | 2.6 | 57% | 2.5 | 40% |
| 28 | Harpur Hill Derbyshire | B− | 3.1 | 31% | 2.3 | 60% |
| 29 | Kelly Bray Cornwall | B− | 1.2 | 100% | 1.8 | 22% |
| 30 | Roydon (South Norfolk) Norfolk | B− | 4.3 | 50% | 4 | 0% |
| 31 | Beaumaris Gwynedd | B− | 2.7 | 30% | 0.8 | 18% |
| 32 | Castlethorpe Buckinghamshire | C+ | 3.5 | 72% | 2.9 | 0% |
| 33 | Gainford County Durham | C+ | 2.6 | 100% | 1.4 | 0% |
| 34 | Lacey Green and Loosley Row Buckinghamshire | C+ | 2.1 | 27% | 2.4 | 82% |
| 35 | Whimple Devon | C+ | 5.2 | 70% | 0.9 | 1% |
| 36 | Brinklow Warwickshire | C+ | 1.7 | 100% | 2 | 0% |
| 37 | Three Legged Cross Dorset | C | 1.5 | 77% | 2.6 | 1% |
| 38 | Ashchurch Gloucestershire | C | 2 | 59% | 2.2 | 21% |
| 39 | Bow Devon | C | 1.9 | 100% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 40 | Swindon Staffordshire | C | 2.5 | 67% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 41 | Mannings Heath West Sussex | C | 1 | 71% | 1.9 | 44% |
| 42 | Baldwin's Gate Staffordshire | C− | 1.3 | 100% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 43 | North Newbald East Riding of Yorkshire | C− | 1.7 | 100% | 0.4 | 0% |
| 44 | Milverton Somerset | C− | 2.1 | 70% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 45 | Maiden Newton Dorset | C− | 1.1 | 27% | 2 | 100% |
| 46 | Wetheral Cumbria | C− | 3.8 | 51% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 47 | Crowle Worcestershire | C− | 2.4 | 34% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 48 | Beachley Gloucestershire | C− | 0.3 | 0% | 1.2 | 14% |
| 49 | Farmborough Somerset | C− | 2 | 38% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 50 | Cawston Norfolk | D | 2.7 | 71% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 51 | Chawley Oxfordshire | D | 0.3 | 0% | 3.8 | 0% |
| 52 | Wattstown Mid Glamorgan | D | 3.1 | 26% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 53 | Landrake Cornwall | D | 0.9 | 0% | 0.6 | 38% |
| 54 | Reawla Cornwall | D | 0.2 | 0% | 2 | 3% |
| 55 | Stickney Lincolnshire | D | 2.4 | 0% | 1 | 0% |
| 56 | Pilton Somerset | D− | 1.2 | 28% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 57 | Moulton Chapel Lincolnshire | D− | 1.5 | 60% | 0 | 0% |
| 58 | Kentford Suffolk | D− | 1.9 | 0% | 0.5 | 0% |
| 59 | Llanfyllin Powys | D− | 0 | 0% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 60 | Whaplode Lincolnshire | D− | 0.4 | 0% | 0.2 | 0% |
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Whimple’s built-up area.
7 in 10 Whimple 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 300 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 3 playgrounds are mapped in and around the village, about one for every 373 residents.
East Devon and Blackdown Hills both start about 5 miles from Whimple
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.
Dartmoor National Park covers 956 km² and has been a National Park since 1951.
1 waymarked walk passes through or near Whimple
7 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Whimple and the kilometre around it, 0.9 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 Exeter to Honiton Way.
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 Whimple: 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 | 9.9 | 11.7 | 13.7 | 15.5 | 16.5 | 16.1 | 14.5 | 12.5 | 10.6 | 8.8 | 8.0 |
| High (°C) | 9 | 9 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 19 | 21 | 21 | 19 | 15 | 11 | 9 |
| Rain (mm) | 87 | 65 | 64 | 67 | 48 | 60 | 51 | 74 | 68 | 91 | 108 | 98 |
May is the driest month (48 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 21 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 108 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 36 nights a year. The climate in Whimple →
3 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
Whimple 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
Playgrounds 3
Plus 3 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whimple | C+ | 5.2 | 70% | 1% |
| Cranbrook 2.6 mi | B+ | 6.4 | 87% | 1% |
| West Hill 2.7 mi | D | 0.0 | 0% | 27% |
| Ottery St Mary 3.6 mi | C− | 1.2 | 71% | 34% |
| Feniton 3.6 mi | C+ | 1.3 | 100% | 17% |
| Broadclyst 3.7 mi | D | 1.4 | 78% | 0% |
| Clyst Honiton 4.7 mi | B+ | 8.0 | 83% | 0% |
Cranbrook, 2.6 miles away, grades B+, the best next door: 87% of its residents live within 400 m of a park.
Questions about the outdoors in Whimple
Is Whimple near a National Park?
Yes. Dartmoor National Park begins 14 mi south-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, 2.5 mi away.
What are the best walks near Whimple?
1 waymarked walking route passes within 2 km of the village, including the Exeter to Honiton Way.
What is the nearest beach to Whimple?
Jacobs Ladder Beach, 7.5 mi from the edge of the village, then Budleigh Salterton (9.8 mi). Whimple itself is inland.
How many people in Whimple live near a park?
70% 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 Whimple?
May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Is Whimple good for walking?
Paths are thinner than most towns: 0.9 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 5% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 88% (5.2 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 Whimple’s overall grade.
Where Whimple’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.