Photo: Anthony Vosper · CC BY-SA 2.0Charmouth is inside the Dorset National Landscape
The sea makes up 34% of the area within 5 km. 20 km of footpaths run through the village and the kilometre around it, 2.3 for every square kilometre. Charmouth grades A for the outdoors. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
What kind of outdoors village is Charmouth?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Charmouth’s strongest suit is a protected landscape all round, followed by the sea.
Charmouth grades A for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Charmouth, 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.
Charmouth is 8th of 60 UK villages its size for the outdoors
The 60 UK towns and cities of 1,300 to 1,400 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Worrall South Yorkshire | A+ | 3.7 | 100% | 5.4 | 21% |
| 2 | St Davids Dyfed | A+ | 5.2 | 84% | 2.5 | 47% |
| 3 | Pateley Bridge North Yorkshire | A+ | 2.4 | 100% | 3.4 | 100% |
| 4 | Wolvercote Oxfordshire | A | 32 | 100% | 5.5 | 0% |
| 5 | Crowmarsh Gifford Oxfordshire | A | 8 | 77% | 3.6 | 60% |
| 6 | Goldsithney Cornwall | A | 1.4 | 100% | 3.1 | 10% |
| 7 | Hurley Berkshire | A | 3.1 | 100% | 2.6 | 36% |
| 8 | Charmouth Dorset | A | 2.5 | 82% | 2.3 | 63% |
| 9 | Bere Regis Dorset | A | 39.2 | 100% | 3.5 | 0% |
| 10 | Brinscall Lancashire | A | 3.5 | 100% | 4.6 | 0% |
| 11 | Burbage Wiltshire | A | 2.7 | 100% | 1.9 | 100% |
| 12 | Biddenden Kent | A− | 4.2 | 100% | 1.9 | 20% |
| 13 | Cwmfelinfach Gwent | A− | 24.6 | 100% | 2.7 | 0% |
| 14 | Stoke sub Hamdon Somerset | A− | 25.1 | 81% | 4.7 | 0% |
| 15 | Upper Caldecote Bedfordshire | A− | 3.7 | 100% | 3.4 | 0% |
| 16 | Bradley Clwyd | A− | 29.9 | 100% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 17 | Blean Kent | A− | 5.9 | 80% | 6.5 | 0% |
| 18 | Govilon Gwent | A− | 2.1 | 80% | 3.4 | 69% |
| 19 | Auckley South Yorkshire | B+ | 4.9 | 100% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 20 | Riseley Bedfordshire | B+ | 2.4 | 100% | 3.9 | 0% |
| 21 | Layer-de-la-Haye Essex | B+ | 9.5 | 79% | 4.2 | 0% |
| 22 | Mynydd Marian Clwyd | B+ | 1.7 | 100% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 23 | Quintrell Downs Cornwall | B+ | 3.3 | 100% | 0.9 | 0% |
| 24 | Barleythorpe Rutland | B+ | 3.7 | 100% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 25 | Abbots Bromley Staffordshire | B | 6.9 | 100% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 26 | Marazion Cornwall | B | 1.4 | 80% | 2 | 14% |
| 27 | Seven Sisters West Glamorgan | B | 7 | 82% | 0.5 | 19% |
| 28 | Cwmllynfell and Ystradowen West Glamorgan | B | 4.1 | 79% | 1 | 40% |
| 29 | Lingdale North Yorkshire | B− | 1.4 | 100% | 1.7 | 31% |
| 30 | Burton-in-Kendal Cumbria | B− | 0.6 | 100% | 2.4 | 23% |
| 31 | Cockfield County Durham | B− | 2.3 | 81% | 3.9 | 0% |
| 32 | Burwash East Sussex | B− | 1.5 | 76% | 2.5 | 100% |
| 33 | St Merryn Cornwall | B− | 1.9 | 47% | 1.7 | 29% |
| 34 | Helmsley North Yorkshire | B− | 2.4 | 44% | 2.5 | 73% |
| 35 | Pensarn Clwyd | C+ | 13.1 | 45% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 36 | Mobberley Cheshire | C+ | 1.4 | 100% | 2.9 | 0% |
| 37 | Morton Derbyshire | C+ | 18.3 | 66% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 38 | Belford Northumberland | C+ | 1.2 | 83% | 0.9 | 21% |
| 39 | Littleton Panell Wiltshire | C+ | 5.3 | 39% | 3.3 | 0% |
| 40 | Stonnall Staffordshire | C+ | 11.5 | 82% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 41 | Stoke Gabriel Devon | C+ | 1.2 | 70% | 1.2 | 30% |
| 42 | Harpole Northamptonshire | C | 2.3 | 81% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 43 | Haughley Suffolk | C | 3 | 71% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 44 | Kislingbury Northamptonshire | C | 8.4 | 26% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 45 | Moretonhampstead Devon | C | 0.6 | 81% | 1.2 | 100% |
| 46 | Seaton Burn Tyne and Wear | C | 3.3 | 36% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 47 | Winkleigh Devon | C | 1.9 | 100% | 0.2 | 0% |
| 48 | Northborough Cambridgeshire | C− | 1.7 | 68% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 49 | Llandysul Dyfed | C− | 5.2 | 47% | 1 | 0% |
| 50 | Ogmore-by-Sea South Glamorgan | C− | 0 | 0% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 51 | Todwick South Yorkshire | D | 2 | 51% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 52 | Malpas Cheshire | D | 1.6 | 61% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 53 | North Cave East Riding of Yorkshire | D | 2.5 | 47% | 1.4 | 0% |
| 54 | Staindrop County Durham | D | 1.4 | 82% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 55 | Longframlington Northumberland | D | 1.3 | 78% | 1.3 | 0% |
| 56 | Hauxton Cambridgeshire | D− | 1.3 | 55% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 57 | Brandesburton East Riding of Yorkshire | D− | 2.2 | 0% | 0.5 | 0% |
| 58 | Claypole Lincolnshire | D− | 0.7 | 0% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 59 | Kilsby Northamptonshire | D− | 0.5 | 50% | 0.5 | 0% |
| 60 | Cock and End Suffolk | D− | 0 | 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 Charmouth’s built-up area.
8 in 10 Charmouth 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; 4 playgrounds are mapped in and around the village, about one for every 334 residents.
National Parks and National Landscapes around Charmouth
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.
Dorset
63% of the land within 5 km of Charmouth is National Park or National Landscape, more than 94% of UK towns.
Charmouth is on the South West Coast Path
20 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Charmouth and the kilometre around it, 2.3 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 South West Coast Path, a national route, passes Charmouth. 4 regional routes pass through, including the Monarch's Way, Wessex Ridgeway, East Devon Way and Monmouth Rebellion Walk.
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 Charmouth: 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 | 8.9 | 8.0 |
| High (°C) | 9 | 9 | 11 | 14 | 16 | 19 | 21 | 21 | 19 | 16 | 12 | 10 |
| Rain (mm) | 104 | 71 | 69 | 69 | 58 | 57 | 58 | 76 | 74 | 103 | 115 | 106 |
June is the driest month (57 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 21 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 115 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 23 nights a year. The climate in Charmouth →
Charmouth is a coastal town
34% of the area within 5 km of Charmouth is sea. 10 beaches are mapped within 5 km, 3 with a name.
The South West Coast Path passes the town.
Sea: the area outside the ONS coastline (mean high water). Bathing water quality is published by the Environment Agency (England) and Natural Resources Wales; check it before swimming.
4 playgrounds
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.
Every named place, with directions
Viewpoints 1
Plus 1 viewpoint without a name on the map.
Playgrounds 4
Plus 4 playgrounds without a name on the map.
Campsites 1
The outdoors in nearby towns
The nearest towns of 1,000+ within 12 miles. Tap a town for its outdoors page.
Uplyme, 2.4 miles away, grades A+, the best next door: every resident lives within 400 m of a park.
Questions about the outdoors in Charmouth
What are the best walks near Charmouth?
7 waymarked walking routes pass within 2 km of the village, including the South West Coast Path (Section 46: Seaton to Seatown), Monarch's Way and Wessex Ridgeway.
How many people in Charmouth live near a park?
82% 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 Charmouth?
May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Is Charmouth good for walking?
Paths are thinner than most towns: 2.3 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 39% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 59% (2.5 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 Charmouth’s overall grade.
Where Charmouth’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.