Outdoors in Glenrothes · parks, paths & countryside
90% of Glenrothes’ residents live within a 5-minute walk of a park
258 km of footpaths run through the town and the kilometre around it, 5.7 for every square kilometre. Parks and playing fields in Glenrothes add up to 4.4 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical town in England and Wales has 2.1. Glenrothes has no Outdoors Grade: Scottish towns aren’t graded on the outdoors yet.
Each square is 1 in 100 residents: green lives within 400 m of a public park, garden or playing field (NRS Census 2022 output areas against OS Open Greenspace).
Within 400 m (90%)Further (10%)
Glenrothes90%
Fife towns93%
Towns in England and Wales83%
About 4,000 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 113 playgrounds are mapped in and around the town, about one for every 332 residents.
Footpaths & waymarked walks
2 waymarked walks pass through or near Glenrothes
258 km of footpaths, tracks and core paths are mapped in Glenrothes and the kilometre around it, 5.7 km for every square kilometre (the typical town in England and Wales has 3.0). Bars show each route’s kilometres within 2 km of the town.
RegionalOther waymarked
Fife Pilgrim Way15.8 km
Braes Loan Circular Historical Trail3.9 km
The regional route here is the Fife Pilgrim Way.
Waymarked walks are OpenStreetMap walking routes. Scotland has no rights-of-way register: everyone has a right of responsible access to most land, so tracks and councils’ core paths count. Paths are only as complete as the map in each area.
History along the way
2 historic parks, and what stands in them
Historic Environment Scotland’s Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes, and the listed buildings and scheduled monuments that stand inside Glenrothes’ named parks.
Registered park · Grade
Riverside Park
54 ha. Part of Leslie House, a historic garden or designed landscape (Grade ). 0 listed structures and monuments stand inside it or at its edge.
Registered · Grade Balbirnie137 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 Environment Scotland designations.
When to get out
The best walking months in Glenrothes: June 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)
7.5
9.5
11.6
14.1
16.3
17.6
17.1
15.1
12.6
10.3
8.1
6.9
High (°C)
6
7
9
11
14
17
19
18
16
12
9
6
Rain (mm)
85
72
61
54
59
71
76
83
67
97
86
88
April is the driest month (54 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 19 °C). Winter days are short, about 7 hours of daylight in December, and 97 mm of rain falls in October, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 49 nights a year. The climate in Glenrothes →
Things to do
8 viewpoints, 113 playgrounds and the nearest beaches
Mapped within 2 km of the town in OpenStreetMap. Named places are listed with directions; unnamed ones are only counted.
None of the neighbours has a protected landscape within 5 km either.
Questions about the outdoors in Glenrothes
What is the biggest park in Glenrothes?
Riverside Park, 54 ha (133 acres), with 8.3 km of path. Riverside Park (54 ha) is second. 11 named parks, gardens and playing fields are in the town or within 400 m of it.
Is Glenrothes near a National Park?
No National Park or National Scenic Area is within 30 km (about 19 miles) of Glenrothes.
What are the best walks near Glenrothes?
2 waymarked walking routes pass within 2 km of the town, including the Fife Pilgrim Way and Braes Loan Circular Historical Trail. Riverside Park alone has 8.3 km of path.
What is the nearest beach to Glenrothes?
Pathhead Sands, 3.6 mi from the edge of the town, then Old Beach (3.8 mi). Glenrothes itself is inland.
How many people in Glenrothes live near a park?
90% of residents live within 400 m, about a 5-minute walk, of a public park, garden or playing field (NRS Census 2022 output areas against OS Open Greenspace). The typical town in England and Wales is 83%.
When is the best time of year for walking in Glenrothes?
June 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 Glenrothes are historic?
Balbirnie (Grade ) and Leslie House (Grade ) are on Historic Environment Scotland’s Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes.
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 Scenic Area within 5 km, footpaths per square kilometre, and the sea within 5 km. It is a character grade and isn’t part of Glenrothes’ overall grade.
National Parks and National Scenic Areas: Scottish Government and NatureScot boundaries (Loch Lomond and The Trossachs, Cairngorms; the 40 National Scenic Areas), clipped to land, Open Government Licence v3.0.
Photo: Yoostar · CC BY-SA 3.0