Photo: Andrew Hill · CC BY-SA 2.078% of the land within 5 km of Blaenau Ffestiniog is National Park or National Landscape
Snowdonia National Park reaches the edge of Blaenau Ffestiniog. Parks and playing fields in Blaenau Ffestiniog add up to 3.6 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. A park or playing field is within a 5-minute walk for 70% of residents. Blaenau Ffestiniog grades B+ for the outdoors: #8 of 13 in Gwynedd. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
What kind of outdoors town is Blaenau Ffestiniog?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Blaenau Ffestiniog’s strongest suit is protected countryside on the doorstep, followed by plenty of park space.
Blaenau Ffestiniog grades B+ for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Blaenau Ffestiniog, 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.
Blaenau Ffestiniog is 13th of 60 UK towns its size for the outdoors
The 60 UK towns and cities of 3,300 to 3,600 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Against towns its size, Blaenau Ffestiniog stands out most for park space per resident: only 11 of the other 59 have more. It falls furthest behind on homes near a park, where 40 of the others do better.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Minchinhampton Gloucestershire | A+ | 5.6 | 91% | 5.3 | 90% |
| 2 | Lane End Buckinghamshire | A+ | 3.1 | 92% | 4.7 | 90% |
| 3 | Silsoe Bedfordshire | A+ | 6.6 | 100% | 3.8 | 2% |
| 4 | Goring Oxfordshire | A+ | 3 | 100% | 3.2 | 98% |
| 5 | Talke and Talke Pits Staffordshire | A | 16.6 | 100% | 3.5 | 0% |
| 6 | Bishopston West Glamorgan | A | 3 | 47% | 3.1 | 41% |
| 7 | Elsenham Essex | A− | 3 | 100% | 4.3 | 0% |
| 8 | Westward Ho! Devon | A− | 12.3 | 63% | 1.7 | 18% |
| 9 | Grassmoor Derbyshire | A− | 6.8 | 85% | 4.7 | 0% |
| 10 | Birdwell South Yorkshire | A− | 3.6 | 90% | 4.6 | 0% |
| 11 | Essington Staffordshire | B+ | 6.8 | 100% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 12 | Newlyn Cornwall | B+ | 1.5 | 67% | 3.2 | 24% |
| 13 | Blaenau Ffestiniog Gwynedd | B+ | 3.6 | 70% | 2.5 | 78% |
| 14 | St Asaph Clwyd | B+ | 3.2 | 100% | 1.6 | 9% |
| 15 | Mickletown West Yorkshire | B+ | 3.3 | 93% | 3.2 | 0% |
| 16 | Water Orton Warwickshire | B+ | 5.3 | 82% | 3.4 | 0% |
| 17 | Hartley Wintney Hampshire | B+ | 6.1 | 82% | 3.3 | 0% |
| 18 | Whalley Lancashire | B | 1.2 | 88% | 3.5 | 23% |
| 19 | Fishbourne West Sussex | B | 1.9 | 38% | 2.5 | 47% |
| 20 | Westerham Kent | B | 1.9 | 61% | 3.5 | 66% |
| 21 | Brockenhurst Hampshire | B | 1.8 | 63% | 3.3 | 98% |
| 22 | Llanfairfechan Clwyd | B | 1 | 48% | 2.9 | 38% |
| 23 | Hemingford Grey Cambridgeshire | B | 1.9 | 100% | 3.1 | 0% |
| 24 | Sunniside Tyne and Wear | B | 2.1 | 87% | 4 | 0% |
| 25 | Gunnislake and St Ann's Chapel Cornwall | B− | 2.5 | 64% | 2.3 | 66% |
| 26 | Istead Rise Kent | B− | 1.9 | 82% | 2.7 | 15% |
| 27 | Ruabon Clwyd | B− | 3.8 | 69% | 1.9 | 20% |
| 28 | Burtonwood Cheshire | B− | 3.3 | 93% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 29 | Theydon Bois Essex | B− | 2.4 | 70% | 5.1 | 0% |
| 30 | Castle Cary Somerset | B− | 2.2 | 91% | 3 | 0% |
| 31 | Stalham Norfolk | B− | 1.9 | 85% | 2 | 23% |
| 32 | Pilsley and Lower Pilsley Derbyshire | B− | 1.9 | 91% | 3.3 | 0% |
| 33 | Kirkheaton West Yorkshire | C+ | 1.8 | 92% | 3 | 0% |
| 34 | Broomfield Essex | C+ | 2.7 | 45% | 5 | 0% |
| 35 | Fishguard Dyfed | C+ | 0.8 | 64% | 2.1 | 23% |
| 36 | Woodstock Oxfordshire | C+ | 1 | 80% | 3 | 11% |
| 37 | Thorpe Willoughby North Yorkshire | C | 0.4 | 92% | 3.5 | 0% |
| 38 | Ashburton Devon | C | 1.7 | 74% | 1 | 60% |
| 39 | Cosby Leicestershire | C | 1.6 | 93% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 40 | Earls Colne Essex | C | 1.4 | 91% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 41 | Marden Kent | C | 1.8 | 71% | 2.1 | 3% |
| 42 | Upper Poppleton North Yorkshire | C | 2.9 | 82% | 1.7 | 0% |
| 43 | Alvechurch Worcestershire | C | 2.2 | 84% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 44 | Eastchurch Kent | C | 1.9 | 72% | 0.6 | 0% |
| 45 | Nettleham Lincolnshire | C | 4.2 | 74% | 1.3 | 0% |
| 46 | Goff's Oak Hertfordshire | C− | 2.4 | 41% | 3.1 | 0% |
| 47 | Holsworthy Devon | C− | 2.7 | 84% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 48 | Lytchett Matravers Dorset | C− | 1.2 | 83% | 1.2 | 5% |
| 49 | Willand Devon | C− | 0.9 | 88% | 0.6 | 1% |
| 50 | Witham St Hughs Lincolnshire | D | 0.7 | 91% | 1.7 | 0% |
| 51 | Wadhurst East Sussex | D | 0.9 | 19% | 1.2 | 100% |
| 52 | Chapel St Leonards Lincolnshire | D | 0.4 | 53% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 53 | Messingham Lincolnshire | D | 3.4 | 46% | 0.6 | 0% |
| 54 | Lanchester County Durham | D | 1.4 | 70% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 55 | Bilsthorpe Nottinghamshire | D | 0.7 | 88% | 1.2 | 0% |
| 56 | Metheringham Lincolnshire | D | 0.8 | 44% | 3 | 0% |
| 57 | Cherry Willingham Lincolnshire | D | 1 | 79% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 58 | Spixworth Norfolk | D | 0.6 | 59% | 1.2 | 5% |
| 59 | Barlby North Yorkshire | D− | 0.2 | 0% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 60 | Bawtry South Yorkshire | D− | 0.5 | 49% | 1 | 0% |
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Blaenau Ffestiniog’s built-up area.
7 in 10 Blaenau Ffestiniog 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 1,000 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 10 playgrounds are mapped in and around the town, about one for every 345 residents.
National Parks and National Landscapes around Blaenau Ffestiniog
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.
Snowdonia
Llyn
Ynys Mon/anglesey
78% of the land within 5 km of Blaenau Ffestiniog is National Park or National Landscape, more than 96% of UK towns. Snowdonia National Park covers 2,140 km² and has been a National Park since 1951.
Blaenau Ffestiniog is on the Cambrian Way
41 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Blaenau Ffestiniog and the kilometre around it, 2.5 km for every square kilometre (the typical UK town has 3.0). Bars show each route’s kilometres within 2 km of the town.
The Cambrian Way, a national route, passes Blaenau Ffestiniog. The regional route here is the Llwybr Llechi Eryri.
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 Blaenau Ffestiniog: 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) | 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) | 6 | 7 | 9 | 12 | 14 | 17 | 18 | 18 | 16 | 13 | 10 | 7 |
| Rain (mm) | 284 | 178 | 167 | 125 | 139 | 146 | 166 | 187 | 193 | 237 | 245 | 268 |
April is the driest month (125 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 18 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 284 mm of rain falls in January, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 43 nights a year. The climate in Blaenau Ffestiniog →
3 viewpoints, 10 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
Blaenau Ffestiniog is inland. These are the nearest named beaches, measured from the edge of the town.
Check the water before you swim. Natural Resources Wales tests designated bathing waters from May to September and publishes a rating for each beach.
Up high. Garreg Ddu, at 290 m, is the highest named top within 2 km of Blaenau Ffestiniog.
Every named place, with directions
Viewpoints 3
Plus 3 viewpoints without a name on the map.
Hills and peaks 19
Plus 11 hills and peaks without a name on the map.
Waterfalls 9
Plus 6 waterfalls without a name on the map.
Picnic sites 2
Plus 2 picnic sites without a name on the map.
Playgrounds 10
Plus 10 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blaenau Ffestiniog | B+ | 3.6 | 70% | 78% |
| Penrhyndeudraeth 6.9 mi | A | 2.5 | 100% | 68% |
| Porthmadog 9.4 mi | B+ | 0.9 | 94% | 41% |
| Harlech 11.5 mi | A− | 1.9 | 36% | 67% |
| Llanrwst 11.6 mi | C+ | 2.2 | 75% | 45% |
| Llanberis 11.8 mi | A+ | 33.7 | 100% | 49% |
Llanberis, 11.8 miles away, grades A+, the best next door: every resident lives within 400 m of a park. Llanberis has at least twice Blaenau Ffestiniog’s green space per resident.
Questions about the outdoors in Blaenau Ffestiniog
Is Blaenau Ffestiniog near a National Park?
It covers 2,140 km² and has been a National Park since 1951.
What are the best walks near Blaenau Ffestiniog?
2 waymarked walking routes pass within 2 km of the town, including the Llwybr Llechi Eryri and Cambrian Way.
What is the nearest beach to Blaenau Ffestiniog?
Traeth Morfa Bychan / Black Rock Sands, 10 mi from the edge of the town, then Morfa Harlech (10 mi). Blaenau Ffestiniog itself is inland.
How many people in Blaenau Ffestiniog 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 Blaenau Ffestiniog?
June to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Is Blaenau Ffestiniog good for walking?
About average for paths: 2.5 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 47% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 77% (3.6 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 Blaenau Ffestiniog’s overall grade.
Where Blaenau Ffestiniog’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.