Thurso’s biggest
Olrig Street Playing Fields
Playing field
0.5 ha (1 acres)
Centralin the middle of Thurso
Olrig Street Bank of Scotland Grade II*
Directionsto the nearest entrance
Photo: Malc McDonald · CC BY-SA 2.0–Not graded
Outdoors in Thurso · parks, paths & countryside
Thurso is on the coast
The sea makes up 37% of the area within 5 km. 73% of residents live within a 5-minute walk of a park or playing field. 49 km of footpaths run through the town and the kilometre around it, 2.3 for every square kilometre. Thurso has no Outdoors Grade: Scottish towns aren’t graded on the outdoors yet.
Green space
2.5 ha
per 1,000 residents
Typical town in England and Wales 2.1
Near a park
73%
of residents within 400 m
Typical town in England and Wales 83%
Footpaths
49 km
2.3 km per km², town + 1 km
Typical town in England and Wales 3.0 per km²
Protected landscape
0%
of the land within 5 km
Nearest: Hoy and West Mainland National Scenic Area
The sea
37%
of the area within 5 km
A coastal town
The map
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Thurso’s locality.
Green space: parks, gardens, playing fields and play spaces, named or not.© OpenStreetMap contributors · Contains OS data © Crown copyright · Scottish Government, NatureScot
Places to walk
Parks to walk in, in and around Thurso
The biggest is Olrig Street Playing Fields, 0.5 ha (1 acres). Directions go to the park’s nearest public entrance where Ordnance Survey maps one.
Close to home
7 in 10 Thurso 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 (NRS Census 2022 output areas against OS Open Greenspace).
Within 400 m (73%)Further (27%)
Thurso73%
Highland towns82%
Towns in England and Wales83%
About 2,000 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 19 playgrounds are mapped in and around the town, about one for every 390 residents.
National Parks & National Scenic Areas
The Hoy and West Mainland National Scenic Area is 16 mi away
Protected landscapes within 30 km, by direction and distance from the edge of the locality; circle size shows each one’s area. National Scenic Areas are Scotland’s finest landscapes, chosen by NatureScot.
National ParkNational Scenic AreaThe 5 km the grade counts
National Scenic Area
Hoy and West Mainland
16 mi north160 km²since 1980
Footpaths & waymarked walks
Footpaths in and around Thurso
49 km of footpaths, tracks and core paths are mapped in Thurso and the kilometre around it, 2.3 km for every square kilometre (the typical town in England and Wales has 3.0).
No named walking route is mapped within 2 km of Thurso; its footpaths are on the map above.
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.
When to get out
The best walking months in Thurso: 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) | 7.0 | 9.2 | 11.6 | 14.3 | 16.8 | 18.3 | 17.7 | 15.4 | 12.7 | 10.1 | 7.7 | 6.3 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 13 | 15 | 17 | 17 | 15 | 12 | 9 | 7 |
| Rain (mm) | 103 | 87 | 74 | 60 | 56 | 63 | 69 | 67 | 87 | 120 | 106 | 96 |
May is the driest month (56 mm) and August the warmest (highs of 17 °C). Winter days are short, about 6 hours of daylight in December, and 120 mm of rain falls in October, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 46 nights a year. The climate in Thurso →
The coast
The coast and beaches near Thurso
37% of the area within 5 km of Thurso is sea. 3 beaches are mapped within 5 km, 1 with a name.
Murkle Bay2.4 mi from town
DirectionsSea: the area outside the ONS coastline (mean high water). Bathing water quality is published by SEPA; check it before swimming.
Things to do
19 playgrounds
Mapped within 2 km of the town in OpenStreetMap. Named places are listed with directions; unnamed ones are only counted.
Every named place, with directions
Viewpoints 1
Victoria Walkin town
DirectionsPlaygrounds 19
Plus 19 playgrounds without a name on the map.
Campsites 1
Thurso Bay Caravan and Camping Parkin town
DirectionsQuestions about the outdoors in Thurso
What is the biggest park in Thurso?
Olrig Street Playing Fields, 0.5 ha (1 acres). 1 named park, garden or playing field is in the town or within 400 m of it.
Is Thurso near a National Park?
The nearest protected landscape is the Hoy and West Mainland National Scenic Area, 16 mi north of the town’s edge. It covers 160 km² and was designated in 1980.
How many people in Thurso live near a park?
73% 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 Thurso?
June to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
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 Thurso’s overall grade.
Sources
Where Thurso’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 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.
- Footpaths, tracks, core paths, walking routes, beaches and things to do: © OpenStreetMap contributors, Open Database License (ODbL), via Geofabrik’s Scotland extract, October 2026.
- Historic gardens, listed buildings and monuments: Historic Environment Scotland designations, 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: NRS Scotland’s Census 2022 output areas.
- Grade: Scottish towns have no Outdoors Grade yet.
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.