Cookstown’s biggest
Fairhill Recreation Grounds
Playing field
2.5 ha (6 acres)
3 pitchesfootball pitches would fit
Centralin the middle of Cookstown
Directionsto the park
Photo: Linda Bailey · CC BY-SA 2.0–Not graded
Outdoors in Cookstown · parks, paths & countryside
88% of Cookstown’s residents live within a 5-minute walk of a park
Sperrin AONB begins 2.5 mi from the town’s edge. Footpaths add up to 20 km in the town and the kilometre around it, 0.8 for every square kilometre. Parks and playing fields in Cookstown add up to 1.0 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical town in England and Wales has 2.1. Cookstown has no Outdoors Grade: Northern Ireland’s towns aren’t graded on the outdoors yet.
Green space
1.0 ha
per 1,000 residents
Typical town in England and Wales 2.1
Near a park
88%
of residents within 400 m
Typical town in England and Wales 83%
Footpaths
20 km
0.8 km per km², town + 1 km
Typical town in England and Wales 3.0 per km²
Protected landscape
1%
of the land within 5 km
Nearest: Sperrin AONB
The map
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Cookstown’s settlement.
Green space: parks, gardens, playing fields and play spaces, named or not.© OpenStreetMap contributors · DAERA
Places to walk
Parks to walk in, in and around Cookstown
The biggest is Fairhill Recreation Grounds, 2.5 ha (6 acres). Directions go to the park’s nearest public entrance where Ordnance Survey maps one.
Fr Rocks GAC
Playing field
1.1 ha (3 acres)
2 pitchesfootball pitches would fit
Centralin the middle of Cookstown
Directionsto the park
Close to home
How close Cookstown’s homes are to a park
Each square is 1 in 100 residents: green lives within 400 m of a public park, garden or playing field (NISRA Census 2021 data zones against OpenStreetMap’s parks).
Within 400 m (88%)Further (12%)
Cookstown88%
Mid Ulster towns82%
Towns in England and Wales83%
About 1,500 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 15 playgrounds are mapped in and around the town, about one for every 836 residents.
Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Sperrin AONB is 2.5 mi away
Protected landscapes within 30 km, by direction and distance from the edge of the settlement; circle size shows each one’s area. Northern Ireland has no National Parks.
AONBThe 5 km the grade counts
Footpaths & waymarked walks
Footpaths in and around Cookstown
20 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Cookstown and the kilometre around it, 0.8 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 Cookstown; its footpaths are on the map above.
Waymarked walks are OpenStreetMap walking routes. Public rights of way are only as complete as the map in each area.
When to get out
The best walking months in Cookstown: May to July and 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) | 7.8 | 9.6 | 11.7 | 14.0 | 16.1 | 17.2 | 16.7 | 14.9 | 12.6 | 10.4 | 8.3 | 7.3 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 15 | 18 | 19 | 19 | 17 | 13 | 10 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 102 | 85 | 76 | 69 | 67 | 73 | 78 | 97 | 75 | 98 | 103 | 112 |
May is the driest month (67 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 19 °C). Winter days are short, about 7 hours of daylight in December, and 112 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 40 nights a year. The climate in Cookstown →
Things to do
15 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
Cabin Wood0.1 mi from town
DirectionsHills and peaks 2
Rockhead Hill0.5 mi from town
DirectionsGallanagh Hill0.6 mi from town
DirectionsPlaygrounds 15
Plus 15 playgrounds without a name on the map.
Next door
The outdoors in nearby towns
The nearest towns of 1,000+ within 12 miles. Tap a town for its outdoors page.
CoalislandMagherafeltDungannonCookstown
ABCDOutdoors Grade
| Town | Outdoors | Green space, ha per 1,000 | Near a park | Protected within 5 km |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cookstown | – | 1.0 | 88% | 1% |
| Coalisland 7.5 mi | – | 1.3 | 86% | 0% |
| Magherafelt 9.4 mi | – | 1.9 | 77% | 3% |
| Dungannon 9.7 mi | – | 3.0 | 82% | 0% |
Dungannon has at least twice Cookstown’s green space per resident.
Questions about the outdoors in Cookstown
What is the biggest park in Cookstown?
Fairhill Recreation Grounds, 2.5 ha (6 acres). Fr Rocks GAC (1.1 ha) is second. 3 named parks, gardens and playing fields are in the town or within 400 m of it.
Is Cookstown near an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty?
The nearest protected landscape is Sperrin AONB, 2.5 mi north of the town’s edge. It covers 1,182 km² and was designated in 2008.
How many people in Cookstown live near a park?
88% of residents live within 400 m, about a 5-minute walk, of a public park, garden or playing field (NISRA Census 2021 data zones against OpenStreetMap’s parks). The typical town in England and Wales is 83%.
When is the best time of year for walking in Cookstown?
May to July and 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, Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty within 5 km, footpaths per square kilometre, and the sea within 5 km. It is a character grade and isn’t part of Cookstown’s overall grade.
Sources
Where Cookstown’s outdoors figures come from
- Parks and green space: © OpenStreetMap contributors (parks, public gardens, pitches and recreation grounds, playgrounds), Open Database License (ODbL), via Geofabrik’s Ireland and Northern Ireland extract. Ordnance Survey’s OpenStreetMap covers Great Britain only.
- Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty: DAERA (Northern Ireland Environment Agency) boundaries, areas and designation dates, via Open Data NI, Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Footpaths, walking routes, beaches and things to do: © OpenStreetMap contributors, Open Database License (ODbL), via Geofabrik, October 2026. Places over the border are marked Republic of Ireland.
- Historic parks, listed buildings and monuments: Department for Communities, Historic Environment Division, via Open Data NI, 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) and Tailte Éireann provinces (CC BY 4.0, © Tailte Éireann) as land. Residents near a park: NISRA Census 2021 data zones.
- Grade: Northern Ireland 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.