Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Gordon Hatton · CC BY-SA 2.0Footpaths add up to 105 km in the town and the kilometre around it, 3.8 for every square kilometre. Parks and playing fields in Elgin add up to 2.6 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical town in England and Wales has 2.1. Elgin has no Outdoors Grade: Scottish towns aren’t graded on the outdoors yet.
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Elgin’s locality.
The biggest is Cooper Park, 17 ha (42 acres). Directions go to the park’s nearest public entrance where Ordnance Survey maps one.
The two biggest, Cooper Park and Lossie Green, are 77% of the named green space and carry 3 km of path between them.
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).
About 5,000 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 38 playgrounds are mapped in and around the town, about one for every 648 residents.
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.
Cairngorms National Park covers 4,528 km² and has been a National Park since 2003.
105 km of footpaths, tracks and core paths are mapped in Elgin and the kilometre around it, 3.8 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 Elgin; 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.
Historic Environment Scotland’s Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes, and the listed buildings and scheduled monuments that stand inside Elgin’s named parks.
17 ha. 3 listed structures and monuments stand inside it or at its edge, including Bishop's House,Elgin (a scheduled monument).
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.
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) | 7.2 | 9.3 | 11.6 | 14.2 | 16.6 | 18.0 | 17.4 | 15.3 | 12.7 | 10.2 | 7.8 | 6.6 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 15 | 17 | 19 | 19 | 17 | 13 | 10 | 7 |
| Rain (mm) | 52 | 49 | 42 | 42 | 51 | 71 | 65 | 86 | 67 | 80 | 64 | 64 |
March is the driest month (42 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 19 °C). Winter days are short, about 7 hours of daylight in December, and 86 mm of rain falls in August, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 45 nights a year. The climate in Elgin →
Mapped within 2 km of the town in OpenStreetMap. Named places are listed with directions; unnamed ones are only counted.
Elgin is inland. These are the nearest named beaches, measured from the edge of the town.
Check the water before you swim. SEPA tests designated bathing waters from May to September and publishes a rating for each beach.
Up high. Lady Hill, at 29 m, is the highest named top within 2 km of Elgin.
Plus 5 viewpoints without a name on the map.
Plus 1 waterfall without a name on the map.
Plus 2 picnic sites without a name on the map.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elgin | – | 2.6 | 80% | 0% |
| Lossiemouth 4.8 mi | – | 4.2 | 99% | 0% |
| Forres 11.7 mi | – | 4.9 | 91% | 0% |
None of the neighbours has a protected landscape within 5 km either.
Cooper Park, 17 ha (42 acres), with 2.4 km of path. Lossie Green (6.4 ha) is second. 5 named parks, gardens and playing fields are in the town or within 400 m of it.
Yes. Cairngorms National Park begins 18 mi south-west of the town’s edge. It covers 4,528 km² and has been a National Park since 2003.
Tannachy Sands, 9.3 mi from the edge of the town, then East Beach (18 mi). Elgin itself is inland.
80% 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%.
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.
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 Elgin’s overall grade.
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.