Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Jennifer Petrie · CC BY-SA 2.0The Eildon and Leaderfoot National Scenic Area begins 6.1 mi from the town’s edge. Footpaths add up to 68 km in the town and the kilometre around it, 3.7 for every square kilometre. A park or playing field is within a 5-minute walk for 74% of residents. Kelso has no Outdoors Grade: Scottish towns aren’t graded on the outdoors yet.
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Kelso’s strongest suit is the Eildon and Leaderfoot National Scenic Area close by, followed by the Borders Abbeys Way.
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Kelso’s locality.
The biggest is Shedden Park, 3.2 ha (8 acres). Directions go to the park’s nearest public entrance where Ordnance Survey maps one.
The two biggest, Shedden Park and Brigend Park, are 47% of the named green space. 3 of the 5 are under 2 ha: small gardens, play spaces and pitches.
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 1,800 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 17 playgrounds are mapped in and around the town, about one for every 412 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.
Protected landscape begins just outside the 5 km ring the Outdoors Grade measures, so Kelso scores 0% on it even though the Eildon and Leaderfoot National Scenic Area is 6.1 mi away. Northumberland National Park covers 1,051 km² and has been a National Park since 1957.
68 km of footpaths, tracks and core paths are mapped in Kelso and the kilometre around it, 3.7 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.
The Borders Abbeys Way, a national route, passes Kelso.
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.
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) | 7.6 | 9.5 | 11.6 | 14.1 | 16.2 | 17.5 | 16.9 | 15.0 | 12.6 | 10.3 | 8.2 | 7.1 |
| High (°C) | 6 | 7 | 9 | 12 | 15 | 18 | 20 | 20 | 17 | 13 | 9 | 7 |
| Rain (mm) | 56 | 50 | 46 | 44 | 47 | 60 | 63 | 67 | 54 | 74 | 67 | 68 |
April is the driest month (44 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 20 °C). Winter days are short, about 7 hours of daylight in December, and 74 mm of rain falls in October, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 56 nights a year. The climate in Kelso →
Mapped within 2 km of the town in OpenStreetMap. Named places are listed with directions; unnamed ones are only counted.
Kelso 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.
Plus 2 viewpoints without a name on the map.
Plus 2 hills and peaks 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kelso | – | 1.8 | 74% | 0% |
| Jedburgh 9.7 mi | – | 4.9 | 96% | 0% |
Jedburgh has at least twice Kelso’s green space per resident. None of the neighbours has a protected landscape within 5 km either.
Shedden Park, 3.2 ha (8 acres), with 0.9 km of path. Brigend Park (1.7 ha) is second. 5 named parks, gardens and playing fields are in the town or within 400 m of it.
Yes. Northumberland National Park begins 6.7 mi east of the town’s edge. It covers 1,051 km² and has been a National Park since 1957. The nearest protected landscape of any kind is the Eildon and Leaderfoot National Scenic Area, 6.1 mi away.
1 waymarked walking route passes within 2 km of the town, including the Borders Abbeys Way.
Coldingham Sands, 23 mi from the edge of the town, then Musselburgh Sands (33 mi). Kelso itself is inland.
74% 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 Kelso’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.