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forestyas
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United Kingdom United Kingdom protected forest

Painshill

Photograph by Mike Peel ( www.mikepeel.net ). · CC BY-SA 4.0

52% trees around it and 2,181 species recorded.

  • trees within 3 km52%
  • wild within 10 km83%
  • species recorded2,181

The forest around

52% trees.

Read like the rings of a cut trunk: from the centre out, the land within 1, 3, 6 and 10 km, coloured by what covers it.

Trees 46%Grassland 26%Water 0%Cropland 19%Built-up 9%Trees 53%Grassland 34%Water 0%Cropland 5%Built-up 8%Trees 53%Grassland 31%Water 0%Cropland 5%Built-up 11%Trees 45%Grassland 33%Water 4%Cropland 4%Built-up 14%52%trees · 3 km

Trees, ring by ring

  • 0–1 km46%
  • 1–3 km53%
  • 3–6 km53%
  • 6–10 km45%

What covers the land (1–3 km)

  • Trees53%
  • Grassland34%
  • Water0%
  • Cropland5%
  • Built-up8%

ESA WorldCover 2021 (10 m, from Sentinel satellites), sampled every 120 m. A clearing, a road or a lake counts as what it is.

Who lives here

2,181 species recorded.

The plants, fungi, birds and mammals people have recorded here most often.

Garden vetch
Garden vetchVicia sativa203 recordsDidier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0
Himalayan Balsam
Himalayan BalsamImpatiens glandulifera192 recordsGuptaele · CC BY-SA 4.0
Green alkanet
Green alkanetPentaglottis sempervirens187 recordsLuis Fernández García · CC BY-SA 3.0
English holly
English hollyIlex aquifolium186 recordsUnknown author · Public domain
Garlic Mustard
Garlic MustardAlliaria petiolata166 recordsO. Pichard · CC BY-SA 3.0
Common Ivy
Common IvyHedera helix162 recordskallerna · CC BY-SA 4.0
Stickywilly
StickywillyGalium aparine160 recordsAlvesgaspar · CC BY-SA 3.0
Bracken
BrackenPteridium aquilinum160 recordsStefan.lefnaer · CC BY-SA 4.0
Pedunculate Oak
Pedunculate OakQuercus robur152 recordsAlgirdas at Lithuanian Wikipedia · Public domain
Red catchfly
Red catchflySilene dioica149 recordsUnknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0
Ribwort plantain
Ribwort plantainPlantago lanceolata148 recordssannse · CC BY-SA 3.0
Lesser Celandine
Lesser CelandineFicaria verna148 recordsAnRo0002 · CC0

Open records within 5 km (GBIF, licensed for any use). Busy places are better recorded than remote ones.

In numbers

The forest, measured.

72out of 100

Our own rating, from open data only: tree cover (40 points), wildness (20), species recorded (30) and protection or heritage (10).

  • 52%Treesof the land within 3 km
  • 83%Wildno towns or farmland within 10 km
  • 2,181Speciesrecorded more than once within 5 km

When to walk

Best for walking in September.

How good each month is for a walk: mild days and little rain make the bar taller.

  1. Jan7°1°68 mm
  2. Feb7°1°56 mm
  3. Mar10°2°52 mm
  4. Apr14°4°44 mm
  5. May17°7°57 mm
  6. Jun21°10°58 mm
  7. Jul23°12°60 mm
  8. Aug22°12°67 mm
  9. Sep20°10°46 mm
  10. Oct15°7°77 mm
  11. Nov10°4°77 mm
  12. Dec7°2°74 mm
  • Bar: walking comfort; the number on top is the average maximum.
  • Below: average minimum (NASA, 1991–2020).
  • Rain: monthly total.

The place

Painshill.

18th-century English landscape park in Cobham, Surrey, England, UK

Painshill is a protected forest in United Kingdom.

Seen from space, 52% of the land within 3 km is trees, and 83% of the land within 10 km has no towns or farmland.

2,181 species have been recorded around it: 1,000 plants, 1,000 fungi, 150 birds and 31 mammals.

The most recorded plants are: Garden vetch, Himalayan Balsam and Green alkanet.

The best time to walk is in September.

At Painshill 2025 137
Photograph by Mike Peel ( www.mikepeel.net ). · CC BY-SA 4.0

Get there and walk

  • VisitingHours in OpenStreetMap: Mar-Oct 10:00-18:00; Nov-Feb 10:00-16:00Official site
  • Walton Firs Activity Centrecampsite · 1.1 km · 19 within 10 km
  • Days Inn Cobhamplace to stay · 3.2 km · 62 within 10 km
  • Cobhamnearest town · 1.3 km in a straight line
  • London Heathrow Airport (LHR)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 16 km in a straight lineCar hire at LHR airport (London)Discover Cars · sponsored link

Plan the visit

A guided walk, a bed nearby, a car.

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

From above

The forest and its surroundings.

The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the place, with the trails, notable trees, picnic sites and huts that OpenStreetMap shows.

Painshill seen from above (Sentinel-2)
Seen from above: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6 × 6 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Around, in OpenStreetMap

  • 13marked trails within 5 kmThe Fox Way, European walking route E2 west, UK, South East England, Basingstoke Canal and 10 more
  • 3named and notable trees within 6 kmThe Crouch Oak, Great Cedar, Long-documented Ancient Oak
  • 31picnic sites within 4 km
  • 32shelters and huts within 6 kmPippin lodge and 31 more
  • 6viewpoints within 5 kmFruit Hill, Battleston Hill and 4 more
  • 132car parks within 3 km
  • 19campsites within 10 kmWalton Firs Activity Centre, Birchmere Scout Camp Site, Polyapes Scout Camp and 16 more
  • 62places to stay within 10 kmDays Inn Cobham, The Plough, The Queens Head and 59 more
  • 33restaurants and cafés within 3 km
  • visitor centres within 6 km

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.

In our other atlases

Around Painshill.

The mountains, lakes, rivers, waterfalls and canyons around this forest, the viewpoints above it, the birds and the night sky, in the family's atlases.

Peakyas18 mountains within 25 km
Box Hill224 m · 12 kmRichmond Hill16 kmColley Hill220 m · 17 kmLeith Hill294 m · 18 kmHog's Back154 m · 22 kmDuppas Hill23 kmHydon's Ball179 m · 24 kmNorthala Fields24 km
Lakeyas10 lakes within 15 km
Queen Elizabeth II Reservoir1.5 km² · 7.3 kmIsland Barn Reservoir0.6 km² · 8.3 kmKnight Reservoir0.6 km² · 8.6 kmQueen Mary Reservoir3.1 km² · 9.9 kmSt Ann's Lake0.4 km² · 10 kmStaines Reservoirs1.0 km² · 13 kmVirginia Water Lake0.4 km² · 15 kmKing George VI Reservoir1.6 km² · 15 km
Darkskyas5 dark-sky places within 30 km
Kew ObservatoryBortle 9 · 18 kmObservatory HouseBortle 8 · 23 kmAldershot ObservatoryBortle 7 · 24 kmNortholt Branch ObservatoriesBortle 9 · 25 kmBishop ObservatoryBortle 9 · 29 km
Riveryasthe river nearby
River Mole80 km · 6.6 m³/s

Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.

Photographs

The forest, as people saw it.

Other forests nearby.

Painshill

United Kingdom

  • 72Forestyas Score
  • 52%Trees
  • 83%Wild
  • 2,181Species

Claremont

United Kingdom · 5 km

  • 72Forestyas Score
  • 57%Trees
  • 75%Wild
  • 2,213Species

See the guide

Ashdown Forest

United Kingdom · 44 km

  • 78Forestyas Score
  • 66%Trees
  • 92%Wild
  • 1,460Species

See the guide

New Forest

United Kingdom · 98 km

  • 89Forestyas Score
  • 83%Trees
  • 98%Wild
  • 2,114Species

See the guide

Where these figures come from

Name and typeWikidata (Q46404) · CC0
Land coverESA WorldCover 10 m 2021 v200 · © ESA WorldCover project / Copernicus Sentinel data · CC BY 4.0
Species103,550 open records within 5 km (GBIF, CC0 and CC BY 4.0 only)
See these recordsgbif.org
Names and photosWikidata (CC0); GBIF Backbone Taxonomy · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
AltitudeCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Temperature and rainNASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2)
What is around© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Sister atlasesPeakyas, Islandyas, Lakeyas, Darkskyas, Riveryas

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.