Love Parks Week: 5 free North Yorkshire parks to visit

demoduck.co.uk editorial team 2026-07-31 11:45 3 min read

A lush public garden featuring a decorative stone urn filled with purple petunia flowers.

Love Parks Week continues across North Yorkshire until Sunday, 2 August 2026, placing five Green Flag Award-winning parks at the centre of a free summer campaign. The parks are open to the public, with families and other visitors encouraged to spend time outdoors during the school holidays.

The participating sites are Falsgrave Park, Peasholm Park and South Cliff Gardens in Scarborough, Glen and Crescent Gardens in Filey, and Pannett Park in Whitby. These are separate parks and gardens rather than one central event venue.

Pannett Park offers rose gardens, a play area and an ornamental lily pond close to Whitby town centre. At South Cliff Gardens, woodland slopes lead towards formal Italian gardens, terraces, shelters and another lily pond.

Five Green Flag winners along the Yorkshire coast

North Yorkshire Council manages all five parks recognised in the latest Green Flag Awards, which identify them as being among England’s best-kept green spaces. Councillor Malcolm Taylor, the council’s executive member for parks and grounds, credited parks staff and community groups with maintaining them.

Love Parks Week is an annual Keep Britain Tidy campaign celebrating green spaces, the people who care for them and their role within communities. The council is using the campaign to encourage free local days out while the summer holidays are under way.

The parks provide places where people can socialise, stay active or spend time close to nature. Their green environments also support wildlife and form part of local efforts to respond to climate change.

Where to find the award-winning parks

Scarborough: Falsgrave Park, Peasholm Park and South Cliff Gardens.
Filey: Glen and Crescent Gardens.
Whitby: Pannett Park.

The source presents Love Parks Week as an awareness campaign and does not list a programme of timed activities. The focus is on visiting and enjoying the five existing parks and gardens while the campaign runs.

Two parks offer an added heritage connection

Pannett Park and South Cliff Gardens have also received Green Heritage Site Accreditation. This separate recognition is awarded to parks that successfully manage and promote their history.

Pannett Park, Whitby Museum and Pannett Art Gallery were a gift from Whitby solicitor Robert Pannett, who lived from 1834 to 1920. The park occupies the site of an old market garden that was secured to prevent housing from being built there before it was given to the people of Whitby.

Work on the design and creation of South Cliff Gardens began in 1889 and took more than 40 years. The gardens extend from Spa Bridge to Holbeck, where the Holbeck Hall Hotel slipped into the sea in 1993.

Adrian Perry, chair of the Friends of South Cliff Gardens, said heritage funding had helped protect the Victorian garden’s historic features while allowing its story to be shared with visitors.

Free entry and details to check before visiting

Love Parks Week ends on Sunday, 2 August. The council describes the parks as a free family day out, and attendance is open to the wider public.

No event start time or booking instructions have been published. The supplied information also gives no specific transport or accessibility arrangements, so visitors should consult North Yorkshire Council’s individual park, play-area and woodland listings for confirmed locations and facilities before choosing a site.

Source: North Yorkshire Council

Context & actions About this article

Source check How this was checked

Event dates, participating parks, public entry and award details were checked against the North Yorkshire Council announcement.

Checks

Confirmed that Love Parks Week runs until Sunday, 2 August 2026.
Matched all five named Green Flag winners with their stated towns.
Checked the free public-entry information and noted that no start time was supplied.
Confirmed the Green Heritage accreditation for Pannett Park and South Cliff Gardens.

North Yorkshire Council Check related coverage