Things to Do in the New Forest in Autumn
Pannage, the rut, and the fortnight when the whole Forest turns gold
Ask anyone who lives out here and they will tell you the same thing: the Forest saves its best for October. There is a fortnight somewhere around the middle of the month when the whole place stops being green and turns gold, and every walk out of our door smells of wet leaves and woodsmoke. The pigs are back out among the trees eating acorns. The stags are roaring their heads off from first light and the ponies have grown their winter coats.
It is our favourite time of year on this patch, the only trouble is that it all happens in a particular order. The rut peaks a good fortnight before the beeches do anything worth photographing. Pannage starts in September and is finished by the time anyone thinks about Christmas!
So here is what we would head out for between now and the end of October, roughly when to catch it, and where to end up when the light gives out at four o'clock.
Worth heading out for
1. Pannage season in the New Forest
14 September to 29 November | Free | All over the Forest
For a few weeks each autumn, several hundred pigs are turned loose into the Forest to eat the fallen acorns, which would poison the ponies but make a very fine breakfast for a pig. It has been happening every year since William the Conqueror, which we find rather wonderful, and it is the only place in the country where you can still watch it.
Finding them is a matter of following your ears and then your nose. The woods between Bolderwood and Acres Down are a reliable bet, and Millyford Bridge is a good place to start walking from. The pigs move about, so nobody can promise you a sighting on any given morning, but that is half the fun of it.
Admire from a distance, keep dogs close, and whatever you do, no snacks!
2. Hearing the red deer rut at Bolderwood
Now until early November | Free | Best at first light
The bellowing starts before dawn and carries for miles. The stags have a great deal to say for themselves in October, and standing in a cold wood listening to it is one of those things that resets you for about a week after.
Bolderwood has a viewing platform to watch from and rangers about who know where to look. Go early, go quietly, take binoculars, and keep to the main tracks so the deer can get on with what they are doing. Wrap up properly - you will be standing still for a long time, and the Forest at seven in the morning in October is cold.
Back in time for breakfast, which is the correct way round.
3. The redwoods on Rhinefield Ornamental Drive
All autumn | Free | Ten minutes from us
Somebody in the 1850s had the idea of planting a road with giant redwoods and Douglas firs, and everybody since has been quietly grateful. It is a mile of enormous trees turning colour above your head, and you can do the whole thing from the car if the weather has other ideas.
If your legs want more, the Tall Trees Trail loops off it and takes about half an hour at a wander. This is the one to save for a still, bright morning in the middle of the month, when the light comes through sideways and the ground is thick with leaves.
4. Autumn colour and the Ghost Train at Exbury Gardens
Autumn colour through October, Ghost Train over half term | Ticketed | Down towards the water
Two hundred acres of woodland garden running down to the Beaulieu River, where the Japanese maples do something close to showing off around the middle of October. It is one of the best places in Hampshire to see autumn colour properly, and it holds up beautifully in drizzle, which is a useful quality in a garden this time of year.
The little steam railway that runs through the grounds goes out on spooky business over half term, which small people tend to find extremely satisfying. Check dates before you set off, as they shift year to year.
5. A half-term afternoon at Beaulieu
Half-term week | Ticketed | Twenty minutes or so
A palace, an abbey ruin, gardens gone gold, and a very large shed full of extraordinary old cars, with a trail winding through the lot. The point of Beaulieu in late October is that most of it is under a roof, which makes it the thing to have in your back pocket for the afternoon the sky opens.
Worth a look at what they have on for half term before you go, as the programme changes each year.
Worth staying in for
Not everything worth doing in the Forest this autumn involves getting in a car. There are a couple of things going on here on our own patch over the next few weeks, and one of them only comes round once every fifteen years.
15 Years of THE PIG: Stories from the Kitchen Garden
Sunday 4 October 2026
Fifteen years of this, and we are marking it here in the Forest where it all started. An afternoon of stories from the Kitchen Garden and a lunch built around the dishes that got us going in the first place - the ones that never quite left the menu, and a few that did and have been badgered back onto it.
If you only come out to us once this autumn, we would make it this one.
Kitchen Garden Tours
Every day
Half an hour with one of the gardeners, walking the beds that most of your lunch came out of. October is a good month for it - the squashes are in, the last of the salad leaves are hanging on, and everything is being put to bed for the winter, which is a more interesting process than it sounds.
Free to join, and you can ask as many questions as you like.
Or spend your time doing not a lot at all
There is a moment in an October afternoon, somewhere around four o'clock, when the light gives up entirely and the only sensible thing left to do is come back in. Boots off in the hall. Something warm in a glass. The fire going in the corner and no particular plan for the next three hours. This is the part of autumn we are best at, and the Kitchen Garden rather agrees - it turns properly generous just as everything outside it starts winding down.
On the 25 Mile Menu
The autumn harvest menu has arrived, and it is doing exactly what October food should. Venison carpaccio with pickled walnut and Old Winchester. Caramelised onion and smoked garlic soup with herb crème fraîche and sourdough croutons. South Coast hake with braised white beans and Dorset clams. Apple and sultana crumble under a proper dollap of vanilla custard.
Alongside it, a handful of dishes have come back out of the archive for our fifteenth year - Brock Eggs with Colman's mustard, the beetroot and blue cheese salad, and the Bath chap and fennel roast pork fillet to share, with colcannon mash, garden greens and crab apple sauce. Scrumptious then, scrumptious now.
Cosy rooms, and a fire that is already lit
If you have got as far as the second glass and the thought of driving home has quietly lost its appeal, that is rather the point of us. Cosy rooms, a very short walk to breakfast in the morning, and the stags roaring away out there at first light whether you choose to get up for them or not.
A few things people ask us about autumn in the New Forest
When is the best time to see autumn colour in the New Forest?
Mid-October is usually the sweet spot, give or take a week either side depending on how the weather has behaved. The beeches and the ornamental drives go first; the oaks hang on into November.
What is pannage, and when does it happen?
Pannage is the practice of releasing pigs into the Forest each autumn to eat the fallen acorns, which are poisonous to the ponies and cattle that graze here. The season runs from 14 September to 29 November, and it has been going on in some form for the best part of a thousand years.
Where can you hear the deer rut in the New Forest?
Bolderwood is the usual answer, and it has a platform to watch from. Go at first light or in the last hour of daylight, keep to the tracks, and bring binoculars. The rut runs from late September into early November and is at its loudest in the middle of October.
What should I bring for a day out in the Forest in October?
Boots or wellies, more layers than you think, and something waterproof. The tracks hold water and the light goes early. We keep a rack of Barbour wellies by the door if you have come without.
Come and find us
We are ten minutes from the redwoods, twenty from the deer, and about a hundred yards from a fire that will be lit by the time you get back.
Anything you want to know about the Forest before you come, just ask!