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UK Autumn Walks & Folklore Guide: The Best Ancient Woodlands for Autumn Colour
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items Welcome, kindred spirit. This is your complete guide to the most magical UK autumn walks. Discover the best ancient woodlands for autumn colour, find our recommendations for sustainable hiking gear and essential folklore books, and gather 'round the ...
Sections
4
The Call to Adventure | Fireside Planning & Folklore
The Explorer's Kit | Sustainable Gear for Your Autumn Walk
The Journey | The Best Ancient Woodlands for Autumn Colour
The Return | A Taste of the Season & A Promise to Protect
The Call to Adventure | Fireside Planning & Folklore
Every great journey begins not with a single step, but with a whisper of a story. This is the fireside phase of our adventure, a time for dreaming and planning. Here, we gather the old tales and the wisdom of the trees, poring over maps and guidebook...
This is more than a book; it is a beautiful and important act of conservation. It is a profound and joyful celebration of the language we use to connect with nature, and a powerful reminder that "we find it hard to love what we cannot give a name to"...
The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane, Jackie Morris | Waterstones
Widely regarded as the "Bible of tree identification" for Britain and Europe, this is the definitive field guide for any woodland explorer.
Collins Tree Guide by Owen Johnson, David More | Waterstones
This is a treasury of the very stories that live in the landscapes featured in this guide, helping you to connect the places you visit with the ancient beliefs that have shaped our relationship with them for centuries.
A Treasury of British Folklore by Dee Dee Chainey | Waterstones
This is a beautifully crafted, narrative bedtime story. In the episode, you are guided on a ride through the countryside at sunset on the Summer Solstice. You encounter a pack of mysterious hounds with white fur and red ears, which lead you into an a...
The Holly King & the Oak King | Summer Solstice Sleep Story
The Explorer's Kit | Sustainable Gear for Your Autumn Walk
A journey into the Whispering Woods calls for thoughtful preparation. The right kit is more than just practical; it is an extension of our promise to "Tread lightly, live gently". Each item we choose to carry is a conscious decision to support sustai...
These are designed for durability, which in itself is a form of sustainability—they are not made for a single season, but for years of wandering. They provide the comfort and support needed for long walks on the uneven ground of an ancient forest, al...
Rush 2 Pro GTX
Our Top Pick for a Recycled Waterproof Jacket: The BAM Clothing Rowtor is our go-to for embracing the misty, atmospheric weather of a British autumn. It's made from 98% recycled materials, aligning with our ethos to "tread lightly," and is the perfec...
Rowtor Waterproof Recycled Jacket
There are few simple pleasures as profound as pausing a walk, finding a mossy log to perch on, and pouring a steaming cup of tea or cocoa from a flask. It is a small ritual of warmth and comfort that punctuates a day of exploration, a moment to sit a...
The White Swallows Bottle- Free from Lead, BPA, BPS & BPF
Our sustainable, organic cotton apparel is designed to be a piece of the story, a wearable legend that connects you to the folklore that inspires us. This design from our "Whispering Woods" collection is a tribute to one of the most profound legends ...
Winter's Herald: Unisex Autumnal Robin Organic Top
Our Top Pick for a Sustainable Explorer's Backpack: We chose this beautiful pack from Kovered, a British brand that shares our love for the stories of this land. Each of their bags is named for a British river, and this one, the 'Taw', feels like a p...
Taw 2.0 - Waxed Canvas Rolltop Backpack - Tan - Reclaimed Materials
The Journey | The Best Ancient Woodlands for Autumn Colour
With our minds full of stories and our kit prepared, we step across the threshold and onto the path. This is the heart of our journey: a pilgrimage to the courts of England's ancient woodland kings, a walk through the misty Celtic rainforests of Wale...
To walk in Frith Wood in autumn is to be enveloped in light. The high, arching branches of the beeches create a golden canopy that filters the low sun, turning the entire forest into a vast, natural cathedral. The paths, which wind across the steep s...
Frith Wood | Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust - The Realm of the Beech Queen
A walk in the New Forest during autumn is a multi-sensory immersion in English history. The air is filled with the earthy scent of damp leaves and the sound of them crunching underfoot. The sight of pigs snuffling happily beneath the great oaks is a ...
The New Forest | National Park
There is a deep, almost "Tolkienesque" magic to Savernake. To walk here is to feel as if you have stepped into a lost chapter of a fairy tale. The ancient, pollarded oaks are gnarled and full of character, their brooding, skeletal frames taking on a ...
Savernake Forest, Wiltshire
A walk at The Hermitage in autumn is an assault on the senses in the most wonderful way. The air is thick with the earthy, tangy scent of pine needles. The sound of the roaring waterfall is a constant, powerful presence. Looking up, the sheer scale o...
The Hermitage, Perthshire
A pilgrimage to the Major Oak is a journey to the very heart of an English legend. To stand before this colossal tree, its heavy limbs now supported by props, is to feel a profound connection to the past and to the power of a timeless story.
Home of the Legend of Robin Hood - Sherwood Forest
To step into Wistman's Wood is to feel as though you have entered another world, a place plucked from a fairy tale. Even on a bright autumn day, the wood exudes an emerald green glow, a result of the thick moss that covers every surface. The atmosphe...
Wistman's Wood and the West Dart Valley | Dartmoor
If Wistman's Wood is an intimate, otherworldly chamber, Lower Woods is a sprawling, ancient kingdom. It is a place to get gloriously lost, to wander for hours along muddy tracks that have been used for centuries, and to feel the sheer scale of a trul...
Lower Woods | Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust
To journey into Glen Affric is to experience the Scottish Highlands at their most wild and romantic. The 10-mile circular walk around Loch Affric is a true classic, offering ever-changing views of the water reflecting the kaleidoscope of autumn colou...
Glen Affric, Highlands
To walk in Coed Felenrhyd is to step directly into Welsh myth. The atmosphere is truly "elvish" and otherworldly; the gnarled oaks feel ancient and alive, and the sheer abundance of green life covering every surface is astonishing. The constant sound...
Coed Felenrhyd & Llennyrch, Snowdonia - Woodland Trust
The Return | A Taste of the Season & A Promise to Protect
Every good journey ends by the hearth, with stories to tell and treasures to share. This final act brings our adventure home. Here, we celebrate the bounty of the season with a taste of the wild harvest, a recipe that turns foraged fruits into a comf...
This is the perfect, cozy end to a day of crisp autumn walking. The tartness of the apples and wild blackberries, picked from the hedgerow, is balanced by the sweet, buttery crumble topping. There is no dessert that says "British autumn" quite like a...
Blackberry & Apple Crumble from An Explorer's Guide to Britain's Ancient Woodlands in Autumn | Englandbear
Supporting the Woodland Trust is a direct and powerful way to protect the very places celebrated in this guide. Every donation helps them to care for ancient trees, fight threats from disease and development, and plant the woodlands of the future. It...
Woodland Trust Membership
A woodland without its wildlife is a silent place. Supporting the RSPB helps to protect the entire ecosystem, from the smallest insects to the magnificent birds of prey. It ensures that the owls and crows, the messengers of autumn folklore, will cont...
Charitable Donations to Wildlife & Nature - RSPB