Grey skies, wild wind and the best walks in Britain: 10 long autumn routes worth getting soaked for

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October and November get written off as the soggy months, and I think that's exactly why they're the best time for a long walk in Britain. The crowds thin, the bracken turns the colour of rust, stags roar on the moors, the geese come in from Iceland and every waterfall finds its voice. My ten picks, one for each corner of the UK: Dog Falls in Glen Affric, the North Antrim cliffs to the Giant's Causeway, Hadrian's Wall between Housesteads and Steel Rigg, Haystacks above Buttermere, Stanage Edge in the Peak District, the Malvern Hills end to end, the cliffs around St Justinian in Pembrokeshire, the Ashridge beechwoods to Ivinghoe Beacon, Dunkery and Horner Wood on Exmoor, and the sands and pinewoods of Holkham.

These are places where position does the work, and wind and rain make them more themselves, not less.

What makes a walk an autumn walk?

It's a route that's better in October and November than in summer, because of what the season brings rather than in spite of the weather: bracken turning rust-red, birch and beech going gold, red and fallow deer in the rut, geese arriving from Iceland, seal pups on the coast and rivers running loud after rain. All ten here are long, from a half-day to a full day, and each section says what autumn adds, how exposed the walk is and how to get there.

Why are so many people looking for one now?

Because the interest arrives all at once. In the UK, "autumn walks near me" averages about 720 searches a month but reached 5,400 in October 2025, and "autumn walks" peaked at 3,600 in the same month, against about 110 to 170 in the spring (Google Keyword Planner, October 2026).

Why should you care before you set off?

Because the short days and wet rock that make these walks dramatic are also what catch people out. By late October the light is fading at half past four, and slips and trips were behind almost a quarter of Mountain Rescue call-outs in England and Wales in 2024. A route that looks simple on a sunny afternoon is a different walk in cloud.

The short answer: for colour, Stanage Edge from Hathersage (9 miles, with a station in the village) or Haystacks above Buttermere; for the deer rut, Dunkery and Horner Wood on Exmoor or the Ashridge beechwoods; for wildlife without hills, Holkham's geese or the St Davids seal coves; and for a properly stormy day, Ashridge, the least exposed walk here. A paper map or the OS Maps app from Ordnance SurveyOrdnance SurveyOrdnance Survey's own shop is the place to buy official UK paper maps and walking guidebooks. The range is built around two map series, a set of guidebooks for walkers, and histori2 current offers · View store → is worth carrying on every one, outdoor shops are on our Camping & Hiking page, and our coastal walks guide picks up where the Causeway and Pembrokeshire leave off.

I've put all ten on one map, from the Highlands down to Exmoor. Each number shows where a walk starts, and its section is further down.

Glen Affric, Highlands: Dog Falls and the old pinewood

Glen Affric sits west of Loch Ness, a long glen of lochs, Scots pine and birch running into the mountains of Kintail. In autumn the birch goes gold against the dark pines, and that contrast is the whole reason to come now.

The Forestry and Land Scotland trails at Dog Falls are short on their own, but they join into a proper half-day. The Dog Falls Trail is 2 miles, about an hour and a quarter, and follows the "foam-flecked river" down to a gorge; the Viewpoint Trail climbs through the forest for views over Loch Beinn a' Mheadhain to the hills beyond. After a wet week the River Affric is at its loudest, which is the point. Red deer roam the open hillsides above, and the Highland rut runs through early autumn: the National Trust puts the red deer rut from mid-September to mid-October, with stags' bellows carrying across open ground.

The route card warns of rocky sections, steps and long steep slopes on the Dog Falls Trail, and of exposed tree roots and uneven stone steps on the Viewpoint Trail, all slick when wet. The car park is 4 miles up the glen from Cannich, and FLS notes that mobile reception is poor once you leave the village, which is reason enough to carry a map.

Northern Ireland: Dunseverick to the Giant's Causeway

The North Antrim coast is basalt and grass, a path curving round headland after headland with Rathlin Island and, on a clear day, Scotland across the water. In a westerly gale the sea stacks below are white with spray.

The Causeway Coast Way's Dunseverick to Giant's Causeway section is 9km with 200m of climbing, about two and three-quarter hours one way. It's the Way's longest stretch without a road, rising gradually to Bengore Head, just over 100m, the highest point on the whole route. The finish is the reason to walk it this way round: a flight of steps zig-zags down the cliff past the Amphitheatre's columns to the Grand Causeway itself. In autumn the columns are quieter than in summer, and arriving on foot after hours of empty cliff feels very different from stepping off a coach.

This is cliff-edge walking on grass, and the drop is right there. On a properly windy day I'd take the inland side of every fence and turn back if gusts are knocking you about. It's linear, so it's worth parking at one end and checking the current Translink timetable for the other.

North East England: Hadrian's Wall, Housesteads to Steel Rigg

The Whin Sill is a long dolerite ridge with crags on its north face, and the Romans built their wall along its crest. Walking it in autumn, with the grass bleached and the sky racing, is the closest I can imagine to feeling like a frontier.

The National Trust's Housesteads to Steel Rigg circular is 8 miles, around three hours of walking, out along the wall past Milecastle 38, through the woods above Crag Lough and down through Sycamore Gap to Steel Rigg, then back east on field paths by Hotbank Farm. The tree at Sycamore Gap was felled in 2023; the Trust says the stump remains and may regrow, and the gap is still one of the most striking dips on the wall.

The Trust describes steep climbs and descents on stone-pitched paths that can be muddy, and that pitching is slippery in rain. The route crosses grazing land all year, so dogs stay on a lead. Housesteads Fort charges non-members; the walk itself is free.

The Lake District: Haystacks from Buttermere

Haystacks is small by Lakeland standards, 597m, but its top is a knotted maze of crags, pools and heather between Buttermere and Ennerdale, with Great Gable and Pillar standing over it. In October the fellsides around it burn orange with dead bracken.

TheLakeDistrict.org's Haystacks route guide starts at Gatesgarth Farm at the south-eastern end of Buttermere and runs about 5 miles, up Scarth Gap and over the summit past Innominate Tarn. Alfred Wainwright called this "the best fell-top of all", and his ashes were scattered here at his request.

The guide calls the paths rocky, often steep, with loose stones and some scrambling, and suggests allowing around five hours. In cloud the summit plateau is confusing, with paths in every direction, so this is the one walk on my list where I'd want a compass as well as a map. Parking at Gatesgarth is pay and display.

The Peak District: Stanage Edge from Hathersage

Stanage is a long gritstone wall above the Hope Valley, and on a wild day it's a balcony with the weather pouring through it. The Visit Peak District site calls it arguably the most impressive gritstone escarpment in the Peak, about 3.5 miles long.

The classic is the 9-mile circuit from Hathersage, climbing past North Lees Hall and through Stanage Plantation, then along the firm path on top of the edge with views to Mam Tor and Kinder Scout, and home on walled tracks and lanes. Below the edge lie abandoned millstones and grindstones, relics of an industry that started to move on in the 1860s, half-buried in bracken. That bracken is what makes autumn here: by late October the slopes below the crags turn a deep fox-red against grey rock and purple-brown moor, as the photo at the top of this page shows.

The edge path is wide and safe in ordinary weather, but the drop is a real cliff and a strong westerly hits it side-on. Hathersage has a station on the Hope Valley line, which makes this one of the easiest walks on the list to reach without a car.

Norfolk: Holkham's sands and the pink-footed geese

North Norfolk has no hills at all, and it doesn't need them. The sky is the landscape, and from late September it fills with skeins of pink-footed geese arriving from Iceland.

Holkham's own account says the geese start arriving in September and peak in December, roosting on the marshes at Holkham, Wells East Hills, Scolt Head and Snettisham; it records a high of about 90,000 at Holkham in 2006, though numbers have fallen since as less sugar beet is grown. The walking is simple and long. WalkingBritain's Holkham and Holkham Park circular runs 10.2 miles from Holkham Gap, inland first through the deer park around Holkham Hall and on to Burnham Overy Staithe, then back along the Norfolk Coast Path through the national nature reserve, by the salt-marsh embankment and boardwalk, with a choice of beach or pinewood for the last stretch. At dusk the geese come in over the pines in long, noisy lines, and that sound alone is worth the trip.

Exposure here is horizontal: nothing stops the wind off the North Sea. The sands are huge and the tide comes in fast across the flats, so the tide times are worth knowing before heading far out. The car park at Holkham Gap is pay and display.

The Malvern Hills: the ridge end to end

The Malverns rise straight out of the Severn plain, a narrow switchback of granite humps that you can see from three counties and that sees about as far. On an autumn day with rain blowing through, you watch each shower cross the plain long before it reaches you.

WalkingBritain's end-to-end route runs 10 miles from North Hill to Chase End over every summit, including the Worcestershire Beacon and the Iron Age ramparts of Herefordshire Beacon, with around 1,000m of up and down. It's graded hard for all that climbing, and it opens with a steep, largely pathless pull up the face of North Hill. The Visit Worcestershire site suggests walking it south to north from Chase End, about five hours, and splitting it at British Camp or the Wyche if you'd rather do it in halves.

The crest is open grass the whole way, so it's fully exposed but rarely dangerous. Chase End has room for about six cars, so a drop-off makes the linear version simpler; Great Malvern station sits under the northern end.

Wales: St Justinian and the seal coves of St Davids

The coast west of St Davids is the end of Wales: low cliffs, sounds full of tide race and Ramsey Island just offshore. Autumn is pupping season, and that changes everything about how you walk here.

The National Park's seal page says grey seals pup on undisturbed beaches from August to November, and that Ramsey alone has between 500 and 700 pups born each year, the largest pupping site in southern Britain. Its short St Justinian and Porthselau walk is 2.1 miles past the lifeboat station and Point St John, and it links easily along the coast path north to Whitesands and St Davids Head for a longer day. Pups stay white for up to three weeks, tucked into coves below the path.

The Park asks walkers to stay quiet and below the skyline, because a frightened mother may stop feeding her pup, and to keep a close eye on dogs, which can be particularly disturbing to seals. In wind and wet it advises extra care on cliff edges, and the ground inland from Porthselau gets muddy. The seasonal Celtic Coaster 403 bus links St Davids and St Justinian.

The Chilterns: Ashridge beechwoods to Ivinghoe Beacon

Ashridge is the Chilterns at their best: chalk downland and miles of beech and oak along an escarpment that ends at Ivinghoe Beacon, an Iron Age hill fort with the vale laid out below. In late October the beech canopy turns copper, and the floor is thick with leaves.

The Woodland Trust describes the Ashridge Estate as 2,000 hectares of beech and oak woods, commons and chalk downland, and lists the fallow deer rut among its autumn highlights. Countryfile says these beechwoods throng with the bellows of rutting deer in October. Paths follow the wooded escarpment north from the Bridgewater Monument to the open chalk of the Beacon, and there and back makes a good long autumn day. Ashridge is looked after by the National Trust, which suggests looking out in October for "fallow rings", circles of hoof prints the bucks wear round tree stumps during the rut.

There's little exposure in the woods, which makes Ashridge the best choice on this list for a properly stormy day, though the open top of the Beacon catches every gust. Paths get muddy and slippery in the wet. Deer are best given a wide berth during the rut, and the National Trust suggests keeping dogs on a short lead.

Exmoor: Horner Wood and Dunkery Beacon

Exmoor is where the moor runs down to the sea, and Dunkery Beacon is its roof: the National Park gives it as 519 metres, the highest point on Exmoor. Below it, Horner Wood's oaks fill the combes, and in autumn this is red deer country at its most dramatic.

The Park's stroll starts from a small roadside car park on the minor road north of Dunkery Hill Gate and is a short stony climb to the cairn, and the ridge carries on west from the top towards Great Rowbarrow. For a longer day the National Trust's Holnicote estate links Horner village, the woods and Webber's Post viewpoint below the Beacon. The National Trust puts the red deer rut from mid-September to mid-October, when bellows carry across the moor and evenly matched stags lock antlers. Dawn and dusk are when deer are most active, and the Trust's advice on muted clothing and wind direction is good for anyone hoping to see them.

Dunkery's top is bare heather moor with nothing to break the wind, and cloud can sit on it for days. Stags in the rut can be aggressive, so a long lens beats getting close. The National Trust car park at Horner has the nearest toilets.

A map in the pocket, and why it matters now

Every walk here looks simple on a sunny afternoon and very different in cloud, rain and fading light at half past four. Mountain Rescue England and Wales had 3,842 call-outs in 2024, up 24% since 2019, with slips and trips behind 23% of them and another 8% from people who reported themselves lost. Short days and wet rock are a big part of why autumn needs a little more care.

A paper map or the OS Maps app is worth having on every one of these routes, and on Haystacks or Dunkery in cloud I'd want both. Ordnance Survey's own shop is on our Ordnance Survey store page, and anyone planning several of these walks may find its MOREMAPS multi-buy code useful for buying several paper maps at once. Vouchernaut may earn a commission if you buy through that page; it doesn't change which walks are on this list.

Questions people ask

What are the best autumn walks in the UK?

For range, I'd point to Stanage Edge and Haystacks for bracken colour, Exmoor and Ashridge for the deer rut, Holkham for migrating geese, Glen Affric for birch and pine, and Pembrokeshire for seal pups. Each region of the UK has at least one walk at its best between late September and November.

When is the deer rut in the UK?

The National Trust gives mid-September to mid-October for red deer, and October for fallow deer, once the weather turns cold. Dawn and dusk are the best times, and keeping well back is safest, as stags can charge.

Is it safe to hill walk in wind and rain?

Ridge and cliff walks are fine in ordinary wet weather with waterproofs, a map and time in hand, but strong gusts on exposed edges like Stanage, the Causeway cliffs or Dunkery are a reason to turn back.

When do grey seal pups appear in Pembrokeshire?

The Pembrokeshire Coast National Park says August to November, with Ramsey Island seeing 500 to 700 pups a year. The coast path is the best place to watch from, quietly and below the skyline.

Which of these walks can be done without a car?

Stanage Edge from Hathersage station and the Malverns from Great Malvern station are the easiest. St Justinian has the seasonal 403 bus from St Davids, and the Causeway coast has Translink services between its ends. For more walks by the sea, our coastal walks guide has eleven for storms and seal pups.

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