The Cotswolds in November

November is the wettest month in the Cotswolds and one of the quietest, a gap between the autumn colour and Christmas. On the wolds the average high is 9.5°C and the low about 4°C, with 85mm of rain on 13 or 14 days and under two and a half hours of sun a day, by the Met Office's averages for Little Rissington (opens in a new tab). The sun rises at about 7am and sets at about 4.40pm at the start of the month, and at 4pm by the end. The beech woods on the escarpment hold their colour into the first week or two, the racing season gets going at Cheltenham, and from the middle of the month the light trails and Christmas markets switch on. Between those, the villages are as empty as they get outside January, and the field paths are at their muddiest.

The colour itself is in our guide to autumn in the Cotswolds, and the light trails and markets in our guide to Christmas in the Cotswolds. This page is November's own calendar.

What is in season in November

November is the last of the leaves and the first frosts. The beech hangers of the escarpment, from Cranham down to Stroud, are copper and gold in the first days of the month and bare after the first gale. Westonbirt's peak autumn season (opens in a new tab) ends in the middle of the month, when its prices drop, and its colour lasts until then in most years.

After the leaves come the bones of the place: the shape of the wolds, the walls and the stone, and long views from the edge on a clear cold day. The Windrush and Evenlode meadows can be under water after heavy rain.

What is on in November

November's calendar starts with racing and ends with Christmas. Everything Christmassy books by date and time, so book it as soon as you know when you are coming.

The November Meeting at Cheltenham Racecourse is three days of jump racing in the middle of the month, Friday to Sunday, with the Paddy Power Gold Cup on the Saturday and a family day on the Sunday. Under-18s race free with an adult. It is where the jumps season gets going in earnest, four months before the Festival.

Christmas at Blenheim Palace opens its light trail in the middle of November and runs it into January. In the last week or two the others follow: the Spectacle of Light at Sudeley Castle from late November, booked through the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham rather than the castle, and Christmas at Westonbirt on selected evenings from the end of the month. Broadway's late-night Christmas shopping is on two Friday evenings, the first at the end of November, with steam shopping trains from Toddington, and the railway's Santa Specials start on the last weekend.

The Painswick Rococo Garden opens on three November weekends when dogs come in free with their owners (7 and 8, 14 and 15, and 21 and 22 November in 2026, 10am to 4pm). Stow's farmers' market is on the second and last Thursday, Cirencester's on the second and fourth Saturday.

What is open and what is closed in November

November is when the winter timetables start. The National Trust's big places stay open at lower winter prices; most private houses and gardens are closed until spring, and several smaller places go to weekends only.

Hidcote stays open into the winter at a lower price from the start of November, and Snowshill Manor's winter price starts the same day; it opens on Saturdays and Sundays in November and closes for December. Newark Park opens daily until the middle of the month and then mostly at weekends until just before Christmas. At Lacock Abbey the abbey rooms close for the winter clean from 1 November, while the grounds, museum and café stay open, and the Great Hall reopens for Christmas at the end of the month. Sezincote's garden has its last month, Wednesday to Friday, closing at 4pm.

The Painswick Rococo Garden closes its daily season at the start of November and opens for dog weekends. The Cotswold Falconry Centre at Batsford closes in the middle of the month until February. Winchcombe Museum and the Tolsey Museum in Burford open at weekends only. Cogges at Witney opens in the mornings, with the manor shut until its Christmas weeks. Sudeley, Kelmscott, Woodchester Mansion and Bourton House Garden are closed. Birdland, the model village and the motoring museum in Bourton, the wildlife park and Westonbirt are open every day, on shorter winter hours where they have them, and the Dragonfly Maze opens at weekends, 10am to 3.30pm.

Walks for November

November walking is about firm ground. The valley meadows of the Windrush and Evenlode flood and the clay field paths of the vale turn to porridge, while the commons and the escarpment tops above Stroud and Cheltenham drain fast and stay walkable. Boots and a waterproof, and finish by 4pm.

The Leckhampton Hill and Devil's Chimney walk is 4 miles (6.3km) from the Daisy Bank Road car park above Cheltenham, up onto the escarpment past the hill fort to the Devil's Chimney and down the old quarry incline. Belted Galloway cattle graze Charlton Kings Common in autumn and winter, and the Friends of the hill ask for dogs on a short lead near them. The Minchinhampton Common and Amberley walk is a stile-free 5 miles across the common to Amberley and back, half on the open grass of the common and half on lanes and a byway.

For a level walk on tracks, the Northleach, Hampnett and Saltway walk is an easy, stile-free 4.5 miles from Northleach's square to Hampnett's painted Norman church and home by the old Saltway, finishing at Northleach's wool church. It has some road; the buses 801 and 855 reach Northleach.

Where to stay and eat in November

November suits an inn with a fire, two nights midweek, at the lowest prices of the autumn. Book only for the November Meeting weekend near Cheltenham and for the light trails' later weekends; otherwise you can take your pick.

The Old Lodge is an inn with six rooms on Minchinhampton Common itself, with breakfast included and food all day, so the walk starts at the door. The Bear of Rodborough sits on the National Trust's common above Stroud and takes dogs. Our places to stay in Stroud has more in the Five Valleys.

For a long lunch by a fire, the Crown at Frampton Mansell has log fires and views over the Golden Valley, and the Swan at Southrop roaring fires and low ceilings in a building recorded from 1606.

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School holidays and the November crowds

There are no school holidays and no bank holidays in November, which is why it is one of the quietest months of the year. Gloucestershire (opens in a new tab) and Oxfordshire's (opens in a new tab) schools are back from the first Monday of November until the week before Christmas; academies can differ.

The week after the October half term is one of the quietest weeks of the year in the famous villages. The busy points are local: Cheltenham and Prestbury on the November Meeting weekend, Westonbirt on its last peak weekends in the first half of the month, and the light trails on the late-November weekends. A weekday in Bibury or Bourton in November is as quiet as daylight there gets.

If you only have a day in November

Start on Leckhampton Hill at first light for the view over the Severn Vale, then drive across the wolds to Northleach for its wool church and a pub lunch. Spend the last of the light at Hidcote, open on its winter hours, and finish with a timed slot on a light trail or by a fire in an inn. The day is over by half past four.