The Cotswolds in October

October is autumn colour and the Cotswolds' second busy season, shorter and gentler than the summer. The weather turns cooler and wetter; the figures are in the Met Office's averages for Little Rissington (opens in a new tab). The sun sets at about 6.45pm on the first of the month; the clocks go back (opens in a new tab) on the last Sunday, and after that it is dark before 5pm. Weekdays in the first half are quiet. The weekends from the middle of the month, and the half-term week at the end of it, bring the crowds back, above all to Westonbirt.

Our guide to autumn in the Cotswolds has the colour in depth: where and when it turns, Westonbirt and Batsford, the beech woods of the escarpment and the five best walks through them. This page is the month's calendar: what is on, what closes, where to walk and how to plan round half term.

What is in season in October

October is maples, beech, apples and pumpkins. The planted maples at Westonbirt and Batsford colour first, from early in the month, with the reddest weeks in the second half; the beech hangers of the escarpment above Painswick and Stroud follow in the last week and hold into November. Westonbirt runs its peak season (opens in a new tab) from the last week of September to the middle of November, charges more at weekends and strongly advises booking.

The orchards finish. At Hayles Fruit Farm near Winchcombe the pick-your-own lists apples and pears into October and pumpkins in October, dates the farm calls approximate. The Cotswold Farm Park runs a pumpkin patch on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through October and every day of half term (to 31 October in 2026). Apple Day, the orchard celebration Common Ground began in 1990, is on 21 October, and orchard groups hold apple days on the weekends around it; our autumn guide has the ones we know.

What is on in October

October's two big fixtures are a literary festival in Cheltenham and a Gypsy and Traveller horse fair in Stow, and they could not be less alike. Both draw crowds, so plan around them as well as to them.

The Cheltenham Literature Festival runs for ten days in early and mid October (9 to 18 October in 2026), in the tented Festival Village in Montpellier Gardens, the Town Hall and other venues: more than 500 events in 2026, more than 30% of them free. Book the big names as soon as the programme is out, and a room in Cheltenham as early as you can.

Stow horse fair goes back to a charter of 1476 that set it near 24 October. In 2026 it was held on Thursday 15 October, in a field on Maugersbury Road, and the organisers told the town council they intend to hold future fairs on the third Thursday of the month. The date can still move and the fair can be cancelled at short notice, so check the week before. It is the Gypsy and Traveller communities' own gathering, not a show: visitors may walk round, ask before photographing people, and keep clear of the horses being run. The police are on site. If you have come for the town rather than the fair, another Thursday will be quieter.

The steam railway held its Mixed Traction Extravaganza on 10 and 11 October 2026, with an intensive timetable along the whole line from Cheltenham Racecourse to Broadway. The Cheltenham Racecourse jumps season builds towards its November Meeting (13 to 15 November in 2026). Stow's farmers' market falls on the second and last Thursday, and Cirencester's on the second and fourth Saturday.

What closes in October

October is when the summer seasons end, so check before you drive. Many private gardens and houses close at the end of the month, and the National Trust's places set their own winter days, so check each one's page.

Bourton House Garden closes in the middle of October (16 October in 2026). Kelmscott Manor closes at the end of the month, as does the Tolsey Museum in Burford, which then opens at weekends until Christmas. Sudeley Castle closes for the winter at the start of November, and Woodchester Mansion and the Painswick Rococo Garden end their seasons the same weekend (Sunday 1 November in 2026); the Rococo Garden opens again for three free dog weekends in November (7 and 8, 14 and 15, 21 and 22 November in 2026, 10am to 4pm). Miserden's garden closes for the winter too.

Elsewhere the hours shorten rather than stop. When the clocks go back, Bourton's Model Village closes at 3.30pm instead of 5.30pm and the Cotswold Wildlife Park goes to winter hours, 10am to 4pm with last entry at 3pm.

Walks for October

October walks are about the colour and the first mud. The field paths stay firm in a dry first half and turn heavy after the rain of the second; woodland tracks and stony bridleways stay walkable longest. Boots, not trainers, from the middle of the month.

The Stow and Maugersbury walk is 3.75 miles (5.5km) without stiles from the Cross in Stow, past the Porch House and Maugersbury, down to Hyde Mill and back through Nether Swell and along the Fosse Way to the Cross, and makes a quiet morning before or after the horse fair. The Winchcombe and Belas Knap walk climbs the Cotswold Way through the woods to the Neolithic long barrow and comes home by Sudeley: 5.5 miles, two stiles and a narrow road.

For the beech without the Westonbirt crowd, the Kingscote, Ozleworth and Lasborough walk is 7.5 miles from the Hunters Hall Inn, down to Ozleworth's six-sided church tower and along the wooded floor of Ozleworth Bottom; sheep graze the fields, so dogs stay on a lead. Our Westonbirt walk is the 2.5-mile loop of Silk Wood, best on a weekday morning.

Where to stay and eat in October

October suits an inn with a fire and a walk from the door, two nights midweek if you can, when prices are lower and the colour is the same. Book weekends near Westonbirt and Cheltenham early: the literature festival and the autumn weekends take the rooms.

The Hare and Hounds at Westonbirt is close enough to the arboretum to be there when it opens at 9am, and takes dogs in its dog-friendly rooms (£20 a night, £10 for each extra dog), the bar and the garden, though not the main restaurant. In the north, our places to stay in Stow-on-the-Wold are a short walk from the Square, though rooms are scarce in horse fair week. For lunch after a walk, the Inn at Fossebridge, where the Fosse Way crosses the River Coln, has log fires and four acres of riverside garden.

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Half term, bank holidays and the October crowds

The autumn half term is the last full week of October, and it is Bourton's last big week of the year. Gloucestershire (opens in a new tab) and Oxfordshire both took it from 26 to 30 October in 2026, the week after the clocks went back; academies can differ. There is no bank holiday in October.

The busiest days of the month are the half-term week and the weekends on either side of it, at Westonbirt, Bourton and the family attractions. The quietest are weekdays in the first half of the month, outside the literature festival's ten days in Cheltenham. If you can only come at half term, go to the beech woods of the escarpment, which are free and big enough to swallow a crowd.

If you only have a day in October

Be at Westonbirt when the gates open at 9am on a weekday, walk Silk Wood and the Old Arboretum for two hours, and leave as the car parks fill. Lunch in Tetbury. In the afternoon drive up to the escarpment above Stroud and walk an hour in the beech woods while the low sun lights them from the side. Be by a fire by dark, which in late October is before five.