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October is when the Lake District rewards the visitors who planned ahead. The summer crowds have gone. The school holidays are over. And the landscape is doing something it cannot do at any other time of year — turning itself, hillside by hillside and valley by valley, from green to gold.
The question visitors ask is: exactly when? The honest answer is that the timing varies by a few weeks depending on the weather, but the third week of October is consistently the best week for a combination of bracken colour on the fells and deciduous colour in the woodland below.
Bracken on the fells — the open moorland above the treeline is covered in bracken that turns orange, then copper, then deep brown through the autumn. It begins in September and is at its best from late September through mid-October. The fells of the Borrowdale area, the Kirkstone valley and the slopes around Ullswater are particularly fine.
Woodland on the valley sides — the ancient deciduous woodland of the Lake District valleys turns later than the bracken, typically in October. The colours are more varied — ash turns pale yellow, oak golden, rowan deep orange and red, birch clear gold. The combination of all these species turning simultaneously produces the complex, layered colour that the Lake District woodlands are known for.
Early October (1–10): Bracken colour is well advanced on the higher ground. Woodland colour is beginning in the most exposed areas. Good for fell colour; woodland still mostly green.
Mid October (11–20): The peak for most visitors. Bracken is deep copper on the fells; woodland turning actively. Both layers visible simultaneously. The best week in most years.
Late October (21–31): Woodland colour at its peak or just past it. Bracken beginning to fade towards brown. Still beautiful but the vibrancy of mid-October is reducing.
If you can only come for one day, aim for a clear day in the second or third week of October. Clear autumn weather — blue sky, no wind — gives the colour its best setting. But overcast days in October have their own quality — the diffused light brings out the richness of the colour without the hard shadows of bright sunshine.
Rain in October is entirely possible. The Lake District in wet October weather, with the bracken dark and dripping and the waterfalls running at full strength, is beautiful in a completely different way.
See our full range of tours operating throughout October. Smaller groups in autumn, and some of the finest scenery of the year.