Tag Archives: autumn

Studley Royal rutting

Autumn at Fountains Abbey & Studley Royal

Autumn has arrived with an explosion of colour in the garden and deer park at Fountains Abbey & Studley Royal in North Yorkshire. Known for its autumn colour, the grounds are breath-taking each autumn, and this year is no exception.

The months of October and November are perfect for a walk through the acres of red, orange, gold and green woodland which surrounds the ponds and canals of the Georgian Water Garden. Run through the crunchy fallen leaves, find the biggest conkers and acorns, and discover some fantastic fungi from shaggy inkcaps to chicken of the woods!

Use one of our wildlife spotter sheets to discover birds that make the estate their winter home, spot which deer is which by the colour of their rumps, and take a look inside a fallen tree to see what bugs you can discover.

Please remember that during the months of October, November and December it is the annual deer rut in the park. The mating season can make the male stags and bucks aggressive and territorial so make sure you keep your distance and do not approach the deer.

We’re open every day apart from Fridays in November, December and January.

The daddy sits on his own

Oh deer…. here are my more inferior snaps

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/fountains-abbey/wildlife/

Studley Royal Deer

The daddy sits on his own

Studley Roger & the church of St. Mary

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These beautiful Autumn afternoons are fast disappearing, especially if you have to complete a few hours hard labour in the garden, before you can escape to the country!

Following the quite enjoyable axe-weilding frenzied destruction of our predecessors horrific planter troughs, chopping into bite-size chunks for the fire, and round trip to ditch 3 tonnes of soil at the tip (Or recycling centre to give it the full name, where everyone else from Ripon and surrounding area also seemed to be) there remained a two hour window to walk, snap some shots and enjoy beautiful Yorkshire.

The church in the distance is the Church of St Mary, in the grounds of Studley Royal Park at Fountains Abbey, crucially around 5 minutes drive from the tip in Ripon.

Where else other than a Victorian Gothic Revival church would you go for a stroll on a Sunday after doing your outside jobs?

The parkland here is simply beautiful, especially in this light, at the end of a long wet autumn weekend.

Parking in Studley Roger, making sure not to upset the locals, we passed through the gate house and up the entirely straight 1.2 mile road to St Mary’s, at the top of the park, all the time looking out for, but never spotting the (rutting) deer in the park.

This is a beautiful park and as soon as I have renewed our NT membership, we will be back for a full-on day out to take in Fountains Abbey and gardens as well – whatever the season or weather, clearly this is one place we will always return to (and I don’t mean the tip).