By MARK HUGHES-MORGAN


Leave it all behind: Autumn provides a colourful backdrop for family days out


Red and yellow and pink and green, orange and purple and blue. Actually, scratch the last one. Blue is pushing it a bit. But a near-rainbow of colour is currently visible on trees around the UK. From Kent to Cornwall, Mark Hughes-Morgan picks six locations where you can witness autumn in all its glory.

THE WEST: National Arboretum, Westonbirt, Gloucestershire
Japanese maples paint this park red with their gorgeously shaded leaves.

The 600-acre Westonbirt is top of the tree for autumn colour. But it also has four other national collections: maple species, bladdernut, walnut and lime.

There are three main areas: the old Arboretum, planted like a botanical tree garden with beautifully conceived vistas; Silkwood, older woodland dating back to the 1200s; and the grade i-listed Downs Landscape.

One of the best views is looking down from Holford Ride that takes in Westonbirt Manor (now a school). There are activities and walks on Sundays until the end of October, including exploring for the 1,000-plus varieties of fungi on-site and a children's fungi workshop.

Details: Open 9am to 5pm (or till dusk if earlier). Entrance: adults £9, concessions £8, children £4 (until December 1 when charges are reduced for winter); (01666 80220, www.forestry.gov.uk/westonbirt).



Red alert: The National Arboretum in Gloucestershire is a riot of colour at this time of year


NORTH-WEST: Grizedale, Lake District

According to the locals, the boughs here are at their seasonal finest. Grizedale, between Coniston Water and Windermere, is this national park's wooded gem, with green pines and ancient woodland providing the backdrop for rusting larch, oak and elder. The walking trails range from a pleasingly flat mile (The Ridding Wood) through the former parkland, to the three-mile climb to Carron Crag (at 1,030 ft) for a spectacular view to Coniston Water and the mountains in the distance.

There's a new visitors' centre (£6.50 parking for the day) with cafe in The Forest, and mountain bike hire, as well as Go Ape rope courses. More than 60 sculptures line the waymarked trails (sculpture guide from the Visitors Centre, £3.95).

Look out for newly released red kites, and red deer (rutting - for early risers).
Details: (01229 860010, www.forestry.gov.uk/grizedale).

EAST MIDLANDS: Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire
With Russell Crowe's Robin Hood still ringing in your ears, why not revisit Sherwood Forest in the golden season? it's home to 900 ancient oaks, one of the largest collections in western Europe, including the 800-year-old Major Oak, in which Robin Hood is said to have hidden - improbable, but, hey, he wasn't a New Zealander, either.

Sherwood has just launched two new walks: Robin Hood And The Royal Forest and Poetic Sherwood. The first (three-and-a-half or six miles) takes you from the main visitor centre west to the Centre Oak, on a loop past the hidden memorial cross to King Edwin, ending with St Mary's Church at Edwinstowe, where Robin Hood and Marian were said to have been married.

The second (around five miles) starts at Lord Byron's Newstead Abbey (£2 adults, £2.50 children for the estate and gardens) and past Jack O'Sherwood oak to pretty Papplewick village.

Nearby Clumber Park has the longest avenue of lime trees in Europe, at nearly two miles - see www.nationaltrust.org.uk.
Details: (08444 77 5678, www.visitnottingham.com).



Where's Robin? Clumber Park in Nottinghamshire has Europe's longest avenue of lime trees


THE MIDLANDS: Leicestershire
For sheer bulk, the National Forest must take the sylvan silverware - 7.8 million trees have been planted, and counting, in the 200sq mile site between Leicester and Burton-on-Trent.

More than 400 woodlands, some joined together, are part beauty spot, part hyperactive activity centre. If the youth element needs convincing of the lure of the forest, try Conkers Discovery Centre (with more than 100 indoor, and outdoor activities including a teenage assault course). Rosliston Forestry Centre (at Swadlincote) has 150 acres of cycle trails, with timber lodges for hire, archery, you name it.

Otherwise you can just hug a tree (or even plant one, for £25).

Details: (01283 551211, www.visitnationalforest.co.uk).

SOUTH-WEST: Lanhydrock, Cornwall

The splendid Lanhydrock House will be closed at the end of the month, but, when the world outside looks as good as this, who needs it?

A renowned beech and sycamore avenue is the introduction to 900 acres of parkland, immaculate feature gardens and venerable ancient oaks. It will inspire you to return in spring for the bluebell wood, as well as the dozens of magnolias and camellias, not to mention showstopping rhododendrons.

A fantastic layout, with all sorts of trails to explore, meandering down to the River Fowey.

Details: £10.90 adults, £5.40 children for the house and gardens (01208 265950; www.nationaltrust.org.uk).



Time for reflection: Bedgebury National Pinetum has the largest collection of conifers in the world


SOUTH-EAST: Bedgebury, near Tunbridge Wells, Kent
Bedgebury's National Pinetum has the biggest collection of conifers in the world - with more than 400 varieties.

How do conifers give autumn colour? The answer is, not all are evergreen. The 350-acre site was replanted after the great storm of 1987, and it's now prettily laid out with native trees, too. This year, for the first time, it will host The Electric Forest, an illuminated night-time trail, from now until November 7 (adults £15, children £10).

And for something more active, the nearby Bedgebury Forest Park has been transformed in the past five years, with cycle tracks, Go Ape, visitor centre and all manner of activities over half-term and beyond.

Details: (01580 879 820, www.forestry.gov.uk/bedgebury).


source: dailymail