Apple season in Suffolk: orchards, cider and The Old Press at The Firs

Suffolk comes alive with apples in autumn — orchards heavy with fruit, farm shops piled high, and the smell of pressing in the air — and at The Firs, that heritage is built right into the place. Our countryside retreat is a fitting base for an apple-season escape. We're 2 hours from London and 45 minutes from Norwich.

The Old Press tells the story. One of our lodges, The Old Press, is attached to the Tithe Barn where apples were once pressed for cider on this very site. Staying here in autumn, with the orchard fruit ripening and the leaves turning, is a lovely way to connect with the land's working past. It's a romantic bolt-hole with a roll-top bath, a firepit and silver birches dancing outside.

Apples all around. Autumn is the season to seek out Suffolk's farm shops and orchards for heritage apple varieties, freshly pressed juice and local cider. Suffolk has a proud cider-and-apple tradition, and a drive through the lanes at this time of year turns up roadside stalls and farm shops brimming with the harvest — worth asking locally for which orchards and shops are selling this season.

Cook the season. Bring your apples home and put the outdoor kitchen to work — there's nothing like baking or cooking over fire in the crisp autumn air, then warming up in a wood-fired hot tub afterwards. The last of the kitchen garden rounds out an autumn feast.

For seasonal autumn UK stays steeped in Suffolk's orchard heritage, this countryside stay — and The Old Press in particular — is a characterful, cosy choice.

Planning an autumn escape? Check availability and book direct.