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Stags roaring and clashing antlers across the bracken, free, and the best wildlife spectacle in London.
Parks & natureFree
At Richmond Park.
From mid-September to early November the red and fallow stags stop grazing and start competing: roaring, walking in parallel to size each other up, and occasionally fighting, antler to antler, hard enough to be heard across the park. Richmond has around six hundred deer and they have been here since Charles I walled the park in 1637. Early morning is best, in the bracken between Pen Ponds and Sheen Gate, and binoculars beat walking closer.
The Royal Parks ask for fifty metres of distance at all times and more when the deer are active. A rutting stag can weigh twenty-five stone and run at thirty miles an hour, and the danger is real rather than theoretical. Keep dogs on a lead and away; if a deer charges while you have a dog with you, let it off the lead so it can escape. Do not shout or wave - back off slowly. Volunteer rangers are out in the park through the rut and will tell you where it is safe to stand.
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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.