BROWNSEA Island will be closed to visitors this weekend.  

Time is running out for those wanting one last visit of the year before it closes for the season on Sunday, November 3.  

Brownsea is one of the last remaining strongholds for red squirrels and autumn is the perfect time to catch sight of one.  

Over the half term, staff have put on family events, including bushcraft workshops, with the final ones of the year in the morning and afternoon of November 2.  

Dawn Clark, visitor experience officer, said: “Autumn on Brownsea is really magical, we love watching children and adults kicking through the fallen leaves and seeing the excitement on their faces as they see a red squirrel for the first time.”  

Brownsea Island is the largest of the islands in Poole Harbour and its history dates back to the Iron Age, with evidence of early human settlement. 

In 1907, Lord Baden-Powell held the first experimental Scout camp on Brownsea Island, marking the birth of the Scouting movement. 

The island was acquired by the National Trust in 1962 and is now open to the public. 

It continues to be a significant site for Scouting and Guiding, hosting events and commemorations related to the movement's origins. 

The island will reopen in March.