A Local's Weekend in Epsom, NH: Where the Circle Sends You
August 6, 2026
August 6, 2026
Every town has a center. In Epsom, the center is a rotary. The traffic circle where Routes 4, 28, and 202 meet is not just a way to get somewhere else. It is the gravitational pull of the weekend. Breakfast lives there. Coffee and gas and a sandwich for the trail live there. The road to almost every good hike, farm stand, and Saturday-night dinner starts by looping around it.
If you have lived here for a while, you already know this in your bones. What follows is a guide organized the way an Epsom weekend actually unfolds, with the specific places worth revisiting and a few quieter ones you may have driven past a hundred times without stopping.
Epsom sits on a lucky piece of geography. Two of the best short hikes in Merrimack County are inside town lines, and a third is fifteen minutes down Route 3 in Bow. Each one gives you something different.
| Trail | Distance | Elevation Gain | What You Get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Epsom Town Forest & Mill Pond Loop | Short loop off Tarleton Road | ~144 ft | Shaded pond walk past the old Mill and Tarleton Foundations |
| Neville Peak Loop (Epsom Town Forest) | 3.9 mi | 577 ft | Ridge vistas and a blueberry-dotted plateau |
| Nottingcook Forest Loop (Bow) | 5.3 mi | 787 ft | Dorie's Ledge with Monadnock and Crotched Mountain views |
If you have never done Neville Peak, do it on a clear morning. The trail levels off after a short ascent through open woodland, passes some ridges, follows a dry creek, crosses on a wooden bridge, then climbs the bank up to a mountain shoulder. The Mill Pond loop is the better choice with kids or a slow dog. It winds along the shores of Mill Pond with lovely water views, past the Mill and Tarleton Foundations. Bring bug spray for the mosquitoes.
Nottingcook is worth the short drive if you want a longer morning. It is genuinely multi-use, and the forest has thirteen trails weaving through marshes, a few streams, a reclaimed gravel pit, and a glacial kettle hole. Trail Forks and AllTrails both have current maps, and the blazes can get thin, so download before you lose signal.
Come back off the trail hungry and you are already headed to the right place. Within a two-minute drive of the rotary, you have most of the town's everyday food in one arc.
Country Cook'n at the Circle. The homestyle breakfast anchor. This spot has been serving the same homestyle breakfast and lunch on the Epsom traffic circle for over 38 years. The family closed Eggshell 2 in Concord to open this location because it was bigger and sat at a great spot on the traffic circle. Order the diner classics and do not overthink it.
The Circle Restaurant. American, casual dining, business casual, at 935 Suncook Valley Hwy. A different vibe from Country Cook'n. Sit-down dinner without leaving town.
Common Man Roadside Market & Deli. The most useful building in Epsom. 910 Suncook Valley Hwy, open 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. Gas, coffee, a real deli, bakery case, ice cream, pizza. If you need to grab a sandwich for the summit or a birthday cake on the way home, this is the stop.
Flannel Tavern, Georgina's Pizzeria, JJ Goodwins, Big Dog Pub, Johnson's Seafood, Happy Family Chinese. The rest of the local rotation, all within the town or a short drive. Yelp's April 2026 list of Epsom restaurants leads with The Circle Restaurant, Over The Moon Farmstead, Georgina's Pizzeria, Flannel Tavern, Big Dog Pub, Happy Family Chinese, JJ Goodwins, and Johnson's Seafood.
The best test of a small New England town is whether you can eat dinner three nights running without repeating a kitchen and without driving more than ten minutes. Epsom passes.
Everyone knows about the trails and the Circle. Here are the two things residents rarely mention to newcomers.
The first is Popple Island Wildlife Sanctuary, an NH Audubon property tucked off Lockes Hill Road. It rarely shows up in "things to do" lists because Audubon runs it low-key. A guided tour tied to the NH Audubon Nature Challenge runs from 242 Lockes Hill Rd, and even outside of scheduled walks the trail is a gentle way to spend an hour with binoculars.
The second is the Epsom Public Library on Dover Road. Beyond books, it hosts small community programs like Caregiver Connection at 1606 Dover Rd. If you have older parents in the house or you are one, that is a real resource, not a listicle filler.
Epsom does not run its own weekly farmers market, but the nearest one is easy and worth building a Saturday morning around. The Suncook Valley Farmers Market sets up weekly from May 30 through October 10, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., next to the Barnstead Elementary School just off Routes 28 and 126. From the Circle, it is a straight shot up Route 28.
If you would rather stay closer to home for produce, Veggies Galore and More on North Barnstead Road is a fifteen-minute drive from the Circle. Their own directions read: from Epsom Circle take Route 28 North 15 miles to N Barnstead Road, turn right, go 2.7 miles, farm stand on the right across from the church. Open daily 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., closed Tuesdays.
For maple, drive to Tilton and hit Just Maple at 4475 School St., Tilton, for maple syrup, maple cream, maple candy, maple sugar and gift baskets. Not a weekly stop, but a good one when out-of-state relatives are visiting.
Once dinner rolls around, Epsom sends you one of two directions.
North to Pittsfield: Over The Moon Farmstead. This is where Epsom residents go when they want a real night out without driving to Concord or Manchester. Locals rave about the brunch, and the kitchen keeps things interesting: a new spring menu, a Korean chicken sandwich, weekly rotating special fries (Parmesan-dusted bacon-ranch on one visit), homemade berry compote cannolis, plus wood-fired pizza and live music in their barn. Reserve if you are going on a Friday.
South to Loudon: New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Race weekends turn the neighborhood into an event. On the summer 2026 calendar, the Dollar Tree 301 and Doubleheader Saturday run at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, 1122 NH-106, Loudon, along with the SIG SAUER Academy Dirt Duels. Even if you are not going in, plan your Route 106 driving around it.
If neither of those is your speed, save September 12 for something local and specific. The New England Working Dogs PSA Trial happens Sat 12 Sep 2026 from 8 a.m. at Webster Park in Epsom. Odd, absorbing, and free to watch.
A few practical notes that only matter if you actually live here.
Meals out cost a touch more than the menu says. The state adds a 9% NH Meals Tax to prepared food, which is why a quick lunch check often ends in an unfamiliar number. It is not the restaurant.
The Circle traffic pattern is unforgiving during race weekends and mid-summer Saturday mornings. Between roughly 9 and 11 a.m., anyone leaving for the market, the trailhead, or the Speedway funnels through the same three exits. A ten-minute errand can turn into thirty.
And on the trails, all three loops mentioned above have soft stretches after rain. Nottingcook is open year-round and beautiful anytime, but shoulder-season mud is real. Wear the boots you do not mind.
Epsom is a small town with a specific rhythm. The rotary is the hinge, the trails are the reason to get up early, the Circle keeps you fed, and the best Saturday nights usually mean a short drive to Pittsfield or Loudon. That pattern is the town's actual identity, and it does not show up in any tourism guide.
If you love that rhythm and are thinking about what your next chapter here looks like, whether that is staying put in a home that fits you better or finally listing the one that no longer does, the team at Holistic Homes Group would be glad to talk. Schedule your free 30-minute consultation and let's have a conversation grounded in the way you actually live in this town.
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