Where to seeSnowdrops without a cararound the UK

4. Mottisfont, Hampshire

From November to March each year, the Winter Garden at Mottisfont comes into its own. Sixteen thousand recently-planted snowdrops add to those already growing by the riverside path. Ornamental willows and red-stemmed dogwood, winter-flowering witch hazel and honeysuckle bring colour to the greyest days.

• Open: 10am-4pm daily (£15).
• Getting there: Mottisfont and Dunbridge station is just over a mile away on foot, across fields and along some country roads. The NT website gives you detailed instructions on how to get there.
• Food and drink: Kitchen and Coach House cafes.

5. Cambridge Botanic Garden

This may not win the prize for most carpet-like snowdrops, but Cambridge Botanic Garden is just five minutes from the station. And the Winter Garden is full of varied shapes and colours while fragrant wintersweet and viburnum make the air smell like spring. Follow the winter garden path as it winds past yellow aconites, blue scilla, and scarlet stems of dogwood.

• Open: 10am-4pm daily (£6).
• Getting there: Come out of Cambridge Railway station and walk straight ahead. It’s at the end of the road.
• Food and drink: Garden cafe in the middle of the garden, serving quiches, sandwiches and homemade soup.
• Further adventures: There’s lots more to do in and around Cambridge. There are a few ideas here and more around Saffron Walden. There are also great snowdrops around Anglesey Abbey.

6. Harlow Carr, Harrogate, North Yorkshire

• Harlow Carr’s Winter Walk makes the most of the season’s varied shapes and colours, with winter-flowering shrubs to leads the way before the spring bulbs come to life in February and March. Nearly seventy acres of gardens, among woods and water, are easy to get to by train or bus. If you’re up for a couple of miles’ walk, you can reach Harlow Carr via a beautiful walk through the Valley Gardens in Harrogate.

• Open: 9.30am to 4pm daily (£9 with a green travel discount).
• Getting there: Walk through town and Valley Gardens or catch the number 6 bus, which leaves twice an hour.
• Food and drink: Bettys tearoom in the town and the gardens themselves plus lots of other choices nearby.

7. Burton Agnes Hall, East Yorkshire

Spectacular carpets of snowdrops are a feature of the woods at Burton Agnes Hall. The woodland walk winds past millions of the little white flowers and you can warm up afterwards in the cafe.

• Open: 8 February – 3 March 2019, 11am – 4pm daily (gardens only); April-Oct 11am – 5pm (gardens £7).
• Getting there: Visitors arriving by bus get 10% off entry, when they produce their East Yorkshire bus ticket. There are regular buses services (121 and 45) from nearby Driffield and Bridlington, and further away York, Hull and Scarborough, to Burton Agnes.
• Food and drink: the licensed, eco-friendly courtyard cafe serves fresh ground coffee, beer from the Wold Top Brewery and hot meals made from local ingredients. Some of the fruit and veg are grown in the grounds of Burton Agnes Hall itself.

8. Cambo Country House, St Andrews, Scotland

Feed the piglets, stroll through the woods, visit the tea shop, spot the gnome… there’s plenty to do around Cambo and galanthophiles won’t be disappointed by the 350 varieties of snowdrop in the national collection here. A winding stream-side walk down to the sea makes a perfect setting.

• Open: Cambo has a spring snowdrop festival; daily 10am-5pm (£5.50).
• Getting there: Bus 95 goes hourly to the gate of the Cambo Estate from St Andrews bus station, which is a short bus ride from Leuchars railway station (Bus 99 runs from Dundee, via Leuchars, to St Andrews every 15 mins).
• Food and drink: the tea room serves special snowdrop biscuits with tea or coffee. There’s even a whisky distillery nearby.
• Further adventures: Good Journey’s feature on Coastal Fife explores some areas not far from St Andrews.

9. National Botanic Garden of Wales, Carmarthenshire, Wales

A mile of snowdrops spreads beside the lakes, from the Lower Broadwalk of the National Botanic Garden of Wales, all the way to Springwoods. Everything is on a spectacular scale here – 560 acres, 8000 different plants and the world’s largest single span great glasshouse (where Doctor Who episode “The Waters of Mars” was filmed!)

• Open: 10am-4.30pm daily (£10.50).
• Getting there: An 11am bus from Carmarthen station will take you to the door and gets you half price entry too! (No buses on friday or sunday).
• Food and drink: a choice of cafes, including Y Pot Blodyn Garden Centre, serving Welsh laverbread with seaweed.

10. Marl Hall Woods, Llandudno Junction, Wales

Sailors once used the white limestone cliff under Marl Hall Woods near Llandudno Junction as a landmark to guide them home from sea. The woods are a Site of Special Scientific Interest with mature trees, slopes of spring flowers and ancient caves. From the top of the cliff, there are views across the estuary to Conwy Castle and beyond.

• Open: all the time (free)
• Getting there: The woods are about half a mile’s walk from Llandudno Junction railway station. The Woodland Trust have instructions for walking there (over a rather busy road) in the “by train” section. There are also local buses (or a taxi from the station will be about £4).
• Food and Drink: Heading back to the station, you pass near Enochs award-winning, sustainable chippy (left on Conwy Road) or the equally traditional Old Station Hotel (right instead), serving food every day from noon, including Parisella’s ice cream from Conwy.