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Where to seeSnowdrops without a cararound the UK
Delicate white flowers that herald the end of winter and the start of spring, forming beautiful flowering carpets under the trees. No wonder they have so many fans - or galanthophiles, as snowdrop-lovers are officially known. “Many, many welcomes, February fair-maid,” wrote Tennyson in his poem The Snowdrop. They actually start blooming from January onwards and often last into March. Here are ten different places where seeing snowdrops doesn’t need to involve a car. Unless you happen to live very locally, they are best saved for next year. But you can find snowdrops and other early spring flowers growing in woods and gardens all over the UK.
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1. Myddelton House, Enfield, Greater London
The little valley at the far end of the alpine meadow in the gardens of Myddelton House fills with snowdrops from January onwards. Enfield’s old market cross stands near the carp pond and there are greenhouses with four climactic zones, where you can find exotic blooms even in the depths of winter. The huge grounds of nearby Forty Hall are similarly beautiful in any season.
- Myddleton House is currently closed during national lockdown.
- Getting there: The garden is half a mile from Turkey Street station. Turn right under the railway bridge and keep straight along Turkey Street, under the main road, across the New River and over another road to see Myddelton House ahead of you.
- Food and drink: Myddelton House has its own little tea room and there’s also a great café at Forty Hall, just down Bull’s Cross road.
- Further adventures: Discover more of the area’s hidden gems in our Good Journey guide to car free adventures around Enfield.
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2. Gibberd Garden, Harlow, Essex
Landscape designer and architect Frederick Gibberd, designed the sprawling new town of Harlow, where he then lived for the rest of his life. His garden is a microcosm of all the best features of his planning: hidden paths and sculptures, unusual views and water features. Snowdrops spread along an avenue at the far end, flanked by classical urns and fluted columns.
- Open: from Easter and possibly earlier – check website.
- Getting there: The garden is more than a mile from Harlow Mill station (but it’s a nice walk!) and the Gibberd Garden’s website has detailed instructions about how to walk there from the station – or get closer by bus.
- Food and drink: Barn tea room, selling home made soup and cakes.
- Further adventures: Good Journey’s guide to Harlow “Sculpture Town” explores more of the area.
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3. Benington Lordship, Hertfordshire
Naturalised snowdrops drift down the banks of a steep-sided moat around a ruined Norman tower at Benington Lordship Gardens. Hellebores, yellow aconites, red-stemmed willow and early daffs add to the February display. Single and double snowdrops grow beside a path above the moat; and hundreds of unusual varieties grow in the borders and kitchen garden, including the large-flowered ‘Mighty Atom’.
- Open: check website
- Getting there: From the railway station at Ware in Hertfordshire, turn left down station road to Amwell End and get bus 384; it runs every couple of hours Monday – Saturday and there’s a bus at 12.12pm, which will get you there in time for lunch and an afternoon wander. The bus from Stevenage station, in the other direction, leaves at 1.27pm and takes half an hour.
- Food and drink: hot soup and cream teas are available in the lovely old tea room Monday to Saturday.
- Further adventures: For more things to see near Hertford and Ware, see our Good Journey feature.
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 (£16.50). Book in advance.
- Getting there: The NT site says Mottisfont and Dunbridge station is just over a mile away on foot, across fields and along some country roads. The website gives you detailed instructions on how to get there on foot from the station.
- Food and drink: Takeaways from Coach House cafe.
5. Cambridge Botanic Garden
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). Pre-book tickets.
- 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
- and Ely. There are also great snowdrops around Anglesey Abbey, 35 minutes ride from Cambridge on bus 11.
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.
- Open: 9.30am to 4pm daily. Pre-book tickets.
- Getting there: Follow Good Journey’s directions.
- Food and drink: Bettys tearoom in the town and the gardens themselves plus lots of other choices nearby.
- Further adventures: There are a few more suggestions nearby in Good Journey’s guide to Leeds.
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: Daily, 11am until 4pm, from 30th January until 28th February 2021.
- Getting there: Visitors arriving by bus get 10% off entry, when they produce their East Yorkshire bus ticket. There are regular buses (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.
- Further adventures: in our car-free guide to Scarborough and Whitby.
8. Cambo Gardens, St Andrews, Scotland
Feed the piglets, stroll through the woods, visit the tea shop, spot the gnome… there’s plenty to do in Cambo gardens 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: every day 11am – 4pm. Book in advance.
- Getting there: Bus 95 goes hourly to the gate of the Cambo Estate from St Andrews bus station.
- 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 more the Fife coast and Good Journey’s feature writer also wrote this feature for the Guardian last year, which includes a visit to Cambo.
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: Currently closed.
- Getting there: Follow Good Journey’s directions. Arriving by bus gets you half price entry too!
- Food and drink: a choice of cafes, including at Y Pot Blodyn Garden Centre, serving Welsh laverbread with seaweed.
- Further adventures in Good Journey’s car-free guide to Carmarthen.
10. Painswick Rococo Garden
A hidden gem in the Cotswolds, Painswick Rococo Garden is just five miles from Stroud with is farmers’ markets and great cafes. It’s the UK’s only surviving Rococo garden, full of ornamental details characteristic of this eighteenth century style. It had become a wilderness, but was restored by Lord and Lady Dickinson, the then-owners of Painswick House. Five million snowdrops bloom here in spring, usually from the end of January
- Open: From Jan 16th – check website
- How to get to Painswick Rococo Garden car-free: Bus 66 from Stroud to Cheltenham stops about half a mile away every hour and visitors can stroll along Pullens Road (see map below).
- Food and drink: a café in the old Coach House near the entrance to the garden is open to all (whether or not you’re visiting the garden) and serves home-cooked food for lunch and tea, sometimes using produce from the garden.
