Daffodils, Blooms & More
Springtime in the English countryside is a riot of colour, new life on farms and the land waking up after the winter. The results can be seen everywhere, but the following places are especially great to experience a rural spring in England.
Farndale Daffodil Walk
The wild daffodils of Farndale have been drawing visitors to this North York Moors valley, about twenty-five miles north of York, since Victorian times. The flowers have been protected within a nature reserve since 1955.
They appear along a seven-mile stretch of the River Dove from mid-March to mid-April — smaller and more delicate than the cultivated sort, growing in loose drifts through the meadows and along the riverbanks. The main walking route follows a gentle three-and-a-half-mile path beside the water, mostly level with several gates.
There’s parking at Low Mill, and the Daffy Caffy at High Mill does a decent cup of tea afterwards. Up to forty thousand visitors come during the short season, so if you prefer a quieter walk, aim for a weekday morning early in the bloom.
Exton Village, Rutland
Exton sits five miles east of Oakham in Rutland, England’s smallest county and one of its least visited. The village centres on a tree-planted green surrounded by stone cottages, many over three hundred years old, with traditional thatched roofs. The Fox and Hounds overlooks the green.
St Peter and St Paul’s Church, set within Exton Park, contains a notable collection of sixteenth- to eighteenth-century monuments to the Harrington and Noel families — some of the best church sculpture in England, and largely unknown outside the county.
Nearby, Barnsdale Gardens were created by Geoff Hamilton of the BBC’s Gardeners’ World, and lie close to Rutland Water. Walking routes follow the surrounding countryside and the reservoir shore, and the area sits on the Viking Way long-distance trail. It rewards the traveller who goes a little off the main road.
The Farne Islands
If you were to survey the British on their favourite bird, the puffin would be high up the list. In a country with often dowdy, brown birds, the puffin’s colourful beak is a welcome anomaly. One of the best places to see the puffins is the Farne Islands.
Two miles off the Northumberland coast, near the fishing village of Seahouses, the twenty-eight Farne Islands host around two hundred thousand seabirds each spring, including roughly forty-three thousand pairs of puffins. The puffins arrive from April and stay through late July, with May and June being the peak breeding months.
Boat trips run from Seahouses harbour, and you can land on Inner Farne from April, where boardwalks take you in among the nesting birds — Arctic terns, guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes, and the puffins themselves. Wear a hat: the terns are protective of their nests and will dive-bomb. St Cuthbert’s Chapel, dating from medieval times, sits on Inner Farne.
The islands are managed by the National Trust, and over two thousand grey seals haul out on the rocks below. National Trust members land free, though boat tickets cost extra.
Brecon Beacons National Park
Strictly speaking the Brecon Beacons are in South Wales rather than England, but the magazine has always taken a generous view of borders, and this is worth including. The park covers five hundred and twenty square miles, with Pen y Fan reaching 2,907 feet as the highest peak in southern Britain.
In spring the woodland floors show wood anemones, lesser celandines and bluebells from March through May, and wild garlic grows in the damp hollows. Pwll-y-Wrach Nature Reserve near Talgarth has a waterfall where the River Enig drops into a wooded gorge.
Waterfall Country near Ystradfellte is particularly good in spring when the mosses and ferns are at their greenest. The market towns of Brecon, Crickhowell and Abergavenny make sensible bases.
Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire
Fountains Abbey sits in a wooded valley beside the River Skell near Ripon. Founded in 1132 by Cistercian monks, the ruins are remarkably extensive — the abbey church still stands almost to its full height, and you can trace the layout of the cloisters, the cellarium, and the infirmary hall.
The site forms part of the Studley Royal estate, an eighteenth-century water garden, and the whole property earned UNESCO World Heritage status in 1986. The estate covers eight hundred acres, including a medieval deer park. St Mary’s Church, a Victorian Gothic building designed by William Burges, stands within the deer park. You could comfortably spend a full day here.