Autumn colour along Arlington Row

The first full week of October is usually when it comes good. The trees along the Coln start to turn, the cottage gardens at Arlington Row go copper and gold, and on a still morning the colour sits doubled in the river. It is the walk I most look forward to all year, and it is a short one, which is part of why I love it. You do not have to earn this view with a long hike. It is right there, a few minutes from the door.

From the footbridge below Arlington Row, take the path along the river. You do not need a route or a map for this. Walk slowly past the row of cottages, where the planting in the front gardens turns first, then carry on upstream as far as you fancy and come back. Half an hour out and back is plenty to see the best of it, though most people end up taking longer because they keep stopping.

Go in the morning if you can. The low autumn sun comes along the valley and lights the turning leaves from the side, and it catches the wet stone after a cold night so the whole row seems to glow for an hour or so. By the afternoon the light has flattened off and the magic of it has gone, even if the colour has not. If you can manage it before the day-trippers arrive, so much the better, because the row at its autumn best with no one in front of it is a thing worth getting up for.

What is actually turning, and when

Not everything goes at once, which is why the walk is worth repeating across a stay. The cottage gardens along the row are first, often well into colour by the start of the month. The bigger trees up the valley take their time and can still be green when the gardens are blazing, then turn through the middle and end of October. So an early-October visit and a late-October one give you two quite different walks, and neither is the wrong time to come. If you are here for a week, do it on the first morning and the last and watch how much has changed.

The river itself is part of the show. After the leaves start dropping, the Coln carries them down in slow drifts, and on a still day the surface holds a near-perfect reflection of the row and the colour behind it. That is the photograph everyone is after, and the trick to it is simply being there early when the water is calm and the light is low. Wind ruins the reflection, so a still morning is worth waiting for.

A word about the mud

I will be honest, because the photographs never are. After a wet spell, and October usually provides one, the riverside path gets properly muddy in places. The stretch right by Arlington Row stays reasonable, but go much further upstream and you will want boots, not the trainers that did you fine in September. If it has rained for a few days, expect to come back with mucky feet and plan accordingly.

It is not a reason to stay in. It is just a reason to dress for it. Boots, a coat that means it, and a hat for the cold off the water, and you will be glad you came rather than wishing you had brought more. The cottages have somewhere to leave wet boots and dry off, which makes the whole thing a pleasure rather than a problem.

One more thing worth knowing. The week the colour peaks is the week everyone else has the same thought, so the lane can be busier on a fine October weekend than you might expect for the time of year. The answer is the same as it is all year here, which is to go early. The walk that feels crowded at eleven is yours alone at half eight, and the morning light is better anyway. If a weekend is all you have, take the Saturday and the Sunday morning both, and let the lie-in wait until you are home.

Take a few minutes at the bridge before you head back. The view down the row, with the river in front and the colour behind, is the one everyone comes for, and at the right hour with the place quiet it earns its reputation. Then back to the warm and the kettle, which is the whole pleasure of an autumn walk here. You go out for the cold and the colour, and you come back to be glad of the indoors. There are few better mornings to be had in Bibury all year.