First daffodils and longer days in March

The first daffodils along the Coln usually show in the second week of March, in the grass verges by the footbridge and in the churchyard up at St Mary’s. They are not planted in great formal drifts here, more a scattering that comes back a little fuller every year, and the first morning you spot them is one of my favourites. After a long grey stretch, that flash of yellow by the water tells you the season has turned.

March is the month the light comes back. By the middle of the month the evenings are noticeably longer, and a walk you would have rushed in February you can now take at a proper pace. The clocks go forward towards the end of the month, and that one change does something to the whole feel of the place. Suddenly there is an evening as well as a morning, and you can sit out a little after supper without the cold driving you straight back indoors.

The day-trippers have not really returned yet, so you get the best of both: more daylight, and the village still quiet. It is one of the quiet secrets of the year here. The weather is improving, the daffodils are out, and yet the crowds that fill the lane from Easter onwards have not arrived. For a few weeks Bibury feels much as it must have done before it became somewhere people came to photograph.

A gentle walk to take while the year turns

The walk I would suggest leaves from the bridge by the trout farm and follows the river along the bottom of the valley. It is flat and easy, about an hour at a slow wander, and at this time of year there is plenty to stop and look at. The daffodils first, then the hedges starting to green, and the Coln running clear and high after the winter.

Go in the morning if you can. The light is low and soft, the frost often still on the grass in the shaded stretches, and you will likely have the footbridge to yourself. Wrap up more than you think you need to. March in the valley is bright but it is not warm, and a clear sky in the morning can cloud over by lunch.

One honest word of warning: the path along the lower meadow holds the wet well into spring. After a run of rain it turns properly muddy, so this is a walk for a dry spell or for boots, not for good shoes. On a crisp clear-day morning, though, it is hard to beat.

If you would rather a shorter potter, you can simply cross the footbridge, walk the length of Arlington Row, and come back along the far bank. Fifteen or twenty minutes, no mud to speak of, and the daffodils in the churchyard are on your way. It is the walk I send guests on when the weather is uncertain and they want to be out but not committed to anything. You can always extend it if the sky holds.

The village in early spring

There is a particular pleasure in Bibury in March, before it fills up. Arlington Row in the early morning still has the lane to itself. The Swan is open for a warming lunch if the wind picks up, and the churchyard at St Mary’s is a quiet place to sit for ten minutes among the first daffodils. The church itself is worth a few minutes inside, one of the older buildings in the village and a cool, calm space whatever the weather is doing.

If you are choosing when to come, I have a soft spot for these few weeks. The cottages are easier to book than they will be by Easter, the light is generous, and the valley is just waking up. You feel like you have the place a little to yourself, which by April you no longer quite do.

Pack for two seasons in one day and you will not go far wrong. A morning that begins under frost can be mild by noon and grey again by four, so layers you can shed and pull back on serve you better than anything heavy. A flask, a decent pair of boots, and a morning with no plan beyond the river is about all you need.