Riverside Cottage

Riverside Cottage sits where Bibury's story begins, on the banks of the River Coln, barely two minutes' walk from Arlington Row. This is a Grade II listed cottage spread across three floors of 17th-century stone, with the kind of details that only centuries of life can create: exposed beams, cottage windows, and a steep staircase with a rope handrail that feels like stepping back in time.

The ground floor is warm and welcoming. A well-equipped kitchen, a corner sofa, an electric fire, and doors that open onto a private terrace beneath a Japanese red Acer. Upstairs, a king bedroom, and a wet room with a rainfall shower where a single window catches the swans as they drift past on the Coln. At the top of the house, beneath the eaves, is the cottage's most-loved feature: a roll-top bath in the bedroom, tucked beneath the kind of low ceilings that make the world feel snug and safe.

Riverside Cottage welcomes well-behaved dogs, one of very few places in Bibury that does. There is no on-site parking, but free public parking is a one-minute walk away.