Lavender and sunflower fields in the Cotswolds

The lavender fields in the Cotswolds are at Cotswold Lavender, Hill Barn Farm at Snowshill above Broadway, and they open for about seven weeks a year, from the second week of June to the first week of August; in 2026 the fields opened on 11 June and closed on 5 August, with the peak from 27 June to 22 July, and the fields reopen each year in mid-June. Tickets are bought on arrival by card, dogs come in on a lead, and the sunflowers come later, in August, at Cotswold Farm Park near Guiting Power.

That is the whole of it. There is no second lavender farm in the Cotswolds open to the public that we can find, and the sunflower fields that open their gates are few and change year to year, so the rest of this page is about doing the one great field well, the pick-your-own that goes with it, and the manners a flower field needs when everyone comes to photograph it.

When is lavender season at Snowshill?

Mid-June to early August, with the best colour from the last week of June to the third week of July. Cotswold Lavender sets its dates each year and publishes it on its own site (opens in a new tab); in 2026 it ran from Thursday 11 June to Wednesday 5 August, open daily 10am to 5pm, with last entry at 4.45pm and the farm recommending arrival by 4pm. When we checked in October 2026 the farm said it would reopen in mid-June the following summer, with the exact dates to come.

The farm splits the season into peak and off-peak, and the dates tell you when the flowers are best. In 2026 peak ran from 27 June to 22 July, when an adult ticket was £7.75 and a child aged 5 to 15 £3.50, and off-peak from 23 July to 5 August at £5.75 and £3, with under-fives free and a season ticket at £19.40 for an adult and £8.75 for a child. The off-peak weeks fall in the harvest: the lavender is a crop, and the farm says cutting usually starts around 20 July and takes about two weeks, with the fields closed to the public cut first and the display field left as long as possible. If you want the full purple, go in July. The farm's own advice for a quieter field is to come earlier in the season, at the end of June.

Once the lavender is harvested the fields and the Cabin close until the following June, though the farm sells its products online all year. There is nothing to see at Snowshill in lavender terms between August and June, and the lane past the farm is a lane again.

What is at Cotswold Lavender

About 45 acres of lavender on the rolling top of the Cotswolds, first planted in 1999, with a view over Broadway and the Vale of Evesham to the Malvern Hills, plus acres of wildflower meadow, a woodland trail for children, a play area, the Cabin for the farm's products and refreshments, and the distillery where the oil is made.

The fields are the point, and they are laid out as a farm, not a garden: long rows over the brow of the hill, with mown grass between them to walk along, picnic benches among the lavender and shade under the trees of the Beechwood Trail. The wildflower meadows beside them are at their best in the same weeks, and children get a worksheet for the Beechwood Trail to find the woodland creatures. The Cabin sells the farm's lavender and the ice cream is organic, from Gorsehill Abbey Farm; there are hot and cold drinks and snacks, and picnics are welcome.

Tickets are not sold in advance to individuals. You turn up, pay by card at the entrance (no cash is taken anywhere on the site) and walk in; only coaches and groups of more than 15 have to book. The car park is a grass field and free, its gates open from 9.45am and locked at 5.30pm. Commercial photographers need a photography pass bought in advance from the farm's site; a family with a phone does not. Dogs are welcome on a short lead, with the children's play area the one place they may not go; there is water for them by the exit next to the Cabin, and the farm warns that shade is limited on a hot day. The mown grass paths suit many wheelchairs and pushchairs, but the field slopes and the Beechwood Trail is rough and uneven in places. The toilets are portaloos, one of them accessible.

How busy it gets, and the best light

Busy, in July, which the farm calls its busiest time. The farm opens at 10am and shuts at 5pm, so neither dawn nor the golden hour is on offer; the best light you can have is the first hour after opening on a clear weekday morning, or the last hour before the gates close, when the sun has dropped towards the Malverns and the rows go a deeper purple.

A weekday in the first half of July, arriving for 10am, is the plan that works. Last entry is 4.45pm and the field clears at 5pm, so there is no point turning up for the evening light. Rain empties it, and the lavender looks fine wet. In the harvest weeks you see the farm as a farm: the Distillery Barn is open with boards explaining the process, though the still runs only on the days the farm is cutting, which it cannot say in advance.

Photographing it honestly is a matter of showing a field with people in it. The classic empty-row shot is taken from the top edge looking down the lines with a long lens, and it needs a quiet morning; by eleven there is someone in every row. Keep to the mown grass between the rows and do not step into the plants for a frame; a crushed bush is a crushed crop. Do not fly a drone: the farm does not permit them in the lavender fields. A picnic is welcome; a commercial shoot needs the farm's photography pass.

What else to do at Snowshill and Broadway

Snowshill Manor, the National Trust's house of Charles Wade's collections, is about a mile from the lavender and the obvious pairing; the village has St Barnabas and a pub, and Broadway is about ten minutes' drive down the hill for lunch and shops.

For a walk, our Snowshill and Snowswood loop is 2.1 miles from Pipers Grove car park, short but hilly, down into the valley and back past the church, about an hour and a quarter. The longer Stanton, Snowshill and the edge walk is 6.6 miles from Stanton up the Cotswold Way, through Littleworth Wood to Snowshill and back along the top to the Mount Inn, with a 2.5-mile short cut. From Broadway, the walk to Broadway Tower climbs Coneygree Lane to the tower and comes back by the Cotswold Way, 4 miles. For lunch, the Childswickham Inn, 2 miles from Broadway, has a dog-friendly bar and ciders, and the Lygon Arms on Broadway's High Street is the grand option. Our Snowshill guide has the parking and the rest of the village.

Sunflower fields in the Cotswolds

Sunflowers come in August, and the field that opens to visitors is at Cotswold Farm Park, Adam Henson's farm near Guiting Power, which has run a summer flower event (its Flower Festival in 2024) in fields on the edge of the farm park, with wildflowers, sunflowers and a maize maze. The farm's page for it had been taken down when we checked in October 2026, so we cannot confirm the 2026 dates or times; look on the farm's own site for the dates in early summer.

In 2024 the farm said each visitor went home with a pack of its wildflower seeds or a bunch of sunflowers, and it welcomed four-legged visitors to the flower fields, though the farm park itself admits no dogs but guide dogs. The farm says the flower fields are on flat ground with cut paths for wheelchairs and pushchairs. Like any flower field, it depends on the summer, and a hot, dry one browns the wildflowers early. It is a cashless site, with free parking; the farm park asks visitors to book ahead, and its restaurant and play areas are next door if the children have had enough of flowers. The Farmers Arms and the Hollow Bottom in Guiting Power are the pubs, and our Guiting Power and Naunton walk is the walk.

Other sunflower fields open some years and not others. Farms near Shipston-on-Stour and in the Vale of Evesham have sold tickets and pick-your-own bunches in past Augusts, announced on their own social pages a few weeks ahead rather than on a website, and we do not list a field we cannot confirm for the coming summer; the farm park is the one that has run a flower field summer after summer. Check a farm's own page in late July before you drive.

Pick your own and flower farms

Pick your own in the Cotswolds is fruit before it is flowers, and the farm to know is Hayles Fruit Farm at Hailes, 2 miles from Winchcombe on the Cotswold Way, where picking runs from strawberries in June (opens in a new tab) through plums and apples in August to pears in September and pumpkins in October, with its own Hayles cider in the farm shop.

The farm posts what is ready on its social page, so look before you go, and it is closed on Mondays. The Orchard Kitchen does brunch until 3pm, and Hailes Abbey is a short walk away for afterwards. Cut-flower farms that sell by the bunch and open a field for picking come and go around the Cotswolds; most are small and run by one or two people, open a day or two a week in high summer, and the honest advice is to search for one near where you are staying and read its own page for the days. We will add any with a published season to this page.

The care code for a flower field

A flower field is a crop with the public let in, and the rules are the farmer's: stay in the mown rows, do not step into the plants, cut only what you have paid for, keep the dog on its lead and its mess in a bag, and ask before you fly anything.

Lavender bushes take years to grow and a season to recover from being sat on; sunflowers snap. The farms that open their fields do so for a few weeks a year, and a field that is spoilt does not open again. Keep children on the grass, carry a picnic out again, and if the field is cut or past its best when you arrive, that is August, not a fault. For families, our guide to the Cotswolds with children has the days out around Snowshill and Guiting Power.

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The season in one plan

Lavender from mid-June to early August at Snowshill, best in the first three weeks of July on a weekday morning; sunflowers in August at Cotswold Farm Park, once it publishes its dates; fruit at Hayles from June to October. Book nothing for the lavender, book the farm park, and check both farms' pages the night before. Our guides to the Cotswolds in June and in July have the rest of those months.

If you have one July day, start at Snowshill for opening at 10am, walk the Snowswood loop or go into the manor when the field fills at noon, and come down to Broadway for a late lunch. If you have an August day, go to the farm park for the sunflowers, with a bunch for the car, and finish at Hayles for plums and a bottle of its cider. For the rest of the Cotswold year, from the snowdrops at Colesbourne to Westonbirt's maples, see when to visit the Cotswolds, and for dogs at the lavender and elsewhere, our dog-friendly guide.