They are the great opportunists of woodland flora, exploiting the moment when the leaves aren’t yet fully out and the ground beneath the trees is drenched in April sunlight. That’s when the bluebells pick their moment, sprinkling our woods and forests with blue. Of all the staging posts on the road to summer, it’s one of the most beautiful.

This year, according to Ray Hawes, head of forestry at the National Trust, there seem to be more of them out than usual. “They’re also a little earlier than normal,” he cautions. So, if you want to get out there and soak up all that vivid, life-affirming colour, now’s the time to do it. Here are six of the best bluebell walks to try this spring.

OXFORDSHIRE

Badbury Hill

Part of the National Trust estate of Buscot and Coleshill, Badbury Hill is the site of an Iron Age hill fort. During the middle of the 20th century, it was planted with beech, and the displays of bluebells at the moment are stunning, especially when set against the delicate greens of the first fresh leaves. Don’t think in terms of clumps of flowers: there are carpets of them here.

There’s plenty more to see. Once you’ve wandered the woods, cross the road to Great Coxwell Barn — a 13th-century tithe barn, admired by William Morris, with a cathedral-like interior of oak timbers. To the north lies Buscot Park, an 18th-century house with paintings by the pre-Raphaelites, Reynolds, Rembrandt and Van Dyck.

Three miles down the road, the Radnor Arms (01793 861575), at Coleshill, does a fine lunch. Popular, too — book ahead.

Free; nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-buscot_coleshill

STAFFORDSHIRE

Yoxall Lodge, Newchurch

“We opened a week ago,” says Sue Featherstone, of Yoxall Lodge, “but the bluebells haven’t quite peaked yet. They’ll be at their best sometime this coming week.” Yoxall Lodge is a working farm, but each spring Featherstone opens up two of her woods and the surrounding parkland to bluebell lovers, and has laid out five walks. They close on May 17.

The longest is 2½ miles, the shortest just half a mile, but all take in Lodge Hill Wood, a relic of ancient Needwood Forest. The bluebells have had centuries to take hold here, and spread a thick blanket of blue beneath the mixed oak, ash and beech.

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