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Burghley House

Grand 16th-century "prodigy house": Queen Elizabeth I and her courtiers toured the country, and her nobles vied to construct bling palaces suitable for receiving them all. This example was built 1558-1587 by Sir William Cecil her Lord High Treasurer, and the Cecil family still live here. The Elizabethan exterior is little altered, but the interior was re-modelled in the 18th century and stocked with industrial quantities of Italian artwork. There are also fine collections of furniture and porcelain. The parkland (open all year) was laid out by Capability Brown and nowadays includes a modern sculpture garden and "Garden of Surprises", which proved too surprising for some visitors so they've turned off the water features. The house and gardens are often used as film and TV locations so check ahead for closures around this.

Address: PE9 3JY
Getting there: Car entrance and bus stop on Barnack Road B1443
Hours: Mid-Mar-Oct Sat-Thu 11AM-5PM
Price: Adult £17, child £9
Website: burghley.co.uk (opens in a new tab)

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Listing from Wikivoyage: Stamford (England), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Updated 28 Sept 2026. Something wrong? Tell us.

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Burghley Park Golf Club
Established 1890 in the Capability Brown park, a round off white tees is 6312 yards, par 70.
Mon-Fri, Sat Sun after 2:30PMVisitor round £35
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St Leonard's Priory
The Priory was re-established around 1082 under William the Conqueror, on the site of a 7th century monastery destroyed in the 11th. It was a "cell" - an outpost - of Durham cathedral monastery until both were dissolved in 1538. What you see now is the exterior of the bricked-up nave, rebuilt in the 19th century, with a fine west front. Other remnants are buried below the present ground level.
Eat
Bull and Swan
Good pub food, gets booked out. Eat pizza in the potting shed and watch the garden cinema. With nine rooms, 3 are dog-friendly.
Meals Mon Tue 6PM-8PM, Wed-Sat noon-2:30PM, 6PM-8PM, Sun noon-8PMB&B double £120
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St Martin's Church
This was built in the 12th century and known as "St Martin's Without" as it was beyond the town wall. It was rebuilt in Perpendicular style in the 15th century and re-modelled in the 19th, so at first glance it looks Victorian. It contains tombs of the Cecil family, including Sir William who built Burghley House, and of the enormous Daniel Lambert. It's Anglican, with services on Sunday at 9:30AM, and sometimes used as a concert venue.
Daily 8AM-5PM