Burghley and Pilsgate

Monday 18th june. With Maureen.
The same walk as this one.  with lunch at the Garden cafe at Burghley.

Burghley House under a dramatic sky

The bridge is easier to cross after the vegetation has been cut.

No bench, but a place to pause!

Onward to Pilsgate

The Garden Cafe

Burghley Park, Stamford to Pilsgate circular

I've done this walk three times recently, and both clockwise and anti-clockwise! 
This is the route, anti-clockwise, with no inadvertent divergence from the route. almost 6.5 miles.

Walk 1 
Monday 4 June, with Kate.
Four or five stiles, but not like the Marston Trussell walk!
We parked in the main Burghley Park car park, then walked back down the drive to the Barnack Road, and turned right to follow the footpath alongside the road, but separated by a hedge. This extends for about a mile and emerges very close to Pilsgate.  We crossed the road and continued with it on our right, past the bus stop and out of the small village. We took the first road on the right and followed it to the end, passing Windmill Farm on our left.
At the next junction a public footpath goes into the corner of a field on the right. 
This took us diagonally across a field, probably of wheat, and in the next field the path continued close to the hedge on our right.
It then goes through a short stretch of woodland, before crossing some hay meadows - lots of flowering grasses, and a few nettles. The yellow posts mark the route clearly, particularly in this direction, taking us over a footbridge and eventually to the golf course. 
We walked through, looking for a suitable place to perch for a break, and eventually decided on this luxury tree stump not far from the road. It was actually quite comfortable, with a mat!

From the golf course we simply followed the road as far as another entrance to Burghley Park,

Sweet chestnut - castanea sativa

and made our way to the car park, and the Garden Cafe, for lunch. 

The aliens landed a while ago, I think!

Walk 2
With Marta, Thursday 7 June.
We started quite late - 10.45, and this time walked anti-clockwise, along the drive past the big house, turning off to the right to pass the cricket ground on our left, coming out on to Burghley Lane, through a small wooden gate, and walking past this sign, before joining the London Road.

The Lady Anne's House - Tradesmen's Entrance

We crossed London Road and took the Kettering Road for a short distance as far as the point where a footpath goes off to the right, through a kissing gate.  You should make for the opposite corner of the field, and not be tempted to go straight ahead. A rather overgrown section, quite well marked at the gates led us up the gentle slope and out in Wothorpe. A convenient bench - not to be resisted after our late start - and we hit the caffeine! There's a grand view of Stamford from this point.

We walked to the London Road, crossed it and turned right, walking slightly uphill to the entrance to the Golf Course. Just after one of the old entrances to Burghley Park we climbed a stile and made our way past one of the jumps used during the horse trials.

We walked across this fine Avenue - Queen Anne's Avenue on the map, which must lead up to Burghley House .

 On across the grassy fields, and the overgrown footbridge. It's a bit rough underfoot too. A few small brown butterflies and iridescent blue damselflies, but not as many as I expected.

The wild roses are blooming.

 We emerged from the fields on to the road, and passed Barnack windmill on our right this time.

When we reached Pudding Bag Lane in Pilsgate, we succumbed to the urge for another small coffee.

We took the path alongside the road and back to Burghley Park and the Garden Cafe once more.

Walk 3
Monday 11 June.
With Kate, Norma, Marion and Eddie.  Anti-clockwise - route as for Walk 2.

We thought the semi-semaphore would work - we were tramping after all.

The jolly crew having a breather at Wothorpe. After that we went on as far as Pudding Bag Lane before a break. The Garden Cafe wasn't serving food, so we headed back to Gretton and Lydia's cafe.

Stamford circular via Wothorpe, Pilsgate, Burghley House

Mon, 2014 Jun 9 9:39 AM BST

Led by Mel. With Eddie, Gordon, Norma, Steph, Terry, Barrie, Marion, Chris, Tommy, Kate and me. Quite humid, but fine. Lunch at cafe in Burghley Ho grounds.

The same route as this walk, walked on May 8th, but with different start point, and in reverse.
Starting from the station car park in Stamford, we walked back up to the Kettering Road and crossed over. Then we took the path immediately left, turning left after the first hedge and making our way uphill to First Drift, Wothorpe.

The view of Stamford from Wothorpe

After the stile we turned right towards the Old North Road. Another right turn and a walk of a couple of hundred yards and we reached the entrance to the golf club.  We followed the yellow waymarker posts along the road and through fields and a small wooded area.

The final field crossing brought us out at a road junction where we turned left towards Pilsgate.  Barnack windmill stands over to the right of this road.  We turned left to walk through Pilsgate, and took a break on a convenient patch of grass.

Shortly after leaving the village we crossed to the left hand side of the road and the new path which makes for pleasant enough walking, separated from the traffic by a hedge.
Just after the end of the path is the main visitor entrance to Burghley Park. We turned left and walked gently uphill to the cafe for lunch.
After lunch a gentle section of something over a mile took us back to Stamford. We crossed the railway bridge at Water Lane, then followed the riverside road as far as the George, then along to the station and car park.
Map and details

Burghley Ho, Pilsgate, Wothorpe circular

Thu, 2014 May 8 9:19am BST

With Gordon on a rather soggy morning, in spite of garmin's weather report! This device says 7 miles, the other 6.5! An easy walk, ending with coffee and scone in the café.

Part of this walk was yesterday's in reverse, but it's much shorter, and sticks fairly well to the route from 'Rutland and Market Harborough Living', apart from start and finish, and missing out most of Stamford.

We left Burghley House Car Park and followed the drive down to the road. To our right on the same side of the road is the new footpath, built recently with the help of Community Payback, who were weeding sections as we walked along. The path takes us almost into Pilsgate. If you cross the road when the path ends there's a footway alongside the road.

Wet weather in Pilsgate

We didn't go into the village, but walked along the road until we came to a right turn signposted to Wittering. This goes past Barnack Windmill, which is on the left

Windmill Farm

We walked along the road, and at the junction we turned right along a footpath, through a crop, then along the edge of a field.

Somewhere on the grass by the hedge is a hare, legging it.

Then we crossed the woodland strip, and another huge field, and an area where trees have been felled. The path is clearly marked and so are places you're not allowed. 

Redundant stiles - for now?

We walked along the edge of a field, past an avenue of trees, following the markers all the way.  Before long we reached the golf course, and took advantage of a convenient, if slightly damp, seat for a coffee break. Surprisingly there were several golfers braving the elements.
I put the camera away in my rucksack at this point.  We walked through the golf course as far as the Old Great North Road, and continued to the Wothorpe turn at First Drift. 

A short way along we turned right and over a stile along the public footpath which leads downhill, then turns right and finally comes out on the Kettering Road. We turned left and went to the junction with London Road, turned right and took the first street on the left, Burghley Lane. The camera came out for the sign on the wall.

We know our place!

This leads to a gate and a public footpath into Burghley Park. 

We followed the path until it joined one of the tarmac driveways, past preparations for this weekend's Rat Race event.

 At last Burghley House itself came into view - it was well hidden from our angle of approach.

And finally - to the Garden Café for a well-earned cuppa and a chat with the friendly woman who was serving there.

Map and details