Burghley Bottle Lodges

The Bottle Gates form the main entrance to the grounds of Burghley House from the B1081 (formerly the Great North Road). The House itself lies out of sight to the east of the gates, through a mile of parkland designed by the famous Capability Brown.

Before 1796 the land flanking the Great North Road in St Martin’s parish was common land. This was enclosed in 1796, letting the Burghley estate extend its property westwards to border the Great North Road and northward to what is today the Barnack Road. A new boundary wall and main entrance was needed to enclose the newly assimilated property.

In 1799 the Stamford architect William Legg designed the new entrance for Burghley Park, built on the present site in 1801.

Described by Pevsner as ‘a much grander neo-Jacobean affair, with three archways’ the two bottles themselves (seen here from the outside of the park, looking inward) are today a pair of two bedroom houses each occupied by a retired retainer of the estate.