Burghley House

William Cecil, Lord Burghley, built this for himself between 1555 and 1587 while serving Elizabeth I, and the silhouette of turrets, obelisks and chimney stacks is the defining image of Elizabethan prodigy architecture. The interiors were largely redone in the late seventeenth century by the fifth Earl, who commissioned Antonio Verrio to paint the Heaven Room, a hall in which the walls dissolve into gods and Vulcan's forge, and the Hell Staircase, whose ceiling opens into the mouth of a cat swallowing the damned. Grinling Gibbons carved here. Capability Brown worked on the park for around twenty-five years, creating the lake and the serpentine drives. The Burghley Horse Trials, held in the park each September, are one of the six top-level three-day events in the world.

What you actually see

• The Heaven Room - Verrio's walls opening into a scene of gods and forge.
• The Hell Staircase - a ceiling of the damned entering a cat's mouth.
• The Elizabethan roofline - turrets, obelisks and stacks as built by 1587.
• The Brown park - lake and drives from twenty-five years of landscaping.

When to go

April to October for the house; the Sculpture Garden and park are open more widely. The Horse Trials in early September close normal visiting and fill Stamford entirely.

Honest expectations

The house closes for the Horse Trials and for private events, so dates need checking. Photography inside is restricted. The state rooms are shown on a fixed route and the older Elizabethan interiors largely no longer exist behind the Baroque remodelling.

Nearby

Stamford is a fifteen-minute walk; Rutland Water lies west and Peterborough east.