Brand new Burghley House woodland adventure play attraction Hide and Secrets to open in April

Burghley House will offer visitors a few new surprises this year – including a brand new woodland adventure play attraction called Hide and Secrets.

Youngsters will be able to complete their own top-secret missions discovering hidden wooden mole carvings, and a spot of cypher code breaking.

The play area will feature Cecil the Mole and a series of imaginatively landscaped play zones leading to the Hidden Towers with slides and a rope bridge.

The attraction, which opens on 29 April, has been built designed with accessibility in mind and will also have a separate toddler area and a refreshment cabin called The Muddy Mole.Also new for 2023 will be an accessible, larger, all-weather car park, which will remain free of parking fees, include electric vehicle charging points and an area for coaches.

Burghley will also host family favourites from Easter Egg Hunts and seasonal Fine Food Markets, to summer music concerts, the famous Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials and Spooky Tours after reopening on March 18.

Dates for your diaries

- Among the line-up of exhibition and events will be the annual Treasury Exhibition, which this year focuses on Flora and Fauna at Burghley, featuring items from the Burghley Collections, not normally on view, that depict and celebrate the beauty of Nature. While the sweeping parkland is open daily free of charge throughout the year, the two formal gardens – the Tudor inspired ‘trick’ Garden of Surprises and the Sculpture Garden - re-open alongside the House on 18 March.

- As an extra treat, the South Gardens, normally only glimpsed from the windows of the State Rooms, will open for spring displays (19-31 March), as well as in aid of the National Gardens Scheme (1-2 April) and Evergreen Care Trust (3-6 April). There will also be talks, tours and demonstrations with Burghley’s gardening team: for Spring (11 May); a Rose Tour, Talk and Tea (23 and 27 July) and Autumn Wonders (28 September). Each tour includes refreshments with tickets costing £45 per person, and £55 for the Rose Tour.

- Across the Estate, event highlights include the Beastly Boring Tours, fun tours for children with costumed guides available every school holiday throughout the year, along with the Burghley Easter Egg Hunt on Easter Sunday (9 April). and a celebration local food and drink producers at Fine Food Markets in Spring (1-2 Apr 2022) and Summer (26-28 August).

- New for 2023, is a chance for a spot of Star Gazing at Burghley (22 and 23 March) offered during two special evening talks from the Peterborough Astronomy Club, ending in the opportunity to use the club’s telescopes to gaze at the night sky from Burghley’s South Gardens. Tickets for each event cost £12.50 per adult and £8 per child

-The House will provide a suitably stately backdrop for what is widely regarded as the world’s largest gathering of Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars (23-25 June), along with the popular The TVR Car Club rally (2 April). And a different sort of horsepower will again provide a global showcase for the House and parkland as Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials, regarded as the world's greatest 5-star equestrian event, returns (31 August to 3 September).