Discover Kirton-in-Lindsey, the historic town at North Lincolnshire’s southern-most tip.
Straddling the Lincoln Cliff between Scunthorpe and Lincoln, evidence has been found of settlements in what is now Kirton-in-Lindsey from Roman times and even from the Neolithic period.
Kirton also boasts a historic royal connection. Catherine Parr, sixth wife to King Henry VIII and Queen of England and Ireland from 1543 to 1547, lived in the town with her first husband Sir Edward Burgh before he died in 1533.
Curiously, Kirton is also home to what must be one of the smallest listed buildings in the country. The Grade II listed Whipping Post has stood outside the Old Police House on Spa Hill in the town for more than a century, and hosts three pairs of iron shackles. It is thought that the post must have been a feature of the town’s old prison, or in the town’s old market place to facilitate public punishments.
Today, local shops and businesses surround Kirton’s Market Place and along its High Street, with the iconic Mount Pleasant Windmill welcoming visitors to the town on North Cliff Road.
Kirton from the air
The Royal Flying Corps (later the Royal Air Force) opened an airfield in Kirton in 1916, and it was used throughout the First World War. With the end of the war, the airfield closed and the site returned to agricultural use.
The airfield re-opened in 1940. RAF Kirton in Lindsey was home to a Fighter Command Sector Operations Room and saw a number of different squadrons formed or pass through the base during the Second World War, including many Defiant and Spitfire squadrons which rested here during the Battle of Britain.
The airfield was closed by the RAF in 1965, with the facilities used as barracks by the Army until 2004. The RAF returned to the site in 2004, where they remained for another 10 years before selling the site in 2014. Parts of the site are now used for Airsoft games.
Kirton on foot
Discover Kirton in Lindsey on foot with this 2.9mile circular walking route. Allow between one and one and a half hours to complete this walk at a steady pace.
- Leaving from the garden centre, turn left, cross the road and continue straight.
- Continue ahead along Station Road.
- Turn right into Church Street, continue over a crossroads to remain on Church Street and along to St Andrew’s Church.
- Take the path the the left of the church, keeping to the left side of the churchyard into Wesley Street.
- Turn slightly right and left along short road, which enters Traingrate.
- Cross Traingate into West Cross Street.
- Turn left up Dunston Hill after about 50m.
- Continue ahead up the steep hill to the junction at the top.
- Turn left along Soutcliff Road, cross Queen Street, going straight on.
- Immediately before a high gate with lions on the gatepost, turn left into a lane, which quikcly narrows to an enclosed passage (Red Lion Passage). This emerges into Market Place.
- Take the Town Hall passage to the left of the Town Hall, cross King Edward Street to the Green and turn right towards the crossroads.
- Turn left along North Cliff Road, walking on the pavement on the right-hand side.
- Cross the road shortly before the windmill. A sign directs you towards a footpath downhill on the left side of the field.
- Towards the bottom of the field a way mark points to a stile in the bottom right-hand corner of the field. Cross this stile.
- The path crosses a cropped field diagonally right towards a large cuppresus tree and a white fronted building – this is the train station. A way mark shows where the path then leads into the station approach road.
- Turn left and continue down towards the main road.
- At the main road, turn right and continue to the garden centre.
You can download a map of this route and a copy of the instructions, or find more walking routes across North Lincolnshire, on the Visit North Lincolnshire website.
As this walk is circular, feel free to start anywhere along the route and you’ll come back to where you started.
