Cottages in Lincolnshire

• Cottages for every pace: Stone farmhouses in the Wolds, brick cottages in the fens and weatherboarded boltholes near the coast, most with gardens, parking and log burners.
• Choose your base: The Lincolnshire Wolds suit walkers, Stamford suits architecture lovers, and Mablethorpe or Skegness suit beach days.
• Farm-to-table country: Expect Lincolnshire sausage, plum bread, Poacher cheese and Grimsby smoked fish on menus, plus farm shops and village bakeries.
• Slow days out: Wolds lanes, Gibraltar Point nature reserve, Belton House and Woolsthorpe Manor reward an unhurried week rather than a rushed weekend.
• Come prepared: Weather turns quickly here, so bring waterproofs and sturdy boots whatever the season.

Lincolnshire cottages range from limestone farmworkers' houses in the Wolds to red-brick fenland cottages and small coastal retreats near Mablethorpe. Many are converted barns, stables or gardeners' lodges on working farms, sleeping two to ten. Most stays are self-catering, so you can cook with what you buy at the farm gate.

Cottage amenities here are built around long, slow days indoors and out:

• Enclosed gardens, patios and outdoor seating for evening meals
• Wood burners or open fires with a first basket of logs included
• Well-equipped kitchens with ranges, dishwashers and welcome hampers
• Cottages with a hot tub for soaking after a Wolds walk
• Off-road parking, boot rooms and drying space for muddy walking gear

Wi-Fi is near-universal, and many owners welcome dogs at no extra charge.

What are the best areas to stay in Lincolnshire?

For a first visit, the Lincolnshire Wolds put you within half an hour of both the coast and the market towns. The table below details regions for specific interests:

What do our guests say?

Guests staying in Lincolnshire cottages consistently praise the quiet. Reviews mention waking to birdsong rather than traffic, generous welcome hampers of local produce, and owners who leave hand-drawn maps of footpaths from the door. Families rate the space and the enclosed gardens; couples rate the wood burners and the dark skies. The recurring theme is that a week feels longer here than it does elsewhere, because so little of it is spent in the car.

Lincolnshire is England's second-largest county, stretching from the chalk Wolds and the fens to a long North Sea coast.

🥗Where to eat in Lincolnshire?

According to Google Maps data and reviews, Winteringham Fields is the best rated restaurant in Lincolnshire. Below is a table showing the top 5 highly-rated restaurants hand-picked by our travel experts.

⭐Our guests' recommendation: Our guest traveller Charlotte recommends the Nickerson Arms in Lincolnshire: a proper Wolds village pub where the sausages come from the butcher down the road and lunch stretches happily into the afternoon.

1. Walk the Lincolnshire Wolds
2. Shop Louth market
3. Watch seals at Donna Nook
4. Wander Stamford and Burghley
5. Explore Gibraltar Point
6. Visit Woolsthorpe Manor
7. Cycle the fens

1. Walk the Lincolnshire Wolds

   The Wolds are a quiet ripple of chalk hills between Louth and Horncastle, threaded by the Viking Way long-distance path. Field paths link villages such as Tealby, Walesby and Nettleton, and the climb to Red Hill opens views across half the county. Most walks are short enough for an afternoon and end at a village pub, which is exactly the right pace for a cottage holiday. If you would rather sleep closer to the trail, camping in Lincolnshire puts you on the edge of the hills.

2. Shop Louth market

   Louth trades three days a week and is the best single introduction to Lincolnshire food. Butchers sell the county's protected Lincolnshire sausage, bakers sell plum bread to eat with Poacher cheese, and the fish stalls carry smoked haddock from Grimsby. Fill a basket in the morning, walk it back past St James' church with its enormous spire, and you have supper at the cottage sorted without ever opening a supermarket door.

3. Watch seals at Donna Nook

   Between late October and December, several thousand grey seals haul out at Donna Nook, on the coast north of Mablethorpe, to give birth within metres of a marked viewing path. It is one of the most accessible seal colonies in Britain and costs nothing to visit. Wrap up: the wind comes straight off the North Sea. Outside pupping season the same beach is a vast, near-empty stretch for walking.

4. Wander Stamford and Burghley

   Stamford is built almost entirely of local limestone, and its lanes of independent bookshops, delis and old stone pubs reward slow wandering. On the edge of town, Burghley House sits in a deer park landscaped by Capability Brown, with a sculpture garden and a wooded play area. Time a visit for the September horse trials, or come midweek in spring when you will have the park's avenues largely to yourself.

5. Explore Gibraltar Point

   Gibraltar Point National Nature Reserve runs south from Skegness to the mouth of the Wash, a shifting mosaic of dunes, saltmarsh and freshwater lagoons. Hides look out over wading birds that arrive in their thousands each autumn, and the visitor centre explains how the sandbanks move year by year. There is a car park, a café and step-free routes, so it suits a gentle morning before lunch back at the cottage.

6. Visit Woolsthorpe Manor

   This modest limestone farmhouse near Grantham is where Isaac Newton was born and where he worked out his theories of light and gravity during the plague years. The apple tree in the garden is a descendant of the original, and the science centre next door lets children try the experiments themselves. It takes an hour or two, and pairs neatly with an afternoon in the Vale of Belvoir.

7. Cycle the fens

   South of Boston the land flattens completely, which makes the fens some of the easiest cycling in England. Quiet droves run beside drains and washes between Spalding, Crowland and the Wash, and in April the bulb fields around Spalding turn the verges solid colour. Hire bikes locally or bring your own, and plan around the wind rather than the hills. For hillier riding, Yorkshire is an easy drive north.