Fifty-six lodges in ancient English woodland — with lakes, waymarked walks, a bistro and shop, and a great deal of quiet.
Woodland, water and trails
Trails start at your veranda, and green fingerposts stand at the junctions.
Nestled in ancient English woodland, Rockingham Forest Park is a luxury lodge retreat that brings you closer to nature without sacrificing comfort or style. Soak in your hot tub under the stars, wander the tranquil trails, or simply enjoy the stillness of your lodge.
Romantic escape, family holiday or restorative short break — the park is built for slowing down. We are dedicated to sustainable luxury: modern comforts, thoughtfully provided, in a landscape we work hard to protect.
Beyond your door
Ten places worth knowing about, and most of them are a few minutes from your veranda.
The Command Post is the middle of the park — a bistro and shop, where you can get a coffee, a pizza and enough local produce to save yourself a trip out. If you would rather eat at the lodge, the takeaway menu lets you order ahead and collect when it suits you.
Outside there is a play park, full-size football goals, giant chess and a fenced dog run, and somewhere in the trees the Fairy Fauna Trails — little doors, tiny houses and wind chimes, with a booklet to fill in as you go.
Five lakes sit among the lodges, two of them for fishing, with paths running round them. Four waymarked walks start at your veranda and green fingerposts stand at the junctions — one drops down through the trees to Holm Lake, one follows the line of a dismantled railway, and two take you out over the fields.
None of them are hard going, and most can be done in an hour or so.
Next to Sessile Lake there is a stargazing spot — two chairs behind a willow screen, with a board telling you what to look for after dark.
You are staying on a wartime airfield. The Kings Cliffe Airfield Museum, beside the Command Post, keeps the story of RAF Kings Cliffe and the 20th Fighter Group who flew from these fields. A few minutes’ walk away, on the concrete base of the hangar that once stood there, is the Glenn Miller Memorial, marking the last airfield hangar concert his orchestra gave, on 3 October 1944.
Great houses, market towns, steam trains and a very big reservoir are all close enough for a day off the park. There is a list of local attractions worth the drive.
1941 – 1945
The park occupies part of RAF King’s Cliffe — the technical and maintenance area at Jack’s Green, in the corner of a wartime fighter station.
It opened in October 1941 as a grass satellite for RAF Wittering, and Spitfires flew from here for two years. In August 1943 it became USAAF Station 367 — the most northerly and most westerly of all the Eighth Air Force fighter stations — and home to the 20th Fighter Group, who flew 312 missions from these fields in P-38 Lightnings and later P-51 Mustangs.
On 3 October 1944, Major Glenn Miller conducted his orchestra in the hangar at Jack’s Green for its last airfield hangar concert. The hangar is long gone. Its concrete base is still here, with a memorial standing on it and information boards around it, and you can walk to it from your lodge.
The runways went back to farmland in 1959. The Kings Cliffe Airfield Museum, beside The Command Post, keeps the rest of the story.
Visit the museum
Oct 1941
Opens as a grass satellite airfield for RAF Wittering.
1941–43
Spitfires of 266 (Rhodesia), 616, 485 (New Zealand) and 349 (Belgian) Squadrons.
Aug 1943
Becomes USAAF Station 367, home of the 20th Fighter Group.
3 Oct 1944
Glenn Miller conducts his orchestra in the hangar at Jack’s Green.
1959
Sold and returned to farmland.
We pride ourselves on a calm atmosphere where every guest can properly switch off. A few simple things keep it that way.
Large groups and noisy parties are not permitted anywhere on the park.
No loud music or noise after eleven, so everybody gets an undisturbed night.
Guests causing significant disturbance may be asked to leave.
Your lodge in the forest is waiting.
