Most people driving to the Lincolnshire coast pass straight through to Skegness. Wainfleet is the town they miss, a historic little place with a working family brewery, a school founded in 1484, and quiet countryside on all sides, all several minutes from the beach. It makes a lovely base for a weekend. Here’s how we’d spend one.
Friday evening: settle in
Arrive, unpack, and let the pace drop. Wainfleet is that kind of town — small, old and unhurried. From our Royal Oak Cottages, the converted former pub in the middle of the town, everything below is within a short walk or a very short drive. Get the kettle on, light the wood burner if there’s a chill, and plan the weekend properly.
Saturday morning: Batemans Brewery
Start with the town’s landmark. Batemans Brewery has been brewing in Wainfleet since 1874 and is still family-run, four and five generations on, beneath the old windmill that towers over the visitor centre. Their brewery tours are genuinely great. The story, the smells, and a taste at the end, and it’s the reason our cottages carry the names of Batemans ales.
If you’re here on the right Saturday in August, the brewery’s Bands on the Bank festival is the highlight of the local calendar, worth planning a weekend around.
Saturday afternoon: the hidden history
Wainfleet rewards a wander. Tucked down a back street is the Magdalen Museum, housed in a school founded in 1484 by William of Waynflete, built of the same warm brick as nearby Tattershall Castle, and easy to miss if you don’t know it’s there. A few streets on, Barkham Street surprises everyone: a terrace built in 1847 to designs by the architect Sydney Smirke, so it looks like a slice of London’s Southwark Street, dropped into a small Lincolnshire town. Incongruous, and rather charming.
Saturday: dinner and a soak
Head back, walk the dog: our guide to dog-friendly walks around Wainfleet has a few easy routes along the Steeping River, and settle in for the evening. If you’re in Mr. George with the hot tub, this is its moment.
Sunday: coast and nature
Give Sunday to the coast. Gibraltar Point National Nature Reserve, just south of Skegness, is a wonderful spread of dunes, marsh and birdlife managed by the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, with a café and big views out across The Wash – one of the best places on this coast for a long, quiet walk. Or point the other way into Skegness itself for the classic seaside: the beach, and the 118-metre pier. There’s plenty for younger visitors too — our things to do in Skegness with kids guide has the family plan.
Where to stay
A weekend like this works best from the middle of it all. Our Wainfleet holiday cottages put you within walking distance of the brewery, the museum and the town, with the coast a few minutes away — dog-friendly, comfortable and finished to a high standard. Come for the brewery, stay for the quiet.
