ABOUT US
What is
Forest Facility?
We are a purpose-built group adventure centre located in a serene forest location on the edge of the Burghley Estate and adjacent to England’s finest Elizabethan Stately Home, Burghley House. We are 1.5 hours north of London or 1 hour by train and located just outside the charming Georgian stone town of Stamford referred to as England's Finest Stone Town, easily accessible from most places in the country, being less than 5 minutes drive from the A1 motorway.
Choose to come with a big or small group (8 – 200+) and spend a half day, full day or a full 2-day weekday or weekend period with us. We can tailor your perfect experience with food, local accommodation and all manner of other bolt-ons, should you wish. Or just pick and choose from our adventure menu and let it rip amongst the evergreens, to capture the perfect essence of adventure for you and your clan.
What makes
Forest Facility unique?
Our big claim to fame is that we are home to the incredible obstacles of the renowned Rat Race Dirty Weekend - which was the world’s largest assault course for 10 years between 2012 and 2022. We therefore have over 50 giant obstacles on site that now comprise the Forest Facility Dirty Weekend Assault Course. Plus we have the infamous Walk the Plank, another totally unique Forest Facility claim-to-fame.
Alongside this, we have packed a huge range of other incredible action and adrenaline activities on-site, including Laser Tag, Axe Throwing, Kayaking, Raft Building, Zip Wires, Treetop Challenges and our awesome Power Tower;’ add to this our totally unique underground Escape Rooms plus loads more good in the pipeline. All of our activities are suitable adults and families, with kids ages 10+ with plus several activities suitable from age 6+. All of our activities are 100% managed professionally and designed specifically with the group customer in mind.
Who's behind it?
Forest Facility is a collaboration between Rat Race – the UK’s largest provider of adventure events and local adventurer Darren Grigas at the helm, who proved his worth somewhat by running an exclusive 'triple mucker' in 2022, completing three laps of the last ever 20-mile Rat Race Dirty Weekend event and also led the way as a 'test pilot' of three world-first crossings over desert, jungle and ice terrain with Rat Race's Bucket list series. It's a perfect partnership to deliver this amazing facility.
We're hosted on the world-famous Burghley Estate and enjoy fantastic local supplier relationships to allow us to really tailor your Forest Facility experience for you.
Darren Grigas
Local Adventurer
THE FOREST FACILITY STORY
In 2012 Rat Race – the UK’s largest provider of adventure events - was approached by the wonderful team at Burghley House, who had watched one of Rat Race’s adventure race events on TV. Inspired to create something world-class on the Estate, Rat Race unleashed Dirty Weekend, the world’s largest assault course featuring 200 obstacles set across a 20 mile course and sporting a huge music and camping festival alongside, too. The final edition of Dirty Weekend took place in 2022 and over the previous 10 years, Rat Race built and installed several enormous obstacles in the woods at Burghley as part of the Dirty Weekend event course. Forest Facility is the legacy of those endeavours, retaining the bulk of this incredible assault course and transforming it into a sustainable and ethically managed group adventure centre – augmenting the obstacles with some rip-roaring adrenaline and adventure attractions, alongside some classic team-oriented activity content.
Come and join us for a walk in the woods…on the wild side!
Location
Located on a working forest on the Burghley Estate, England’s finest Elizabethan Stately Home, Forest Facility is less than 5 minutes drive from the A1 dual carriageway. We are just outside the stunning Georgian stone market-town of Stamford. Stamford and surrounding area contain some wonderful accommodation options, some of whom we partner with – see our Local Partners section.
We are located 20 minutes north of Peterborough, 1.5hr drive north of London, 1 hour from Nottingham and easily accessible via the A1 from the Midlands and The North.
Our site benefits from dedicated parking adjacent to our basecamp hub facility, plus a dwell area with changing rooms, hot showers and washroom facilities. We also maintain close ties with the Burghley Estate and other wonderful local suppliers, opening up many other opportunities to make your trip to Forest Facility extra-special.