Ridge and furrow survives in several areas of the park as testimony to the medieval open field system which operated before the deer park was created in 1517. A survey carried out in 1621 by William Senior of Hull indicates that by then the park was made up of a series of enclosures with the main entrance to the house from the east, approached by a walk or avenue. The ancient moat stretched around two sides of the hall, whilst some way to the west there were three long narrow fish ponds.

In 1715 considerable work was undertaken for William, 4th Viscount Dunbar in levelling land for new gardens. It seems likely that at this time a lawn was created on the west front, and to the north a grove containing a geometrical arrangement of paths. In 1757 William Constable consulted Thomas Knowlton (1691-1781), who was head gardener of the Londesborough Estate which belonged to the Earl of Burlington. Knowlton proposed a menagerie (which still survives to the north end of the lakes) and a stove garden set close to the house on the west front, which contained a green house 206 feet long. Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, who was responsible for landscaping between the years 1772 and 1782, joined up the ponds to create the two lakes separated by a dam-cum-bridge, planting clumps of trees, installing sunk fences and the ha-ha. The Elizabethan stable block adjacent to the house was demolished to be replaced in 1768 by Lightoler's grand Palladian stables.

 

 

 

The depression still visible in the east lawns is evidence of Brown's ha-ha which originally ran from the north pond to the Stable Block. This section of the ha-ha was filled-in during the early nineteenth century and replaced with iron rail fencing, leaving only the remaining section of the ha-ha running from the pond along the west front towards the Orangery.

Closer to the house, the new Orangery was completed to the designs of Thomas Atkinson with artificial stone ornament supplied at the cost of £83.18.7 by Eleanor Coade (1708-96) in 1782.

During the first half of the nineteenth century significant alterations were made to the landscaped park at Burton Constable. Norwood, a large wooded area to the north west of the house which had been felled for its timber, was converted into a horse racing course. Avenues to the west and south of the house were replenished and numerous small clumps of trees were planted in the park - particularly to the east where, once having matured, they all but shielded the house from public view.

An unusual feature in the park at Burton Constable during the nineteenth century was the skeleton of a 60-foot-long sperm whale erected on ironwork. The bull whale had been stranded in 1825 on the shore at nearby Tunstall and enjoyed celebrity, as it was carefully dissected and studied by James Alderson (1794-1882), a celebrated Hull surgeon who published his findings. The whale skeleton was brought to Burton Constable as a result of the fact that, as the Lord Paramount of the Seigniory of Holderness, Sir Clifford was entitled to anything of interest that washed up on the foreshore. This famous whale also came to the attention of Herman Melville, who published his masterpiece Moby Dick in 1851:

...at a place in Yorkshire, England, Burton Constable by name, a certain Sir Clifford Constable has in his possession the skeleton of a Sperm Whale...Sir Clifford's whale has been articulated throughout; so that like a great chest of drawers, you can open and shut him, in all his long cavities - spread out his ribs like a gigantic fan - and swing all day upon his lower jaw. Locks are to be put upon some of his trap doors and shutters; and a footman will show round future visitors with a bunch of keys at his side. Sir Clifford thinks of charging twopence for a peep at the whispering gallery in the spinal column; threepence to hear the echo in the hollow of his cerebellum; and sixpence for the unrivalled view from his forehead.

The remains of the skeleton have recently been recovered from the park and it is planned eventually to put him back on public display.

In 1999 a programme of restoration commenced in the park with the help of funding from defra Countryside Stewardship.

This includes planting thousands of trees to recreate the eighteenth and nineteenth-century clumps, and replenishing the avenues to the south and west of the house. Hedges, sunk fences and ha-ha are to be restored, together with various built features including ‘Capability' Brown's bridge and the Victorian bathing pool. The pasture is managed without the use of fertilisers to encourage a diversity of plant species together with animal and bird life.

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