The 29-year-old Scotland international joined the Clarets in January 2007 from Sunderland but has been dogged by injuries this season, making only 13 appearances.

Caldwell led Burnley for the final time in Sunday's comeback win over Tottenham, while he scored his only Barclays Premier League goal for the club in their 1-1 draw with Aston Villa in November.

Midfielder Stephen Jordan will also leave Turf Moor after three seasons in Lancashire while goalkeeper Nicky Weaver and young midfielder Adam Kay have also been released.

Manager Brian Laws has offered new deals to first-choice keeper Brian Jensen, defender Michael Duff, midfielder Robbie Blake and striker Steven Thompson, and they will now decide whether to stick with the Clarets in the Coca-Cola Championship.

Player-coach Graham Alexander, meanwhile, is set to play on until he is 40 after signing a new two-year deal, with defender Clarke Carlisle extending his stay by the same length of time.

Laws said: "There have been some touch choices to make but I would like to place on record my thanks to the released players for their hard work and commitment to the club.

"I am sure I speak on behalf of all the management, staff and supporters in wishing them every success in their careers elsewhere."

Caldwell reflected on a successful spell in Lancashire and paid tribute to the club and the supporters.

He told Clarets Player: "It's obviously the end of a journey that I've thoroughly enjoyed. It's been an exhilarating experience to get to the Premier League, to win the play-off final at Wembley, and to lead that bunch of men like I have done for that amount of time has been an honour and a privilege.

"There's many great people at Burnley that are the heart and soul of the club. I'll be looking out for the results and I sincerely hope Burnley do well.

"The supporters have been fantastic, especially this season. They've always backed us and they've given us that extra bit of support when we needed it. I'm a little bit sad to go but I'm looking forward to my next challenge."

In other contract news announced today, youngsters Michael King and Dominic Knowles have been offered professional deals but Ben Hoskin, Jonathan Lund, Liam Newman, Oliver Devenney, Jake McEneaney and Danny MacDonald have not been retained.

Dutch midfielder Remco van der Schaaf will remain on loan at Danish club Brondby next season while David Nugent, Jack Cork and Frederic Nimani, who have been on loan at Turf Moor, have returned to their parent clubs.

Burnley have also announced part of their pre-season plans, with a 10-day trip to Singapore and Bali in mid-July to be followed by a home friendly against Stoke on July 31.

Meanwhile, work began today on laying a new £750,000 pitch at Turf Moor.

The work will include installing new irrigation and under-soil heating as well as a hard-wearing surface that is a mixture of natural grass and man-made fibre reinforcements.

Stadium manager Doug Metcalfe told burnleyfootballclub.com: "It is well documented that we have had issues with the existing surface for a number of years and we are delighted to have finally allocated some major funding to resolve ongoing issues.

"It is a vital piece of the jigsaw because we are a club renowned for playing football in the right manner and this surface can only be a benefit to the players."

But Turf Moor will definitely not host European football next season after Burnley's hopes of playing in the Europa League were dashed.

It emerged last month the Clarets were in line for a place in Europe's second competition despite their relegation from the Barclays Premier League because of their good disciplinary record.

All the teams ranked above them domestically were already guaranteed a European place next season except Fulham, and victory in the Europa League final over Atletico Madrid this week would see the Cottagers book their spot as well.

But Burnley's hopes relied on England holding on to third place in the UEFA Fair Play League and publication of the final table revealed they had dropped to seventh.

The extra spots will now go to countries from Sweden, Denmark and Finland.