Leave the car park by the gate beside the information board, turn left and walk down the track. Pass a gate on the right, and before a gate across the track turn right, signed ‘To Hackfall Shorter Walk’. Follow the path through two kissing gates. At a post marked ‘Fountain Pond’ turn left to follow the path downhill, turning right a T-junction of paths. Pass the Pond and go straight ahead, to pass the Grotto and reach another T-junction. Turn right, cross the small stream and turn left, towards the octagonal Fisher’s Hall.
From the back of the building take a path down steps towards the river. At the bottom of the steps turn sharp left. Follow the path, in places with duckboards and steps. Just beyond a pair of gateposts take the middle of three paths, uphill. The path zig-zags up Limehouse Hill.
Beyond the summit the paths drops to follow a wall to the left; at its end, go right through a kissing gate. Follow the fence on the right to re-enter the woodland at a gate on the right. Follow the track downhill towards the river. Where the path divides take the left hand fork. The path rises to come out of the woods at a gate.
Go up the raised grassy track to another gate and turn right along the track. Beyond the next gate, follow the track right then left by the farm buildings. Go through a white-painted gate to the left of a house, and follow the metalled lane beyond.
Just before reaching the road turn left up a grassy track, which bends to meet the road further on. Turn left, pass a junction, and where the road bends left and the wood begins, turn right through a gate by the parking area. Almost immediately turn left, on a narrow path which climbs, quite steeply, through the trees.
At a stony track turn left for a few paces, then go right to continue uphill. At the next track turn right; after about 50yds (46m) turn left up a faint track, which soon reaches a crossing path. Turn left and follow the path along the ridge; it soon descends to reach a track. Turn right to descend to the road. Turn left back to the car park.
Hackfall was once among the most famous landscapes of England. It was painted by Turner, recommended by Wordsworth as a place to visit on the way to the Lake District – and was even depicted on a Wedgwood dinner service owned by Catherine the Great. The landscape, with its buildings, was laid out... in the 1750s by William Aislabie as an antidote to the formality of his father’s nearby Studley Royal estate. Set in a deep gorge of the River Ure, it is a spectacular site; from the terrace of the Ruin (open most days between 11.00am and 3.00pm) there are views across the gorge to the North York Moors and Roseberry Topping. Aislabie placed a number of unusual buildings within his landscape. Beside the Fountain Pond (the gravity-fed fountain plays about every 15 minutes) is the Rustic Temple, while on the summit of the ridge behind the Pond is The Ruin, possibly designed by Robert Adam, which looks like the remains of a huge basilica but was in reality a place for picnics. It is mirrored across the valley by a Gothic mock-ruin, Mowbray Castle. The Grotto, rebuilt after being ruinous, gives a view of a tumbling waterfall, the Forty-Foot Fall. Like the Grotto, Fisher’s Hall, named after Aislabie’s gardener, is ornamented with pieces of tufa. At the north end of Hackfall, Nutwith Cote has a collection of interesting buildings. Behind the fine 17th-century house is a range of 18th-century farm buildings, including one with a series of arched niches set in the side; they once held woven bee skeps. Visitors continued to visit Hackfall in large numbers until 1932, when the estate was sold to a timber merchant. He clear-felled the trees – what is now mature woodland is natural regeneration – and the estate was left to moulder, with the buildings falling down, until the 1990s. Local enthusiasts formed The Hackfall Trust to save it from being turned into theme park, and negotiated with the Woodland Trust, which now has a very long lease of the estate. Since then the buildings have been restored, the streams and waterfalls cleared, the fountain reinstated and the views re-established, so that today’s visitors can enjoy the woodland as their 18th-century forebears did. Hackfall is always open, free of charge. The Ruin was leased and repaired by the Landmark Trust, and is now available to rent for holidays. A 19th-century guidebook writer was fulsome in his praise of the area: ‘To those who are gladdened by the works of nature, and a ramble in an umbrageous retreat, there cannot be afforded a richer treat that a trip to Hackfall.’
North Yorkshire, with its two National Parks and two designated Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, is England’s largest county and one of the most rural. This is prime walking country, from the heather-clad heights of the North York Moors to the limestone country that is so typical of the Yorkshire Dales – a place of contrasts and discoveries, of history and legend.
Leave the car park by the gate beside the information board, turn left and walk down the track. Pass a gate on the right, and before a gate across the track turn right, signed ‘To Hackfall Shorter Walk’. Follow the path through two kissing gates. At a post marked ‘Fountain Pond’ turn left to follow the path downhill, turning right a T-junction of paths. Pass the Pond and go straight ahead, to pass the Grotto and reach another T-junction. Turn right, cross the small stream and turn left, towards the octagonal Fisher’s Hall.
1 of 6
From the back of the building take a path down steps towards the river. At the bottom of the steps turn sharp left. Follow the path, in places with duckboards and steps. Just beyond a pair of gateposts take the middle of three paths, uphill. The path zig-zags up Limehouse Hill.
2 of 6
Beyond the summit the paths drops to follow a wall to the left; at its end, go right through a kissing gate. Follow the fence on the right to re-enter the woodland at a gate on the right. Follow the track downhill towards the river. Where the path divides take the left hand fork. The path rises to come out of the woods at a gate.
3 of 6
Go up the raised grassy track to another gate and turn right along the track. Beyond the next gate, follow the track right then left by the farm buildings. Go through a white-painted gate to the left of a house, and follow the metalled lane beyond.
4 of 6
Just before reaching the road turn left up a grassy track, which bends to meet the road further on. Turn left, pass a junction, and where the road bends left and the wood begins, turn right through a gate by the parking area. Almost immediately turn left, on a narrow path which climbs, quite steeply, through the trees.
5 of 6
At a stony track turn left for a few paces, then go right to continue uphill. At the next track turn right; after about 50yds (46m) turn left up a faint track, which soon reaches a crossing path. Turn left and follow the path along the ridge; it soon descends to reach a track. Turn right to descend to the road. Turn left back to the car park.
Hackfall was once among the most famous landscapes of England. It was painted by Turner, recommended by Wordsworth as a place to visit on the way to the Lake District – and was even depicted on a Wedgwood dinner service owned by Catherine the Great. The landscape, with its buildings, was laid out... in the 1750s by William Aislabie as an antidote to the formality of his father’s nearby Studley Royal estate. Set in a deep gorge of the River Ure, it is a spectacular site; from the terrace of the Ruin (open most days between 11.00am and 3.00pm) there are views across the gorge to the North York Moors and Roseberry Topping. Aislabie placed a number of unusual buildings within his landscape. Beside the Fountain Pond (the gravity-fed fountain plays about every 15 minutes) is the Rustic Temple, while on the summit of the ridge behind the Pond is The Ruin, possibly designed by Robert Adam, which looks like the remains of a huge basilica but was in reality a place for picnics. It is mirrored across the valley by a Gothic mock-ruin, Mowbray Castle. The Grotto, rebuilt after being ruinous, gives a view of a tumbling waterfall, the Forty-Foot Fall. Like the Grotto, Fisher’s Hall, named after Aislabie’s gardener, is ornamented with pieces of tufa. At the north end of Hackfall, Nutwith Cote has a collection of interesting buildings. Behind the fine 17th-century house is a range of 18th-century farm buildings, including one with a series of arched niches set in the side; they once held woven bee skeps. Visitors continued to visit Hackfall in large numbers until 1932, when the estate was sold to a timber merchant. He clear-felled the trees – what is now mature woodland is natural regeneration – and the estate was left to moulder, with the buildings falling down, until the 1990s. Local enthusiasts formed The Hackfall Trust to save it from being turned into theme park, and negotiated with the Woodland Trust, which now has a very long lease of the estate. Since then the buildings have been restored, the streams and waterfalls cleared, the fountain reinstated and the views re-established, so that today’s visitors can enjoy the woodland as their 18th-century forebears did. Hackfall is always open, free of charge. The Ruin was leased and repaired by the Landmark Trust, and is now available to rent for holidays. A 19th-century guidebook writer was fulsome in his praise of the area: ‘To those who are gladdened by the works of nature, and a ramble in an umbrageous retreat, there cannot be afforded a richer treat that a trip to Hackfall.’
North Yorkshire, with its two National Parks and two designated Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, is England’s largest county and one of the most rural. This is prime walking country, from the heather-clad heights of the North York Moors to the limestone country that is so typical of the Yorkshire Dales – a place of contrasts and discoveries, of history and legend.
