Additional information
Terrain
- Streets, tarmac paths and good woodland paths, no stiles
Landscape
- Town, park and woodland with some open views
Dog friendliness
- Well-behaved dogs may be off the lead in the Pinewoods
Parking
- Victoria multi-storey car park, east side of the station
Toilets en route
- Victoria car park and Valley Gardens
About the walk
Harrogate’s civic motto is ‘Arx celebris fontibus’, usually translated as ‘a citadel famous for its springs’. This is very apt for the most important spa town in northern England, and one of the most famous in the whole country. Before the discovery of the health-giving waters, Harrogate was of... minor importance compared to nearby Knaresborough, which was mentioned in the Domesday Book and was a market town from the 12th century onwards. The two small villages of Low and High Harrogate attracted little attention until 1571, when the first mineral well was identified. This, the chalybeate (iron-rich) Tewit Well, lies on the land now known as the Stray in High Harrogate. Visitors began to come in numbers after the publication of Spadacrene Anglica or, The English Spa Fountain, by Edmund Deane of York, in 1626. Sulphur-rich wells were also discovered and a number of inns were built. The spas continued to be a mainstay of Harrogate’s economy for over a century, but decline set in during the 1960s. With large numbers of hotel beds to fill, Harrogate rebranded itself and is now one of the largest conference and exhibition centres in the UK. Harrogate’s Valley Gardens were laid out in stages during the second half of the 19th century. They centre on the area known as Bogs Field, where no fewer than 36 mineral springs have been identified; no two are exactly alike, creating a diversity unique in the world. The formal gardens lead on to the Pinewoods, which feel wild by comparison. Come here early in the day and walk quietly, and you may spot a fox or roe deer. The gardens at Harlow Carr also owe their development to sulphur springs. A bath-house and hotel (now the Harrogate Arms) were built in the 1840s. The gardens were acquired by the Northern Horticultural Society and opened as a botanical garden in 1950, principally to study the viability of plants in this northern, elevated site. Geoffrey Smith, famous from BBC radio’s Gardener’s Question Time, was Superintendent of Harlow Carr from 1954 to 1974. The Northern Horticultural Society amalgamated with the Royal Horticultural Society in 2001. The six well-heads by the bath-house (now a study centre) have long been capped off but remain under the limestone rock garden, and it’s said that the smell of sulphur can still be quite distinct in this area, especially on still days. You’ll encounter rocky outcrops of millstone grit as you enter the mixed evergreen and deciduous woodland, which clings to the steep hillside above the Oak Beck. This is one of only two places in Britain where you might see the chestnut click beetle (anostirus castaneus), which makes a loud clicking noise when it jumps. The beetle is orange-brown, with golden hair behind its head, a black tip to its body and feathered antennae-like stags’ antlers.
Read more
