A walk in Hackfall Wood

Hackfall appears today to be a natural wood, a ‘beautiful wilderness’ to quote one of the 19th century writers who thought Hackfall Wood one of the most beautiful places in the country. In fact it is very much a landscape moulded by man.

From Hackfall Wood website

When is a natural woodland not a natural woodland? Answer: when it has been carefully designed, landscaped and dotted with follies. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a delight to explore; quite the contrary!

We spent a lovely morning walking in Hackfall Wood and visiting the adjoining village of Grewelthorpe, which I’m sharing as a Monday Walk this week. The woods occupy a hillside above the River Ure and were landscaped by John Aislabie (also responsible for nearby Studley Royal which we visited a few years ago) in the mid 18th century. His son William added the follies (artificial ruins), waterfalls and grottoes.

The woods were much-visited at the time, when there was a fashion for the picturesque and ‘romantic’ in landscapes, and through the Victorian era. Famous visitors included Wordsworth and Turner, who painted a scene here. But in the 20th century the woods fell into decline and were damaged by logging. Fortunately the Woodland Trust, working with the local Hackfall Trust, stepped in during the 1980s. They cleared out the dead wood, managed the trees and restored footpaths, with the result that Hackfall is now a Grade 1 listed garden.

Our woodland walk

We started our walk in the Hackfall Woods car park, which although small was fairly empty when we arrived soon after breakfast. There are four recommended walks through the woods, ranging from a strenuous 4.5 mile one to a gentle 0.75 mile stroll.

We chose a variation on the Cascades & Follies walk suggested in a walking guide to the area (‘15 short walks in Nidderdale‘) that we’d bought the previous day in Ripon Cathedral’s gift shop. This led us to follow the loop in the opposite direction (counter-clockwise rather than clockwise) and extend it to visit the village of Grewelthorpe on the far side of the woods to the car park. This turned a one hour, 1.5 mile, walk into one that took us several hours (thanks to a refreshment stop and lots of photography) and stretched to a little over two miles. The walk has some short steep climbs on sometimes uneven paths but isn’t as strenuous as the longer walks here.

Follow in our footsteps

As we entered the woods from the carpark we had a sweeping view of the surrounding countryside, with the spire of Masham church just visible in the middle distance.

The path at first was fairly open, skirting a field before leading us into the woods proper.

In Hackfall Wood

We came to a viewpoint called Lovers’ Leap from where we could look out over the wooded valley below.

Not far from here was the first folly, imaginatively called the Ruin. Part of it does indeed look like a ruin but adjoining it is a more solid building once known as the Banqueting House and used by William Aislabie to entertain his guests. There is a theory that it might have been based on designs by Robert Adam. From one side it appears to be a simple stone cottage, but on the other a terrace offers the same wonderful views as Lovers Leap while the cottage façade is topped by a mock Roman Ruin. Today this building is let as a holiday cottage. To ensure some privacy for tenants the footpath leaves the wood and again follows the edge of a field before returning to the trees.

Part of the Ruin, and the path skirting the field

We had a lovely sunny day for our walk and I enjoyed trying to capture the beauty of the light through the trees overhead.

Light through the trees

Grewelthorpe

At the far end of the wood we could have made a sharp left turn downhill to continue on the Cascades & Follies walk. But a sign pointed the way to Grewelthorpe which our walking guidebook assured us was worth visiting.

Sign and path to Grewelthorpe

St James Church

Arriving in the village we found ourselves passing the attractive church, set in a peaceful graveyard.

St James Church

After wandering around this for a while we decided to see if the church was open, which it was. I’m not sure if this is always the case, as entering we found a small group of locals sorting through donations for a forthcoming bric-a-brac sale; maybe it was open simply for that purpose, or maybe it would have been so regardless.

We received a friendly welcome from one of the women who invited us to look around and pointed me towards an information leaflet at the back of the church. The church was built between 1846 and 1848 in a simple Victorian Gothic design and is a Grade II listed building. As so often, it was the stained glass that most caught my attention. According to Wikipedia this was designed by a firm called Forrest and Son.

In St James Church

Leaving the church we followed the road further into the village, enjoying the flowers in the small cottage gardens.  There was a large duckpond surrounded by weeping willows, its duck inhabitants mostly resting on the grassy banks.

Flowers and duck pond in Grewelthorpe

Our guidebook had mentioned a community-run café here, and a sign back at the start of our walk gave the days and hours on which it was open (closed on Tuesdays and Thursdays). Luckily today was Monday and we were able to get a welcome snack here: a cold drink and a homemade cheese scone each. The café also sold artwork by some clearly talented village residents, and I bought a couple of lovely greetings cards; one for my sister’s forthcoming birthday and one to tuck into a small frame to hang in our kitchen.

Back to the woods

After our break we returned to the woods to resume our walk. For a short distance we retraced our steps before reaching the fork in the path where we had deviated from the ‘official’ route. A sign pointed left towards the Ruin and carpark, but that was the way we had come (because following the route in the reverse direction). So we took the righthand fork.

Signs on re-entering the woods and at the fork in the path

This led us to a beautiful spot on the stream (Grewelthorpe Beck). This is Alum Spring, where water tumbles down over the rocks and into a pool before dropping down further over a weir. It was a treat to see so much water here after our very hot and drought-plagued summer.

Alum Spring

At this point we had the option to cross the beck via some stepping stones to visit Mowbray Castle, one of the larger ‘ruins’. But the stones looked slippery, an impression confirmed by two women who crossed from the far side, so we decided to give that detour a miss.

Soon after this we came to the next folly, known as the Grotto, and had a view uphill of the Ruin we had passed earlier in the walk.

The Grotto on the left and view uphill to the Ruin on the right

A sign pointed us off the path to view the Forty Foot Fall, which as the name suggests is a waterfall. But the path was rather muddy and another visitor told us the waterfall wasn’t very full because of the drought, so we didn’t go very far along. However we did go far enough to spot some pretty flowers.

Himalayan Balsam

The fountain-less Fountain Pond

Beyond this we arrived at one of Hackfall’s most famous sights, the Fountain Pond. Here William Aislabie created a dramatic fountain which could be turned on by a gardener in order to impress his visitors. This has been restored by the Woodland Trust and according to a sign by the pond can be activated by pumping water through it. The same sign explains that if you hear a whistling sound, it means that the fountain is refilling which takes about ten minutes. Well, we waited more than fifteen minutes and a family sitting nearby told us they’d been there even longer, so eventually we gave up hoping to see the fountain. Nevertheless, this is still a pretty spot, with another folly, known as the Rustic Temple, beside the pond.

From this point the path climbs at first slowly, and then in a steep zigzag, arriving back at the starting point and gate to the car park. As I mentioned, other longer walks are possible as well as a shorter (and easier) one. But the Cascades & Follies, and detour to Grewelthorpe, proved just right for us and gave us a lovely day out! So I’m also sharing our walk with Pepper’s One Step at a Time challenge this week.

I visited Hackfall Woods in August 2026