Hackfall, Grewelthorpe, Yorkshire

Acquired: 1999
Architect appointed: Andrew Thomas
Stonemason: John Maloney
Works instructed: February 2002
Available from: February 2005

However well we get to know our buildings, they can still surprise us. It took Landmark some fifteen years to acquire this little pavilion, dramatically perched above a steep wooded gorge in the remnants of an outstanding mid-eighteenth century picturesque garden at Hackfall. The garden was conceived and created by the Aislabies, who also made the gardens at nearby Studley Royal. Hackfall was Studley’s antithesis: a ‘natural’ Gothic landscape with follies, waterfalls and built structures. The Ruin is one of these, a tiny banqueting house which we have allowed to keep its eighteenth-century name, trusting our visitors to share the Aislabies’ sense of irony.

The Ruin is a typically Janus-faced Georgian folly: smoothly Gothic on its public elevation, which leads through to a rugged, Romanesque, triple-domed ‘ruin’ framing a terrace set before one of the finest views in North Yorkshire. It had indeed become a ruin when we set our stonemasons to work to sift, stitch and point it back together. Work was well underway when we had our surprise – a discovery entirely consistent with Hackfall’s pedigree. Our building archaeologist noticed a striking and incontrovertible similarity between the Ruin’s Romanesque elevation and a watercolour, Capriccio on Ruins, by Robert Adam. It offers an unusual example of the work of this greatest of eighteenth-century British architects, better known for his more formally Classical houses and interiors.

The three rooms enclosed by this unique exterior never communicated with each other, and we have kept them so. A richly decorated sitting room is flanked by a bedroom and bathroom; flitting between the two wings across a moonlit terrace will be a truly Gothic experience.

The restoration of the Ruin was funded through the generosity of English Heritage and many grantmaking trusts and foundations, including the Hackfall Trust, Normanby Charitable Trust, Monument Trust and Esmee Fairbairn Foundation. We are also grateful to the numerous individuals who gave donations to the project through the Landmark Appeal.

The Ruin is available for up to 2 people. For further information please see the Handbook or contact the Booking Office.

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