Hack Fall Wood, otherwise known as Hackfall, is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, or SSSI, of 44.8687 hectares (0.4487 km2; 0.1732 sq mi), lying north-east of the village of Grewelthorpe, North Yorkshire, England. During the 18th century it was landscaped in the picturesque style by landowner William Aislabie, who created views by engineering streams and pools, planting trees and building follies. J. M. W. Turner and William Sawrey Gilpin painted it, and pictures of it featured on Catherine the Great's 1773 Wedgwood dinner service. Some 19th-century writers called it "one of the most beautiful woods in the country." Following 20th century clear-felling and natural regeneration of trees, the Woodland Trust purchased the property in 1989. The site was designated as an SSSI in the same year. Together with the Hackfall Trust and the Landmark Trust, the Woodland Trust restored footpaths, conserved the remaining follies and managed the wildlife habitat according to its SSSI status. The woodland supports varied wildlife, including many birds, animals and flowering plants, plus more than 200 species of liverworts and mosses, and two rare creatures: the beetle Platycis minutus and the lemon slug, which lives only in ancient woodland. The site is now listed as a Conservation Area, and as Ancient Semi-Natural Woodland (ASNW). The woodland lies within the Nidderdale National Landscape. It is open to the public and has many summer visitors, although the only public facility is a car park.
Site history There is local evidence of earlier settlements in this area. There are prehistoric earthworks at Magdalen Hill, the name Camp Hill suggests a Roman encampment, and the name Grewelthorpe implies Danish settlement. It is possible that the name Hackfall derives simply from haggen, an Old Norse word associated with tree felling, and the fall of water through the Hackfall Gorge. Hack Fall Wood is a Grade I listed Historic Garden. The listed follies on the site are Mowbray Point Ruin, Mowbray Castle, the Rustic Temple, and Fisher's Hall. Fisher's Hall is dated 1750, and named after William Aislabie's gardener.
Follies
Fisher's Hall
Fisher's Hall was completed in 1750, and is grade II listed. It is built of tufa, and has an octagonal plan and a single storey. It is without a roof, it has a plain eaves band, and is in Gothic style. The building contains a doorway with a pointed moulded arch and pilasters, above which is a dated and initialled tablet. On the other sides are window openings with pointed arches.
Mowbray Castle
Mowbray Castle was also built in about 1750, and is grade II listed. It is in the form of a ruined stone Gothic tower. There are two storeys, an oval plan, and a front of three bays. In the centre is a large opening with a pointed arch, and the flanking wings contain smaller pointed arches with imposts. Above is a floor band, a cross-shaped opening in the middle bay and pointed arches in the outer bays. At the top are the remains of an eaves band and a parapet.
Rustic Temple
The Rustic Temple is grade II listed and is also mid-18th century. It is stone-built and is now a ruin. It has a single storey and an octagonal plan. On the front is an opening, flanked by square openings, all under large lintels. Inside, in the middle of the back wall, is a round-headed niche.
Mowbray Point Ruin
The ruin at Mowbray Point was built as a banqueting hall. It is also mid-18th century and is the only grade II* listed folly in the wood. It is partly ruined, and is built of stone and tufa. The front range has one storey and five bays, the middle three bays projecting under a pediment with a moulded cornice. In the centre is a doorway flanked by windows, all with pointed arches and voussoirs. The outer bays contain rectangular windows. At the rear are three round arches, the middle one tallest, and a domed roof pierced by roundels. Outside these are tunnel vaults with niches.
Other follies The grotto was constructed as a place to sit and rest, and admire the view of a 40 feet (12 m) drop. By the mid-20th century it had almost entirely collapsed, and so it was not listed with the other follies. The walls have since been rebuilt, using rubble from the original building, and a bench set inside them. There are no plans to restore the roof.
Landscaping In previous centuries the area which is now designated an SSSI was called Hackfall. John Aislabie (1670–1742) of Studley Royal Park, who had been responsible for the formal-style landscaping of Studley Royal and Fountains Abbey, purchased this land in 1731. He bought it for its timber, and perhaps also for its lime kiln, the coal pits near Limehouse Hill, sandstone quarries for repairing Ripon Cathedral, and the sawmill. His son William Aislabie (1700–1781), with an eye to the sublime aesthetic, landscaped the site in a natural, picturesque style with follies, an artificial waterfall, temples and grottoes among the trees, and the kinds of views and glades which were fashionable at the time. Aislabie used the Banqueting House, now known as the Mowbray Point Ruin, to entertain friends, and in the 19th century this became a tea room for tourists, when Hackfall was the property of Lord Ripon and available to those could pay for entry. Mowbray Point may have been designed by Robert Adam, and is now a holiday cottage controlled by the Landmark Trust. "Nineteenth century writers hailed [Hackfall] as one of the most beautiful woodlands in the country;" J. M. W. Turner and William Sawrey Gilpin painted here. Hackfall is mentioned in William Wordsworth's Guide to the Lakes, and in works by Arthur Young and Reverend Richard Warner. It was pictured on five or six items of Wedgwood's 944-piece Frog dinner service of 1773, made for Catherine the Great.
Hackfall before the felling
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