Nevill Holt Estate
Inside one of the Hanging Stones buildings

Rosedale, North York Moors

Hanging Stones

Ten buildings, rebuilt by Andy Goldsworthy as a single artwork and connected by a six-mile walk through Northdale. You are given a key, and you open each door yourself. Most of what is inside is best met without warning.

Book ticketsStay in Northdalehangingstones.org

The route

The walk between the buildings is as much the artwork as the buildings are.

Nine of the ten are finished. The interior of the tenth, Heygate Thorns, has been under construction — check with the Ross Foundation for its current state. The Rosedale and Westerdale Estate has allowed a permissive path between buildings where there is no public right of way, and only key-holders may walk it.

10Buildings
6Miles
5–6Hours
  • Southfield House
  • Hanging Stone House
  • Sugget Spring
  • Job's Well
  • Hither House
  • Bogs House
  • Ebenezer
  • Northdale Head House (Dowson's House)
  • Red House
  • Heygate ThornsInterior completing
Inside one of the Hanging Stones buildings — the vault built entirely from interwoven branches, rising to a single opening of daylight above a stone doorway

Inside

Stone outside. Something else within.

From the moor each building reads as what it was — a farm building, a well, a shepherd’s house, rebuilt in the stone it was always made of. Then you turn the key.

This is one interior of ten. The other nine are better met on the day, without a photograph in your head.

Artwork © Andy Goldsworthy

Before you come

This is a walk, not a gallery.

Numbers on the route each day are deliberately small, so that there is room and time to be alone in each building.

  • BookingTickets are booked online in advance at hangingstones.digitickets.co.uk, and your key comes with the booking. Numbers each day are deliberately small, so book early for weekends and holidays.
  • FitnessFive to six hours, depending on your pace and how long you linger in each building. Varied terrain, and heavy going underfoot in wet weather — particularly at the start and the finish. This is a walk for proficient walkers
  • NavigationReasonable map-reading is needed. Guides are not currently offered, though the Foundation hopes to provide them in future
  • FootwearProper boots are essential, not advisable
  • Daylight onlyThe buildings are open in daylight hours and nobody stays overnight in them. Job’s Well and Northdale Head House may in future be seen at dawn or dusk, by special arrangement only
  • DogsOn a lead, always. Gates closed behind you. You open and close each building yourself, and are asked to treat the valley, the buildings and their contents with respect
  • FacilitiesNone at all along the route. Rosedale Abbey has a shop, a tearoom and two pubs at either end of the day — see rosedaleabbey.com for local services
  • AccessThe Foundation is looking at offering a shorter section of the walk for those who need it

Make a weekend of it

2 Northdale sits in the dale the walk runs through. Start from the door, finish at the pub, and do not drive anywhere in between.

2 Northdale

Photography to come

An ongoing project by Andy Goldsworthy, commissioned by the Ross FoundationArtworks and images © Andy GoldsworthyIntroductionArtist’s statementBook tickets