Skyreholme, near Appletreewick, is a very special place – Parcevall Hall Gardens; a veritable oasis of colour and beauty in a desert of green pastureland. Victoria Benn investigates.

Just east of Parcevall Hall and its breathtaking gardens were conceived, designed and built less than 100 years ago and, yet testament to the skill and vision of their creator, Sir William Milner, they look and feel like they’ve been there for centuries.

Head gardener Phillip Nelson articulates their charm perfectly: “The wondrous thing about the gardens is that even though they are a completely contrived space, they look totally natural and blend into the surrounding landscape perfectly.”

The surrounding landscape is, to the south, heather moorland that ascends to the dramatic outcrop of rock that is Simon’s Seat, and to the west, the vertiginous dramatic ravine of Troller’s Gill.

Sir William Milner bought the estate in 1927 with the aim of creating a home for himself, which he achieved, living there until his death in 1960.

What he bought in 1927 was a farmhouse and 24 acres of pastureland, which had remained relatively unchanged since the 16th century. Photos taken at the time show a barren tumbledown farmhouse perched on the edge of a bleak and windswept moor.

“Sir William proved his skills as an architect and a horticulturalist most brilliantly in what he created here at Parcevall,” explains Phillip. “He perfectly understood the topography of the estate, the unique geological features and the soil differentials that the site offered. To the north of the estate an alkaline soil overlays limestone, and to the south an acidic soil overlays gritstone creating a peaty soil, ideal for rhododendrums, which Sir William planted in abundance.

“Personally, my favourite part of the garden is the Rock Garden. The North Craven Fault runs through the estate and so Sir William discovered that if the top soil were removed then the most amazing natural bedrock of limestone was exposed. This area is planted with alpine plants, and features a waterfall, rill and large pool. The Rock Garden is considered to be the finest of its kind in Northern England.”

Upon my own visit to the gardens I followed the route suggested in the guidebook which enables visitors to view the gardens in the sequence that Sir William intended. Like the layers of an onion, the route takes you on a tour of the “gardens within gardens”, until you reach the hall and Sir William’s ultimate “secret surprise”.

The first garden encountered is the woodland which grows up around Tarn Ghyll Beck. Daffodils and bluebells currently carpet the ground on either side of the delightfully clear waters of the beck, and rhododendrums in bud promise a stunning resplendence of colour in May.

The formal lower terraces and borders in front of the hall come next and assure full herbaceous glory from early summer . Parallel to these are apple orchards, which will be heavy with blossom within the next few weeks.

Moving through Camellia Walk and past the Chapel Garden and Rose Garden,there is the option to climb towards a solitary lookout point over Troller’s Gill. The view is astonishing, overlooking a deep green gorge. Legend has it that if you listen closely you can hear the howl of the Barghest, a spectral hound which haunts the valley. Not sure about the Barghest; but I heard the wind howling through the valley the day I visited.

From here it is a short walk down into the Rock Garden, which is, as Phillip explained, “a perfect example of taking nature’s magnificence, and with a little artistry; making it even better”.

Finally the path descends back to the hall, and to the top of the formal terraces for what Sir William described to his guests as his “secret surprise” – for as you turn the corner onto the terrace, not only does the wind suddenly abate because of the shelter he created, but you are greeted with the sight of Simon’s Seat majestically rising up and out of the end of the gardens. As Phillip asserted, the gardens and the natural landscape do indeed blend together, complementing each other perfectly.

The other interesting thing that I gleaned from Phillip is that the oasis that Sir William created supports its own little microclimate. “Apart from the beech woodlands at Bolton Abbey, there is pretty low tree coverage in the national park. What we’ve found here at Parcevall is that the trees we have encourage lots of different birds and animals, and the birds pretty much sort out most of the pest problems that you might normally get in gardens such as these. I’ve been here over 20 years and we’ve hardly ever needed to use chemicals to control garden pests, even with the rose garden – the birds do the job for us.”

Graceful, discreet, and very very beautiful – Parcevall Hall Gardens are in fact the only RHS and English Heritage registered gardens open to the public in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and yet they still seem to be very much of a “hidden gem”.

“Although we are a big garden, we are also a small garden in the corporate sense,” explains Phillip. “Our visitor numbers are growing year by year, but even so we still remain relatively unknown out of horticultural circles,” said Phillip.

“But that’s what Parcevall Hall is all about really; the peace and tranquillity of the gardens is what Sir William was striving for, and it’s most certainly what makes them special today.”

For more information, visit parcevallhallgardens.co.uk