Owner Tupgill Park Estate Area 4 acres (16,000 m) | Operating season Website Forbidden Corner | |
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Slogan The Strangest Place In The World Location North Yorkshire, England | ||
The Forbidden Corner is a folly garden located in the Tupgill Park Estate, near Coverdale, in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. It is open to the public.
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History
It was built in the 1980s by the owner of Tupgill Park, Colin Armstrong, with architect Malcolm Tempest, as a private pleasure garden. The Armstrongs had been living at the estate since the Victorian era. Colin Armstrong is a British Consul based in Guayaquil in South America. It is based in the walled gardens of the 600 hectares (6.0 km2) estate.
The garden was opened to the public in 1997, with a £4.50 entrance fee. However, planning permission for public use of the garden was not obtained at the time.
As of 2000, the gardens were visited by 80,000 people, and employed around 25 people.
Retroactive planning permission for the park was rejected in 2000. The National Park's planners raising concerns about the environmental impact and pollution of the large number of cars entering the Park to visit the garden, and that the garden did not agree with the aims of a national park. A petition to keep the park open was signed by 10,000 people. An enforcement order to remove the structures and close the site to the public was overturned on appeal in 2000, on condition of restricting the number of visitors entering the site to 120 per hour.
Garden
The garden features statues, towers, underground maze, a labyrinth (with revolving floor), a 12 feet (3.7 m) conifer dog's head, a 20 feet (6.1 m) oak green man, and water jokes, as well as grottos. It also has a tea room and gift shop. It covers 4 acres (0.016 km2).
It is set out as a maze, and visitors are given a checklist of things to be found instead, rather than a map.
The garden was voted the best European folly of the 20th century by the Folly Fellowship and best children's attraction in Yorkshire. It was rated as one of the top 10 follies by Huffington Post. Admission is by pre-booked tickets only, and adult admission costs £11.50 as of 2016.