Water, woodland and deep history
Hackness
A sheltered estate village where a cobbled water channel, steep wooded slopes and an ancient church reward a slow visit.
- Best for
- Woodland walks and layered local history
- Give it
- Half a day, or longer with a nearby pub meal
- Don't miss
- The Anglo-Saxon cross fragments at St Peter's
The Fox verdict
A quiet valley with an unusually long memory
Hackness suits visitors who value a village walk, ancient church fabric and woodland in a sheltered valley.
The roadside water channel gives Hackness its distinctive first impression, while St Peter's carries the story back to an early medieval religious community. The village circular climbs above the estate, Forge Valley has wooded slopes to explore, and the Oak Wheel in Burniston offers a nearby pub meal.
Where to go
Places in Hackness
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesSt Peter's Church
A Grade I church with an eleventh-century or earlier chancel arch, two Anglo-Saxon cross fragments, eight fifteenth-century misericords and a tall octagonal font cover.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 45 minutes
- Locality
- beside the formal estate cluster
Forge Valley Woods
Forge Valley's ancient broadleaved woodland follows the River Derwent, with wild garlic and wood anemones in spring.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 1 hour 15 minutes for the signed woodland alternative
- Locality
- south of Hackness
- Access
- The southern Forge Valley boardwalk footpath is closed through 6 October 2026 because it is unsafe. A further closure is scheduled from 14 October 2026 through 13 April 2027. Use the signed alternative through the woods and Cockrah Road.
The Oak Wheel
A traditional, family-friendly pub, restaurant and six-room inn with home-cooked food, cask ales, a log fire and garden seating.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 1 hour 30 minutes
- Locality
- Burniston
Walks & outdoors
1 placeHackness Short Circular
A steeper local circuit past the war memorial and Mill Farm, climbing to Walker Flat Wood for views over the Hackness estate landscape.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 1 hour 45 minutes
- Locality
- starting at the village hall
- Access
- Start at Hackness village hall. The Wrench Green footpath (FP202) is closed for repairs; obey the closure signs and do not use the affected path.
History & heritage
1 placeHackness Roadside Water Channel
A shallow, rounded-pebble channel carries a constant flow along the road outside the walled garden. It first appears on the 1849 Ordnance Survey map.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 15 minutes
- Locality
- beside the village street
- Access
- View from the village street and take care beside traffic.
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Three ways to explore Hackness
Signature outings
Crosses, griffins and misericords
St Peter's holds two Anglo-Saxon cross fragments, medieval misericords and a tall octagonal font cover.
Estate views from Walker Flat Wood
On the elevated path, look back across the valley towards St Peter's and Hackness Hall.
Waterworks in the village
The roadside channel is part of a wider water story: Kirk Beck was routed around the churchyard to a fishpond, and a separate race carried water to the mill.
The village story
Hackness: Watercourses and an Ancient Church
Water engineering, wooded valleys and more than a millennium of recorded lives shape this quiet estate village.
Watercourses and the Sheltered Valley
A channel of water runs along the edge of the village street, cobbled with rounded pebbles and flowing constantly. It first appears on an 1849 Ordnance Survey map. Elsewhere in the estate's waterworks, Kirk Beck was diverted around the churchyard into a fishpond and a separate race carried water to the mill. The roadside channel still runs past cottages of sandstone and red pantile with white-painted timber sashes.
Hackness sits at the bottom of a sheltered valley where several smaller valleys meet before draining south to the River Derwent. Lowdales Beck and Crossdales Beck cross the floor, and wooded sides rise steeply on either hand. The village comes in two parts. A belt of trees along Back Race Beck separates the cottages on Broxa Lane and Storr Lane from the more formal cluster of St Peter's, the school and Hackness Hall behind its high stone walls.
Travel and a Nearby Pub
Plan food and supplies ahead for Hackness. An estate map from 1723 shows a pub at the southern park entrance, and a later village hotel ceased trading as a pub in 2011. Scarborough is a practical rail and shopping base to the southeast. Route 3 connects its station with West Ayton; arrange the final leg to Hackness from there.
For a pub meal, the Oak Wheel in Burniston is a six-room inn run by Shaun and Kate Hull, with home-cooked meals, daily specials, cask ales, a log fire and garden seating.
Woodland Walks and an Ancient Church
Forge Valley's ancient broadleaved woodland follows the Derwent, with wild garlic and wood anemones in spring. The valley was carved when an Ice Age lake in the Hackness basin overflowed about ten thousand years ago. A steeper 2.7-mile circular leaves the Hackness village street past the war memorial and Mill Farm and climbs to Walker Flat Wood for views over the estate.
The place is older than any of it. In 680 Abbess Hild of Whitby founded a religious community here; Bede names two of its nuns, Begu and Frigyth, and describes how Begu saw Hild's death in a dream. St Peter's still holds two Anglo-Saxon cross fragments carved with interlace, a head and two griffins, along with eight fifteenth-century misericords and a tall octagonal font cover. The chancel arch is eleventh century or older.
Estate Upheaval and Margaret Hoby
The village you walk through is not where the medieval one stood. Sir Richard Vanden Bempde Johnstone inherited the estate in 1792, cleared the old village and the Elizabethan manor, moved the residents to new cottages out of sight of the hall, and in 1798 diverted the public road to make room for a lake. The hall carries the inscription "Peace be within these walls 1796" across its entrance pediment. A fire gutted it in 1910, and Walter Brierley rebuilt it inside the original walls within the year. It remains a private family home.
Two centuries before any of that, Lady Margaret Hoby kept a diary at Hackness, running from 9 August 1599 to 21 July 1605 and reckoned the earliest known diary written by a woman in English. It is primarily concerned with prayer and reading, alongside household and estate management. On 5 May 1601 she walked to Munkman's to look at a calf that had two heads, four ears and a windpipe to each. She wrote it down and dated it.
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A guide with a point of view
Written from research. Edited for real journeys.
Use the Official site links for live practical details, then use this guide for context, ideas and room to explore.
Sources
Every place on this page is checked against a published source. Each entry links the record we used and names who publishes it.
- St Peter's Church — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Hackness Short Circular — andrewswalks.co.uk other published source
- Forge Valley Woods — gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Hackness Roadside Water Channel — yorkshiregardenstrust.org.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- The Oak Wheel — theoakwheel.com operator, sector body or destination organisation