January to June 2023

Car park, café and play progress

Construction work has focused on the castle area of the site. The once ruined Coach House that will become a new café was given foundations, a new roof, windows and floor. Underfloor heating, photovoltaic and solar panels and air source heat pumps will give this building a sustainable focus. Large play equipment has been installed in the new Wild Man themed woodland play area, with toddler play, an accessible path network and an outdoor classroom all awaiting completion. New access ramps have been installed at doorways into the Castle too.

A new car park opened for Easter and was built in the paddock near the Hall, giving much needed surfaced and additional accessible parking bays. This allows the area around the Hall to be a landscaped, greener space for visitors. This was completed once the scaffolding was removed from the tearoom after it was reroofed, leaving only the gardener’s yard new roof to be finished.

We’ve hosted a range of wildlife and garden themed events, and created training opportunities for site staff and volunteers, as a big part of the project involves people development opportunities as well as conservation repairs and construction.

The new visitor facilities are due to open later this summer.

May to September 2022

Key conservation repairs plus tours, events and activities

Reroofing the Hall was a key part of the project. The work involved replacing the existing unsuitable Welsh Green slate with Burlington Blue and reusing the historic Westmorland slate. The work was shown to over 2,000 visitors who took part in conservation in action, hard hat, scaffolding tours delivered by a team of newly trained volunteers. Participants also made the most of the Wild Man scaffolding slide as an option of returning to ground level post tour, as did over 28,000 visitors! 

Behind the Closed Door tours took visitors into the servants quarters of the Hall (a previously inaccessible area) to look at the conservation work involved with Belsay’s collection. Events, including Workshops at the Conservation in Action campervan and Be a Belsay Builder day where families could join in with construction tasks through have a go stations and play, also took place.

January to October 2021

Garden redesign and access improvements

Following a new design created by celebrity garden designer and plantsman Dan Pearson, the garden team cleared and replanted the Lower Terrace, Magnolia Terrace, Yew Garden, Hall Wood and the meadow area in the east quarry. The planting aims to extend the seasons with a range of plants that will flower over a longer period of time and adding a sea of colour.

Access improvement works were also undertaken to open up historic views and areas of Crag Wood (owned and managed by Belsay Estate), upgrading the visitor toilet block to include a changing places facility and adding a new access for all path leading from in front of the Hall to the Lower Terrace.