Pinewoods
Spa Commons
Revealing Harrogate's
spa forest
Pinewoods is one of Harrogate's most remarkable landscapes. A historic cure forest rising above the mineral springs, connecting Valley Gardens with RHS Harlow Carr and the wider countryside.
We're exploring how this extraordinary 96-acre woodland can play a renewed role in the Cure, bringing together nature, health, culture and the experience of the forest.
Building on our work to rediscover Pinewoods as Britain's Kurwald, the project explores opportunities for woodland experiences, interpretation, ecological recovery and stronger connections across Harrogate's historic Spa Ensemble.
Our ambition is to celebrate Pinewoods as a living part of the town's spa identity, a landscape for discovery, restoration and the continuing relationship between people and nature.
![Pinetum, Pinewoods, Harrogate [Credit George Eglese]-1.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d4a71e_1c6af9b26f844cdd967f90dffc655ce1~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_653,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/Pinetum%2C%20Pinewoods%2C%20Harrogate%20%5BCredit%20George%20Eglese%5D-1.jpg)
Project Infomation
Location
Pinewoods, Harlow Moor
Programme
Spa Commons
LANDSCAPE
Historic 96-acre spa woodland, established 1796
Status
Identity launched 2026. Further opportunities in development
History
The forest above the springs
Long before Pinewoods existed, Harlow Moor was an open landscape of heath, heather and gorse. Its elevated position and bracing air were part of the natural environment that distinguished Harrogate as a place of health and recovery.
In 1796, the first Scots pines were planted across six acres of moorland. As Harrogate developed into one of Europe's celebrated spa resorts, the woodland acquired a particular significance. The Corporation purchased the plantation and surrounding land in 1898, with ambitions inspired by the great Kurwälder, or cure forests, of continental Europe.
A further 15,000 pines were planted in 1907. It was believed that their aromatic scent would travel on the wind towards the town, extending the restorative atmosphere of the forest into the spa gardens below.
Over the following century, the plantation developed into a richly layered woodland of pine, birch, beech, oak, heath and meadow. Since 2002, Pinewoods Conservation Group has played a central role in protecting and enhancing its landscape, wildlife and public access.
Today, Pinewoods remains an extraordinary expression of Harrogate's historic relationship between nature and health, a forest grown from the culture of the Cure.
Rediscovery
Pinewoods Revealed
In 2026, a new project began to reconnect Pinewoods with its largely forgotten place in Harrogate's spa history.
Developed by George Eglese for Pinewoods Conservation Group, Pinewoods Revealed brought together historical research, creative direction, a new visual identity and digital platform to reposition the woodland as Britain's Kurwald.
The project uncovered an important dimension of Harrogate's cultural landscape. The Cure extended beyond mineral waters and bathing into fresh air, exercise, gardens, promenades and time spent among trees.
Through archival research, photography, mapping and storytelling, the new identity reveals Pinewoods as a distinctive living landscape, reconnecting its history with the conservation work and everyday experiences that continue to shape it.
This work establishes a foundation for the woodland's next chapter and for its wider relationship with Harrogate's spa landscape.
Future
A living woodland Cure
Across the world, renewed interest in shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing, alongside growing research into the relationships between nature, human health and the mind, is bringing fresh relevance to an idea once central to Europe's great spa towns: that the forest itself can be part of the Cure.
Pinewoods offers a remarkable setting in which to reconsider this relationship. A landscape of changing light, scent, sound and seasons, where the experience of nature invites different ways of sensing, moving, thinking and being.
Could the historic Kurwald find new expression here? What might emerge from bringing contemporary science, ecology, art and culture into conversation with the ancient human experience of being among trees?
The possibilities extend beyond the woodland itself, opening up new ways of understanding our relationship with the natural world and the place of the forest within Harrogate's evolving spa culture.