Yorkshire hotel to feature TV horticulturalist-designed spa and garden

luxury hotel Rudding Park in Harrogate, UK, will launch a £9.5m (€10.9m, US$11.8m) split-level spa and landscaped spa roof garden on 2 May.

The Roof Top Spa Garden at the 45,000sq ft (4,180sq m) spa development has been curated by award-winning garden and landscape designer Matthew Wilson, a regular on Gardener’s Question Time on BBC Radio 4.

Designed to provide a haven of peace and tranquillity, guests will be able to enjoy facilities including a garden sauna cabin, sun deck and spa bath among trees, shrubs and plants.

“There are different elements to the gardens at Rudding Park spa,” said Wilson, speaking exclusively to Spa Opportunities. “The arrival landscape sets the scene for the very special experience to come but also links to the existing historic landscape, which in this part of the site comprises a very beautiful woodland garden. I wanted visitors to feel as if they were strolling through a woodland glade to get to the spa, rather than hurrying along.

“The roof garden is I think, very special and calming, with ornamental grasses that will sway in the breeze and voluptuous topiary beech domes,” Wilson continued. “Because of the mature trees around the spa building, which the owners worked really hard to make sure were protected during the build, you get the sensation that you are 'among the trees' on the roof garden.”

Situated next to the Spa Garden, the Roof Top Spa will feature an indoor-outdoor hydrotherapy infinity pool, panoramic sauna infused with seasonal scents of flora and fauna, herbal bath steam room with aromas of lavender and euka-menthol, luxury steam room with mosaic dome, ice fountain, foot spa, warming Evo lounge beds and snail shower experience.

Recapturing the town’s spa heritage by drawing natural spring waters from the hotel grounds, the main spa will feature a spring water indoor swimming pool, along with a juniper log sauna, rasul, lifestyle boutique, hairdressers and beauty salon.

Guests with treatments booked can also enjoy four immersive sensory zones to enhance wellness of mind, body and soul. These Mind and Sense Zones include a Visual zone with waves, wildflower meadows and mountainscapes, a Relax zone for complete peace and quiet, an Audio zone for soothing meditation tracks and a Mind zone for colour therapy and reading.

Spa cuisine is to be provided by Rudding Park chef Murray Wilson, who will offer fresh kitchen garden food at Horto Café.

With an emphasis on bringing the best of the outdoors in, spa partners have been carefully selected and will include ila’s ‘beyond organic’ products and treatments, Carita’s technologically advanced, results driven skincare solutions, Elemental Herbology remedies based on the five-element theory of Chinese medicine, and Jennifer Young’s range for those living with and beyond cancer.

Signature treatments include the Rudding Park Jewel Ritual using ila, which includes a mother of pearl and jasmine full body polish, Tibetan massage techniques and hot Himalayan salt poultices, and Sunshine Ritual using Elemental Herbology, which include a body brush, exfoliation using papaya and macadamia, massage and botanical facial.

The spa menu also includes a selection of spa days, Roof Top spa experiences, spa breaks, teenage pamper parties and couples treatments, including Bath Rituals prepared by the Bath Butler.

“The philosophy of the owners is to continually invest in the business to ensure that the physical products offered to guests are of the highest quality, in keeping with our exceptional standards,” said Peter Banks, managing director, Rudding Park.

“We are immensely proud of what the revolutionary Rudding Park Spa will bring, not only to the hotel and our guests, but to both Harrogate and Yorkshire as leading UK tourism destinations. Rudding Park Spa has been 12 years in the making and I’m delighted to see the team’s hard work come to fruition.”

Henry J Boot provided construction services for the project, alongside Leeds-based architects Enjoy Design.