Rudding Park has confirmed its new £9.5 million spa will include the UK’s very first roof top spa garden when it opens in May.

Rudding Park Spa will introduce a world destination spa to Yorkshire, re-capturing Harrogate’s spa town heritage by drawing natural waters from the grounds of Rudding Park and creating a revolutionary new spa journey for all.

The spa garden has been meticulously designed by renowned horticulturalist Matthew Wilson, a regular on BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners Question Time who has written award-winning books on gardening and design.

He has worked closely with Rudding Park for over nine years with the roof top spa garden a culmination of his vision to create “a very special new experience for guests that relates to the history of the grand landscape found at Rudding Park”.

This respect towards the natural landscape is reflected throughout the garden, which takes its cue from the woodland glades that border the spa, featuring one of the finest mature rhododendron and azalea collections in the north.

The garden has been designed to evolve with the seasons.

From the Hydrotherapy Infinity Pool, guests will look out over star flowered magnolia in the spring, whilst an avenue of Field Maple wrapping around the front of the spa will turn butter yellow in the autumn.

Multi-stem Amelanchier form the central spine to the grden, which transform from elegant white flowers to burnt red leaves with the changing of the seasons.

Wilson commented: “The arrival landscape sets the scene for the very special experience to come with a sense of strolling through a woodland glade to get to the spa.

“I’ve created a space that is very calming with its topiary beech domes and ornamental grasses, surrounded by beautiful woodland and trees, which can be appreciated from the south facing sun deck.

“During my time working with the owners and management team at Rudding Park, we have all realised how much value the landscape adds to the visitor experience, whether in the form of ornamental gardens, the kitchen garden and now the spa landscape.

“Guests love it, engage with it and want to know more about it.”