Two ruined gritstone pillars on the moor edge above Nidderdale, built to look like a fallen church
Yorke’s Folly is a pair of tall gritstone pillars standing on the edge of Guise Cliff, on the moor above Pateley Bridge in Nidderdale. Known locally as the Two Stoops — or simply Nought, after the moor behind them — they were raised to look like the ruins of a church window or arch, a piece of deliberate mock-ruin landscaping of the kind popular around the turn of the 19th century.
They were built around 1820 for John Yorke of nearby Bewerley Hall. There were three columns to begin with, giving the older name of Three Stoops, until one was blown down in a gale in 1893. Local tradition holds that Yorke had them put up partly to give work to unemployed men in the dale, a common motive for such projects in lean years; each pillar stands about fifty feet high.
The folly sits on open access moorland and is free to reach on foot. It lies directly on the Nidderdale Way, the long circular walk around the dale, and is a steady climb from Pateley Bridge through the woods below. From the pillars the ground falls away to the Nidd valley, with wide views over Nidderdale — the reason the spot was chosen.
