Plans for a house designed to look like rocks on a famous Yorkshire moor have been approved.
The contemporary structure, which has large irregular-shaped windows and a natural outdoor pool, looks similar to the landmark Cow and Calf Rocks in Ilkley, West Yorkshire.
The house will be built on green belt land which is the garden of a home off Heber’s Ghyll Drive, and will be eco-friendly, to an ultra-low energy standard called Passivhaus.
Harrogate-based architects Shaw & Jagger said the scheme was eventually passed by HM Planning Inspectorate through the country house clause, which allows development on green belt for buildings of “exceptional quality”.
The architect Matt Masserella-Gill was commissioned to design the home by the landowner David Rasche.
He said the design was “arguably the most complex country house application ever made in this country”.
The house has been named Fomorian – meaning a supernatural race of giants in Irish mythology – taking inspiration from the mythical giant Rombald who is told to have lived on Ilkley Moor.
Masserella-Gill said: “The design approach was to propose a scheme that is intrinsically linked to the spirit of its place. Fomorian is of its place, part of the moors, its geology and its spirit.
“We took cues from local folklore, the surrounding rocks; ancient carvings, standing stones and escarpments that are synonymous with the landscape.”
