Inside the secret gardens at Plumpton Rocks dubbed 'heaven on earth' by Queen Mary as it reopens to the public

Now, 12 years after Robert Hunter inherited the setting, a secret glimpse is given into its wonders as it reopens to the public once more.

This is such a "wonderful" thing to share with people, he said, continuing the landscape's legacy in hosting visitors and families over 200 years.

There are 30 acres of parkland, with lakeside walks, dramatic millstone grit rock formations and woodland trails through bluebells and rhododendrons.

Several of the rock outcrops have been given names including Lion’s Den, Lover’s Leap and Needle’s Eye, while the lake was a favourite of J.M.W. Turner, who painted it twice.

Plumpton Rocks, off Wetherby Road in Harrogate, was once placed on Historic England's Heritage at Risk register but an extensive renovation has now been completed.

With grant funding, in particular from Historic England and Natural England, the "fragile" site was recovered enough to be used as a filming location for Swallows and Amazons.

Now the landscaped pleasure garden opens to the public once more, something that stands as "fundamental" to owner Mr Hunter, for whom it has long been a dream.

Plumpton Rocks was open to the public throughout the Georgian and Victorian periods, and continued to be a popular visitor attraction into the 20th century.

After a visit with King George V, Queen Mary described the beauty spot as "heaven on earth".

Owned by the Plumpton family from the Norman Conquest until 1749, it was then sold to the Lascelles family of Harewood House in the 1750s.

The pleasure grounds, Plumpton Rocks, were originally designed as grounds for a country house mansion, and laid out with advice from famed architect John Carr.

Mr Hunter's father, a descendant of the estate’s original Plumpton family owners, bought the site back in the 1950s, and he has long hoped to restore it.

Restoration programmes are now complete, with the lake dredged and restored.