- Play Hard
- 4th Sep 2026
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Your autumn spa retreat: which Hewn Yorkshire cabin’s calling you?
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There’s a particular kind of romance that settles over North Yorkshire in autumn, when the bracken turns copper, the air sharpens and the days start closing in earlier than you’d like.
Hewn Yorkshire, tucked inside a historic quarry near Richmond, has two very different ways to meet that season. The Foxwood is all woodland and low golden light. The Quarry pulls the dark in close and turns it into something cosy. Both are proper cosy adult-only escapes, but they’re built for entirely different moods.
FIRST, ASK YOURSELF THIS
When you picture your ideal autumn weekend, are you pulling on boots for a mist-soaked woodland walk, or pulling the curtains shut and not emerging until the wood burner’s lit? That instinct is really the whole decision.
The FOXWOOD: FOR THE GOLDEN WOODLAND WAKE-UP
The Foxwood is Hewn at its most tranquil, and autumn is when it does its best work. The cabins sit beneath trees that are shedding fast this time of year, so mornings arrive through a haze of low mist and drifting leaves, with birdsong standing in for an alarm and the low autumn sun breaking gold through bare branches. It’s the kind of light that makes you want to sit with a coffee at the window before you do anything else.
Inside, the mood stays gentle and Scandi-calm, built for slow autumn mornings. There’s a Yorkshire-made mattress on the double bed, a daybed nook with reading lights that’s made for grey afternoons and a good book, and a walk-in rainfall shower to warm you back up after a bracing walk through fallen leaves. As dusk comes down earlier each day, the lighting inside shifts to a warm amber glow that echoes the same gold you’ll have woken up to.
The Foxwood cabins each have their own Finnish wood-fired hot tub, and there’s nothing quite like sinking into it once the temperature’s dropped and the light’s gone from the trees. A short walk away, The Sauna sits glass-fronted among the birches, so you can watch autumn colour drift through the canopy while the heat does its work, then step straight into the cold waterfall shower for the full reset. The Foxwood is dog-friendly too, with welcome bowls and access to The Meadow, so it’s the pick for anyone wanting muddy paws and conker-collecting alongside the calm.
The Foxwood, in short: falling leaves, low gold light, a gentle woodland reset that doesn’t rush you.
THE QUARRY: FOR THE DARKER, COSIER RETREAT
The Quarry meets autumn head-on rather than softly. Set against rugged limestone walls that seem to hold onto the last of the day’s warmth, it leans into shorter days and longer nights rather than fighting them. Where The Foxwood opens out to the woodland, The Quarry pulls inward, and once the clocks go back, that becomes the entire point of staying here.
Inside, warm neutrals and earthy tones do the work of making the cabin feel like a proper hideout once the light’s gone by mid-afternoon. Travertine bathrooms bring a spa-like warmth, velvet seating invites you to stay under a blanket rather than get up, and the kitchenette is built for slow autumn suppers, stews simmering and wine breathing while the wind picks up outside. The cosy double bed and soft cotton linens make the case for an early night just as strongly as anything on the itinerary.
Step outside to your own private, gravelled garden and the hot tub becomes the centre of the evening, pre-heated and waiting as dusk drops fast this time of year. Steam lifts into cold air, the stone walls glow amber in the last of the light, and a fire pit with a swing grill keeps dinner outdoors even once the temperature’s properly dropped. The Quarry isn’t dog-friendly, which is part of what keeps that hushed, held-in feeling so intact through the darker months.
The Quarry, in short: early dark, warm stone, a proper cocoon against the cold outside.
SO, WHICH AUTUMN ARE YOU AFTER?
If autumn means copper leaves underfoot, birdsong at breakfast and a daybed with a book while the mist clears, The Foxwood is yours. If it means drawing the nights in close, sinking into warm water as the quarry disappears into darkness and staying wrapped up until morning, book The Quarry instead. Either way, there’s no Wi-Fi, no phone signal and nothing to do but let the season take over.
Whichever side calls to you, autumn at Hewn Yorkshire is the reset worth booking before the last of the golden weekends go.
Hewn Yorkshire, Forcett Grange, Richmond DL11 7SQ
Rachael Ellis
Head of Content
After gaining a first in her BA Media and Journalism degree at Northumbria University, Rachael worked at Newcastle’s leading regional newspaper with her stories being picked up in national and global newspapers. She spent two very successful years giving a voice to those communities across the North East who otherwise…
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