PLANNING INSPECTORATE APPROVES ILKLEY BOULDER HOUSE

The Planning Inspectorate approved plans in August for a house designed to resemble clustered boulders on green belt land in Ilkley, near Bradford. David Rasche submitted the application for the property, named Fomorian, on Heber's Ghyll Drive. Ilkley Town Council recommended refusal, calling the design a “visual anomaly to the moorland”. An appeal followed, but accounts of the application process differ: one describes an initial refusal, while another says the decision deadline passed without a ruling. The appeal succeeded under the country house clause.

Architects Shaw and Jagger designed the house with irregular windows, a courtyard and a natural outdoor pool. They said the design takes “cues from the surrounding rocks and escarpments synonymous with the landscape”. The name Fomorian refers to giants in Irish mythology, while the design also draws on a story about a creature named Rombald on the moor. Plans show large windows, concrete floors and sharply defined interior spaces. The architects described the building as a series of forms embedded in the earth.

Ilkley Town Council raised concerns about the site's proximity to the Swastika Stone, a prehistoric rock carving on Ilkley Moor. Councillors also identified the South Pennine Moors Site of Special Scientific Interest, Special Protection Area and Special Area of Conservation among the protected designations affecting the area. Ilkley Moor forms part of the Bradford Pennine Gateway National Nature Reserve, which Natural England backs. The inspectorate's decision permits Rasche to proceed with the proposed house on the green belt site.