Locals delighted as landowner moves mountain off the market
‘Jewel of the Lake District’ put up for sale with £1.75m price tag by Earl to pay tax bill fails to attract bidder
WHEN Blencathra Mountain was put up for sale by its owner, the Earl of Lonsdale, local residents were furious, fearing their right to roam across its verdant slopes would be lost for ever.
But they are now celebrating, after it was revealed that the mountain, in the Lake District, is no longer for sale, following the failure of a serious buyer to come forward in time.
The 2,847ft-high mountain, also known as Saddleback, was put on the market for £1.75 million two years ago to help pay a £9 million inheritance tax bill, following the death of its owner, James Lowther, 7th Earl of Lonsdale.
Any successful buyer would have enjoyed not only the benefit of the mountain, but the “Lordship of the Manor of Threlkeld”.
John Robson, the estate agent who handled the negotiations, described it at the time as a “once-in-a-lifetime chance to buy one of the jewels in the Lake District’s crown”.
But, with no buyer willing to commit to its purchase, the Lowther family, which owns about 75,000 acres across Cumbria, has now decided to withdraw the mountain from sale.
Instead, it has been forced to sell works of art and other property to enable it to settle the death duties before the deadline for payment on Monday.
Mr Robson, director of Robson and Liddle, managing agents for the Lonsdale estate, said: “We would have preferred at the time to have sold the mountain – it does not earn the estate a great deal. We sold off other assets and raised money in other ways. We got to the desired position and still have a mountain.” He said one unnamed buyer had made an offer, but had subsequently pulled out.
The proposed sale had threatened to cause a rift between the Lowther family – who have owned Blencathra for more than four centuries – and some of their neighbours in the towns and villages lying at the foot of the mountain.
Hugh Lowther, the 8th Earl of Lonsdale, admitted at the time the mountain went on the market that it would be a “great loss”.
A group, the Friends of Blencathra, gathered £250,000 in public donations in an attempt to “secure ownership of the mountain for the public benefit”. But its offer was not accepted.
The group has said that it still hopes to buy the mountain to ensure access for future generations, but the prospect appears remote.
Mr Robson told the Financial Times: “We are not actively marketing it. If the right offer was made we would consider it. They would have to make a really good offer.” The mountain was described by travel guide writer Arthur Wainwright as “one of the grandest objects in Lakeland”, and artists have long attempted to capture its majesty.
The latest is Terry Abraham, whose film about a year in the life of Blencathra is to be broadcast by the BBC later this year. Mr Abraham said he was not surprised at the continuing controversy over Blencathra’s proposed sale.
“The mountain is almost guardian to the locals,” he said. “It looks over them and, even though most local people have never actually set foot on it, it is like a benign friend; always there.”
‘Even though most local people have never actually set foot on it, it is like a benign friend; always there’