One of the largest areas of the Lake District ever is on the market for the first time.
Around 3,000 acres of Skiddaw Forest – including the summits of Skiddaw, Great Calva and Little Calva – plus England’s most remote property Skiddaw House is being sold by Mitchells Land Agency.
Andrew Wright, head of Mitchell’s Land Agency, said: “It is an inspiring, one-of-a-kind property, being one of the largest areas of the Lake District National Park ever to be sold. This is the only time the property has been sold on the open market since the property was built and we expect a lot of interest.”
Skiddaw House was previously put up for sale last year, but no buyers came forward to complete the deal.
The Skiddaw Forest moorland is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
Mitchells said: “The expanse of land currently enjoys substantial payments from two separate Higher Level Stewardship schemes which end in 2024, with a possible option for an agreement extension going into 2025. Both schemes seek to restore upland bird and dwarf heathland habitats as well as the peatland bogs which
are scattered across the land. It is anticipated that this block will be invited into DEFRA’s forthcoming Environmental Land Management Scheme with opportunities to enter either the Sustainable Farming Incentive, Local Nature Recovery and Local landscape recovery tiers.”
Shooting and fishing rights are included in the sale.
Skiddaw House is the only dwelling in Skiddaw Forest and is England’s remotest property. Currently a YHA bunkhouse, it is off-grid and only accessible by foot or 4×4.
Built as a gamekeeper’s lodge by the Earl of Egremont in 1829, writers John Keats, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Hugh Walpole were hugely influenced by this starkly magnificent countryside. After spending time exploring the area, Walpole was inspired to pen his gruesome thriller, The Fortress, which he set in Skiddaw House.
Over the years tenancy shepherds came and went with the longest resident being one Dalton Pearson who made Skiddaw House his home for 12 years, from 1957 to 1969, with a goat, five dogs and a cat for company.
A long spell followed where the property remained empty until 1986 when it was converted into what was to become Britain’s highest youth hostel.
Skiddaw House is powered by the sun, watered by a natural spring and ingeniously heated by sheep’s wool insulation and wood burning stoves.
