For Sale – 1 Mountain

News that the Lake District’s Blencathra is up for sale has started a rush of campaigns to purchase the famous mountain and donate it to the public. Noble as the sentiment is, however, the general response by many in the outdoor community has been a resounding, ‘why’?

As visitors to the Lake District and other rural areas of the UK, we are constantly crossing private land and making use of our right to roam set out in the hard won CRoW laws. Blencathra has been under the private ownership of the Lowther Family for over 400 years and being within the Lake District National Park, there are heavy restrictions on what changes can be made to the land. Other than the symbolic gesture of purchasing the 868m peak for the nation, there will be little noticeable affects to access rights.

Though, if the mountain does come into public hands, we may well have to exercise our new public grazing rights by taking a sheep for a walk on the hill. Access may well be restricted to 5,471 ewes per day.

One of the campaigns to buy Blencathra  http://buyblencathra.weebly.com/