Iconic Blencathra is not for sale, its aristocratic owner has revealed.

After two years of fundraising efforts, negotiations and campaigning to see the mountain bought by the community, Hugh Lowther has said he has no intention of parting with Saddleback – and wants it to remain in his family for generations.

There was outcry when, two years ago, the eighth Earl of Lonsdale, confirmed he planned to sell off the mountain – which has been owned by his family for 400 years – for £1.75 million to help pay off a £9m inheritance tax bill.

But he said this week: “It will remain in the Lowther family for generations to come.”

Campaigners have battled tirelessly to raise the cash needed, revealing just a few weeks ago that they still hoped to buy it.

Concerned for its future, and amid rumours it could be bought by everyone from a rock star to a Russian oligarch, the Friends of Blencathra group was formed. Thousands of people backed a major fundraising campaign.

While the Friends group has always refused to reveal how much it had raised – because of commercial sensitivity – it saw donations come in from around the world.

Earlier this month the group had said it could put in a “viable offer” for the mountain and was confident the sale could go through by the end of the year.

Controversial from the outset, the plan to sell the mountain attracted huge media attention.

The Friends’ dream was to manage the mountain for public benefit, transforming it into “the People’s Peak”.


Earl of Lonsdale But the Earl said: “Blencathra is 100 per cent off the market. It’s not for sale.

“What’s happened is that the taxman wasn’t prepared to wait for the sale so I had to pay him in another way.”

The Earl, who said the inheritance tax bill was settled in the last few months, stressed that the idea of selling Blencathra was always a last resort, seized upon because it represented a less painful option than solutions that would have led to disruption – and possibly even evictions on his huge estate.

He added: “It was a way of solving the problem without affecting other people’s lives but we’ve solved it in another way.

“We’re not going to spend any more time on it [the mountain sale proposal]. It’s all back to normal. Everything is as before.”

He added that future generations of his family may attempt to insure themselves against crippling inheritance tax bills, hopefully avoiding a similar situation ever arising again.

One of the necessary sacrifices, said the Earl, had been the sale of a painting by the celebrated landscape artist William Turner to the Tate Gallery in London for £2m.

It had been in the family for generations.

The Earl’s words fly in the face of comments made earlier this month by those involved in the Friends of Blencathra campaign.

They said negotiations for the sale were continuing.