Britain’s “loneliest house” goes up for sale for £10 million
Skiddaw House, a former shooting lodge built in 1829, has been put up for sale with 3,000 acres of land. The Lake District home had once been described as “one of the loneliest places in the British Isles” by Hugh Walpole in The Fortress and had been the setting for a murder mystery in popular fiction over a century ago.
However, the estate agents responsible for selling it have avoided using such lexis to describe the house and have rather claimed to be an “inspiring, one-of-a-kind property” whilst admitting that it is indeed the singular “most remote house in England”.
Nevertheless, given the remote location of the property, viewings are somewhat difficult. The quickest walking route is around an hour and 20 minutes from the village of Threlkeld. There is another route from Keswick, but both routes come with the advice of bringing a torch and a waterproof, along with other hiking essentials.
The house is currently owned by sheep farmer Gavin Bland, who bought the house and its surrounding land in 2015. He had put the house on the market in 2021 for around £1.5 million, but it did not sell, given the remote location and the fact that it is leased to a youth hostel until 2027. However, now the surrounding land has been added to the listing, which Bland hopes will increase the likelihood of a sale.
Bland is also insistent that he will not sell for any less than he believes the property to be worth. He said: “If the bids aren’t what he is hoping for, then so be it. I don’t have to sell. If it doesn’t sell, it doesn’t sell; there is no point in me dropping my price. It will just be another 100 years before anyone gets the chance to buy it.”
After all, as Bland claims, the house is located on “the best hill farm in the Lake District; it is the best sheep fell in that it’s got a bit of everything. There’s no bracken. You can’t value it. There’s nothing to compare it to. It’s what someone is prepared to pay for it.”
