Friends of Blencathra

I've been visiting the Lake District every year since I was born - with at least 2 weeks every year, and sometimes Christmas-es and Easter too, that works out at about a year of my life in this beautiful area of England.  Last Summer, I had the wonderful opportunity to complete my Gold Duke of Edinburgh at the Blencathra Field Studies Centre in the shadow of this beautiful (and frankly a little daunting, from a walker's point of view) mountain.

It has been plastered all over the news in recent weeks that Blencathra (yes, the actual mountain!) is for sale.  I've never actually heard of this happening before, I never really considered who actually owned the British countryside, but it seemed beyond me that it could belong to a person, and not to the National Trust, or the British people as common land, or such like.  I was even a bit bewildered that Blencathra currently belongs to the Earl of Lonsdale - visiting the mountain, there didn't seem to be any sign that it belonged to anyone at all!  It made me start to wonder who actually owns Britain's mountains.

England
     - Helvellyn: half is owned by the National Trust, and the other (oddly) is owned by the USA
     - Great Gable: owned by the National Trust

Wales
     - Snowdon: jointly owned by the National Trust, national park authority, and a private trust

Scotland
     - Ben Nevis: owned by the John Muir charitable trust
     - An Teallach: sold in 2000 to a private buyer
     - Buachaille Etive Mor: owned by the National Trust for Scotland
     - Suilven: owned by a community group
     - Liathach: owned by the National Trust for Scotland

The John Muir charitable trust that owns Ben Nevis has said that it has considered making a bid for Blencathra, though the National Trust has said that it will not be making a bid.  Another potential buyer, however, are the thousands of people who are pledging money through the "Friends of Blencathra" initiative.  By making a pledge, you physically transfer the money to the fund, however, if the bid is unsuccessful, you get that money back.  This means that the people more or less jointly own the mountain, which I personally think is a lovely idea.  This also means that I have an excuse to buy a new T-shirt... (modelled by me below)  You can buy these through the Friends of Blencathra who you can find on facebook, or on their website: click here!