Traditional Livestock Farm and Home to Cumbria’s Largest Colony of Red Squirrels Comes to the Market
A life-changing opportunity to own Oak Bank Farm, Kirkby Stephen, with grazing and amenity land, ancient woodland, and Cumbria’s biggest colony of red squirrels.
Set within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the 127-acre Oak Bank Farm is an established livestock farm with extensive family and tourism accommodation. The farm offers a combination of productive grassland, upland grazing, and protected woodland that shelters the largest colony of red squirrels in Cumbria.
Being sold through our Carlisle office, this traditional Cumbrian farm offers a wealth of assets including a beautifully updated three bedroom stone-built farmhouse and adjoining one-bedroom annexe, a self-contained two-bedroom holiday cottage, and a range of modern stock and storage buildings.
Oak Bank Farm is offered for sale by Private Treaty as a whole or in three lots with an overall Guide Price of £1,150,000 . The current owners are willing to sell separately or in any combination required by a successful purchaser.
Lot 1. Comprises the residential properties and 11.99 acres of land offered with a guide price of £650,000.
Lot 2. Includes the farm buildings, 38.52 acres of land and has a guide price of £250,000.
Lot 3. Is 77.17 acres of upland grazing land with areas of Ancient Woodland, with a guide price of £250,000.
This is an outstandingly versatile property, in a magnificent part of Cumbria. The quality and variety of land, accommodation, and potential that Oak Bank Farm offers gives this wonderful property enormous appeal to the widest spectrum of buyers. This is a life-changing opportunity to buy a working Cumbrian stock farm, or to develop a rural business that will change you way of life, or simply to take a stake in the preservation of your own piece of native Cumbrian paradise.
The current owners are making it possible for all these outcomes to be fulfilled, and on top of all its attractions Oak Bank has the overwhelming appeal of those enchanting red squirrels. We would urge you to view this property and its natural assets at the earliest opportunity.
Located six miles from the amenities of Kirkby Stephen and with panoramic views of the surrounding open countryside, Oak Bank Farm is both a commercial farming enterprise and a stunning rural retreat. The 77 acres of upland grazing land include areas of Ancient Woodland and a slate-roofed stone field shelter, and offer the potential for continued commercial farming or environmental projects, or for a new future in conservation, amenity use or rewilding.
The mature native woodland running down to the Belah River are protected within the Belah Woods and Pastures SSSI, and provide a safe haven for the iconic red squirrels and for an abundance of Cumbria’s rarest flora and fauna.
The traditional three bedroom Cumbrian stone-built farmhouse has been fully refurbished to provide flexible family accommodation, with a generous, double aspect living room, conservatory and snug, and a fully fitted contemporary farmhouse kitchen and utility room, boot room.
Attached to the farmhouse and to the neighbouring property, the self-contained annexe includes a generous, fully fitted open plan kitchen and living room with arched front door entrance on the ground floor, and a double bedroom with exposed beams, shower room and WC above.
The sale of Oak Bank Farm also includes the detached Bluebell Cottage close to the farmhouse, converted in 2021 from a former garage and store to create an open plan kitchen and living area across the ground floor and two double bedrooms with shower room above. The cottage is currently restricted to AirBnB and holiday rental, and permission has also been granted for three Glamping Pods, for which groundworks, pads and an eco-sewage digester have already been installed.
As a working stock farm, Oak Bank includes a full range of substantial outbuildings, accessed by a separate track and including a 10-bay Lean-to, a 12-bay Sheep Shed, 4-bay Hay Barn, 3-bay Isolation Unit/Store, dog kennels and quad lock-up, and a muck store.
For the full details and drone footage click here. For further information or to arrange a viewing by appointment only, please call our Carlisle office on 01228 406260 or email [email protected].
