Hartsop Hall

Hartsop Hall is a Grade I listed building and a working farm with a flock of 800 Swaledale sheep and a herd of 30 Aberdeen Angus suckler cows, set against 3000 acres of land. It is located on the south-western side of Brothers Water in the Patterdale valley, a short distance from the village of Hartsop. The farm is accessed via the A592 Kirkstone Pass and Sykeside Camping Park. It is in the care of the National Trust, whose heritage records state:

Hartsop Hall is undoubtedly one of the oldest buildings in Patterdale, and in previous years one of the most important. The tales surrounding it include smuggling, murder, ghosts and of course the monks who reputedly gave their name to Brothers Water. None of the architectural details at the hall can be ascribed a particular date, but they are generally through to be 16th century additions and improvements made to an earlier bastle house, of perhaps fourteenth century. Unusual features include a king-post roof, a garderobe, an extremely ornate beamed ceiling to the first-floor hall, the arched headed windows, 17th century staircase, and what can only be described as a priest's hole.

The hall was listed Grade I on 12 January, 1967. The official entry on Historic England states the original 16th century building with moulded beams faced north towards Brothers Water, with the west wing and staircase added in the 17th century and an additional wing to the south in the 18th century. This is a typically larger Lakeland-styled farmhouse.

The first documentary evidence relating to the hall is from the early 13th century. Here, the demesne (land owned and managed by the lord of the manor under the feudal system) was divided between the lord and his tennents, with Kirstone Beck acting as the boundary between the two. The land was probably enclosed some time in the 1200s, with arable land here and stock grazing on the fells, the animals which would have been return to the valley floor for the winter. Early documents also record the demense land being used as a vacarry (cattle farm) with mention of an early hall. The 11th to 13th centuries saw a rise in population and social change. The Norman nobility were given huge swathes of land and The de Lancasters once called this humble place home. Sir John Lowther, 1st Viscount Lonsdale, and a member of the family that would later become the Earls of Lonsdale, inherited it in the 17th century. After this it was used as an ordinary farmhouse. Today, the working farm, leased to a local farmer, has two traditional holiday cottages: Dovedale Self-Catering Cottage, which is situated in a wing of the original hall, and Caudale Beck Holiday Cottage, a ten minute walk to the south-east.

A fairly short and undulating walk can be taken from the small car park at Cow Bridge, off the A592 at the northen end of the lake. The path here runs parallel with the lake at the base of Low Wood and Cora Crag, offering superb views across the water towards Hartsop Dodd. The route passes the hall and finishes at Sykeside Camping Park and the Brotherswater Inn, both suitable options for a longer stay in the area where further exploration of the fells can be undertaken at a more leisurely pace, following the routes along Kirkstone Pass or up the side valley of Dovedale and beyond. Hartsop also offers accommodation by way of several different holiday rentals. In the opposite direction from the car park, footpaths follow the valley floor towards Patterdale.

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