Welcome to Gowbarrow Hall, a family run farm under the management of Sam and Claire Beaumont.
We are passionate about maintaining the natural beauty of our farm and enriching the wildlife that falls within it. To do this we practice regenerative farming methods, where we are continuing to improve the biodiversity, soils and landscape around us.
At Gowbarrow Hall Farm, we are working with Wilderculture CIC and have formed “Wilder Gowbarrow” as a demonstration project, showing how regenerative agriculture and rewilding practices can be applied to the uplands while still producing lots of nutrient dense food and supporting family businesses.
On the farm we seek to mimic nature as much as possible and we select livestock that ensure there is a fully functioning ecosystem. We have a herd of Beef Shorthorn cattle, Kune Kune pigs alongside four Fell Ponies, and these compliment the extensive wildlife we have on the farm.
Claire grew up at Gowbarrow Hall, indeed the breathtakingly beautiful land has been in her family for nearly 50 years. However, looking back further the land has a rich history. The farm was originally part of a large deer hunting park owned by the Duke of Norfolk before being split off as a farm. Previous owners have been the Charltons, who always had tenant farmers managing the land. A long line of tenants were the Swinburns, of whom our wood pasture area, known as Swinburn Park, is named after. When Claire’s Granda (John Park) bought the farm in the late 1970s, he famously said “I won’t get any work done, I’ll be too busy looking at the views!” We hope that John would be proud of how we are managing the farm, keeping family farming alive alongside using our farm as an example of how farming can have a positive impact in tackling the environmental challenges our world faces.
For more information on Wilderculture visit www.wilderculture.com/
We have a beautiful suckler herd of pedigree beef shorthorn cows, which are a breed native to Northern England and are therefore perfectly suited to the Lake District landscape.
We rear Kune Kune pigs, which are a native breed to New Zealand. Keeping them as naturally as possible, they live outside all year round and we feed them very little, letting them choose what they need nutritionally.
We currently have 4 fell ponies on the farm, all of which are from the Globetrotter herd.
As the third generation to be custodians of Gowbarrow Hall Farm, we are passionate about maintaining the natural beauty of the landscape and enriching the wildlife that falls within it.
Claire grew up at Gowbarrow Hall Farm and had wonderful memories working with her Granda as a child. She disappeared from the farm to go to University to study Engineering, but in her 30s decided to return with her young family to help run the farm and go into Partnership with her parents. She loves being back home and working with our livestock in such a way that has a positive impact on the landscape.
Sam is not a native to Cumbria, spending his childhood in Portsmouth, but had many summers helping out on his great uncle’s farm in Derbyshire where his parents moved to when Sam was in his late teens. This is where he picked up his love for farming. Sam also disappeared off to University to study Engineering and he met Claire when they both worked together in London. Their shared interest in farming was definitely a topic that brought them together. Sam has now firmly set his roots at Gowbarrow Hall Farm.
Jet and Star are the two farm dogs. Jet, having arrived at the farm aged 12 weeks, started a career as a trained sheepdog, however her skills have been turned to pig dog, occasionally helping to find them when lost in the woodlands. Star is her very energetic daughter, who may want to get involved in herding livestock. She’s probably got the herding skills in her but we prefer her as the loving pet that she is.
A family run farm in the Lake District National Park, by the shores of Ullswater.
Claire: 07795 841911
Sam: 07961 025090
Gowbarrow Hall, Watermillock, CA11 0JP
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