Gaythorne Hall Farm
Gaythorne Hall Farm, the sister hill farm to Forest Hall, is in Great Asby near Appleby. Gaythorne Hall Farm is not organic and is run as a conventional hill farm, using traditional grazing systems.
The terrain is mostly upland fell and grassland. Gaythorne Hall has grazing rights for 300 ewes and their followers, and 25 cattle on the fell (Crosby Ravensworth Fell and Bank Moor). The land rises up to 340 metres and the majority of the land is rough pasture around the south and west, with large fields taken for silage towards the north.
The farm has 110 suckler cows (Limousin X), 15 heifers 1140 ewes (300 mules to the Texel; 200 pure Swaledales; 670 Swale ewes to the Blue Faced Leicester to produce N.England mules). See our stock for sale
The farm has two countryside stewardship schemes running, plus a separate scheme for Crosby Ravensworth fell. The rest of the farm is in the Entry Level Scheme.
Staff at Gaythorne Hall Farm
Gaythorne Hall once formed part of the extensive lands belonging to the monks of Byland Abbey, Yorkshire. During the dissolution of the monasteries (1538), it was purchased by Alan Bellingham of Levens Hall, along with Forest Hall Farm.
Supreme Champion - heifer at May 2009 sale - Kirkby Stephen Auction Mart
By 1690 Colonel James Grahme would have lived here part-time. His Coat of Arms and the date are still to be seen on one of the down pipes on the Grade 1 listed farmhouse. When James Graham lived at Levens Hall, Gaythorne Hall was let until the Cleasby family relinquished the tenancy in 1987. It was then decided to farm Gaythorne as an in-hand farm, and Stephen Lord became farm manager.
The parish boundaries of Asby and Crosby Ravensworth follow sections of Gaythorne boundary walls, reflecting historic importance of the farm.
Find out more about Gaythorne Hall Farm on the Cumbria Hill Farms Charter website.