It looks exactly like the Pennine fells that surround it, but the rough grazing for sale next to the A686 high above Alston hides an intriguing and unusual story.
Located within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and surrounded on three sides by ancient and typical dry stone walls, dotted with trees, the 0.44 acre paddock was once the site of an old coaching inn called Shaw House.
Today this grazing land, 2.5 miles south west of Alston, is for sale through the Carlisle office of H&H Land & Estates with a guide price of £8,000.
Shaw House Inn served travellers making the journey by a horse-drawn coach known as the Balloon Coach – in reference to the long, almost perpendicular climb between Penrith and Alston.
But in the 1830s the inn closed its doors for the last time, and today almost no trace remains of Shaw House, its barns, outbuildings, and stables.
H&H Land & Estates associate and chartered surveyor Emma Smith said: “This is a standalone patchwork piece of land, which we anticipate appealing to a range of different purchasers.
“It is in a spectacular location, and has a unique history, interestingly we have a copy of the original particulars when it was sold as an operational inn on February 13 1830.”
