Story
Runaway Feeling
While Beatrix Potter made her home in Near Sawrey, her love of Herdwick sheep and fell-farming drew her further afield—to outlying Eskdale, where she purchased Penny Hill, a traditional Lakeland farm tucked beside an ancient packhorse route. Its 17th-century bridge once saw wool carried between Whitehaven and Kendal, while the nearby Woolpack Inn—once a rest stop for traders—still welcomes travellers today.
The wool trade may have passed into history, but the Herdwick tradition lives on. Margaret Jackson, the farm’s National Trust tenant, still walks her ewes along that same age-old track to fresh pasture. In the scene I photographed, their lambs rushed on ahead toward her farmhouse door—only to pause mid-step when they spotted me, curious, and briefly free from their mothers for a playful moment.
Here in this beautiful working valley, life still follows the rhythm of the seasons. The past doesn’t just echo—it walks beside you.
A National Trust Property | Photo Permissions kindly granted | Picture © Ian Lawson
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