Earl of Lonsdale: Aristocrat who tried to sell Blencathra dies

The Earl of Lonsdale, pictured in 2014 with his wife Lady Lonsdale and the Blencathra sale brochure

An aristocrat who once tried to sell a Lake District mountain in an effort to pay a multimillion-pound tax bill has died.

The Earl of Lonsdale, Hugh Lowther, died aged 72 on Tuesday after a short illness, a spokesman confirmed.

In 2014 he put Blencathra on the market for £1.75m as he sought to settle a £9m tax bill from his father's inheritance.

A community group attempted to buy it but failed to raise the asking price and the sale was later withdrawn.

At the time, the earl said selling the mountain was the only alternative to breaking up the estate which had been in the family's hands for hundreds of years.

"We don't want to make inroads into the core of the estate," he told the BBC.

"And we don't want to have to evict tenanted farmers and other tenants and what have you from their houses so we can sell them."

Blencathra, also known as Saddleback due to its distinctive shape, draws walkers from across the world.

Guidebook writer Alfred Wainwright described it as "one of the grandest objects in Lakeland and one of the best known".

It was eventually taken off the market in 2016.