National Trust offers £1 million, 850 acre farm - for just £1 rent a year

The National Trust is looking for a 'farming hero' with a 'passion for nature, people and a lot of sheep'

The National Trust has put a £1 million farm on the market for just £1.

The property, which would normally cost more than £1 million, is located on the top of Great Orme near Llandudno, North Wales. It has more than 850 acres, 500 sheep and costal views.

The National Trust, which has set out to try and protect the fragile landscape and habitat of the region, does not want just any tenant to move in. It is looking “farming hero” with “a passion for nature, people and a lot of sheep.”

Parc Farm’s resident would pay a lease of just £1 a year for 10 years to take care of the property, a 145 acre farm with grazing rights over further 720 acres of headland.

Great Orme’s coastal headland requires traditional grazing techniques, according to William Greenwood, National Trust general manager.

A stretch of the Great Orme coastline in Wales (Getty Images)

“Unless we implement a very specific grazing regime we will not see these most fragile habitats recover,” Greenwood said.

“Put simply, to ensure a healthy and beautiful landscape we need the most agriculturally productive pastureland to be grazed less, and the least agriculturally productive grassland to be grazed more,” he added.

The unconventional grazing method requires regularly moving sheep. This means the new tenant will have to face long hours of shepherding on often difficult terrain, while also working around the 600,000 visitors to the Great Orme, each year.

(National Trust)

William Greenwood said the charity is looking for someone who sees a productive farm as one which maintains wildlife and encourages visitors to act for nature as well as produce healthy food.

“To give him or her a head start and the best chance of success, we’re taking away the financial pressure of having to cover the rent for the farm, the grazing rights and the farmhouse each year,” Greenwood added.

Applicants will need to complete a standard application form which requires to provide detail of previous farming and conservation experience, their proposals for managing the farm and explain why they have chosen to apply. The deadline is set for Friday 10th June at noon.

A National Trust panel of five representing the different elements of wildlife and nature, food and farming, visitor engagement and long term sustainability will shortlist candidates during the week commencing June 13. Interviews will then be held on July 5, while the new tenant will only be able to pick up the keys to the farm at the beginning of October.

National Trust acquired Great Orme as part of its Neptune Coastline Campaign set up in 1965, which aims to protect special areas of coastline under the threat of development. The campaign has so far managed to protect 775 miles of coastline across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Some of the key habitats and species of Parc Farm are deemed at threat but the charity took action to buy the land in May last when it was being sold with the potential to develop its grasslands into a golf course.

“With a place as special as Parc Farm, which is of European significance in botanical, wildlife, archaeological and geological terms it is essential that we take a long term view with conservation and farming working hand in glove” said Vanessa Griffiths, assistant director of operations at National Trust.