A community bid to buy a Lake District farm could be sunk by a secret bidder willing to pay £600,000 over the asking price.
With the help of the Countryside Restoration Trust and the Friends of the Lake District the community, led by author James Rebanks, had met the £2m guide price for the 290-acre Dowthwaite Head farm in the Matterdale valley. They plan to restore it to its former glory.
However, over the past month they have been locked in a bidding war with an unknown party that has pushed the price past £2.6m.
The farm is one of the last remaining valley-head farms in the Unesco World Heritage landscape of the Lake District.
