A workING farm near Tebay has been put on the market after developers failed to get permission to build a series of eco lodges on the land.

Eden District Council’s planning committee voted unanimously against the £6m plan put forward by Manchester-based holiday company Natural Retreats to build ten timber-framed holiday homes at Low Borrowdale Farm in the Borrowdale Valley between Kendal and Shap.

The company bought the 336-acre site over two years ago for £650,000 from hill farmer John Clarke, who was kept on to run the land.

Ewan Kearney, a director of Natural Retreats, said the decision was made not to appeal and the farm has now been put up for sale for a guide price of £750,000.

Mr Kearney added: “We didn’t have any support from EDC with regards to our type of development and it is not viable for us to keep it.

"We’ve got lots of other projects in other parts of the country where we would rather concentrate our efforts.”

The sale includes two hefted sheep flocks, which comprise of around 500 Dalesbred and Swalesbred ewes and 400 lambs.

Single Farm Payment entitlements are also included along with a Lake District Environmentally Sensitive Area management agreement, which expires in 2012 - together worth around £25,000 a year.

The Borrowdale Valley, an area highlighted for future inclusion in the Lake District National Park, links the Lakeland hills with the Yorkshire Dales and the complex would have stood metres away from the Borrow Beck stream, a prime spawning ground for salmon and sea trout.

Andrew Forsyth, chief executive of Friends of the Lake District, said it was ‘wonderful news’ that Natural Retreats had decided to scrap the scheme.

He said: “It was the worng development in the wrong location and would wreck one of the most beautiful and unspoilt valleys in the old Westmorland.

“We would like to see the farm continue as a working farm and we will do what we can to try and bring that about.”