Chance to take a tour of Beatrix Potter’s first farm

Thanks to a successful pilot last year, launch of a new website designed by Iosys Web Technologies Ltd and a Farming in Protected Landscapes (FIPL) grant, Hill Top is opening its gates for small-group tours, led by Amy Dixon.

The 80 to 90 minute tours for adults and children aged 12 and over, offer a glimpse into daily life on the farm that Beatrix bought in 1905 using profits from The Tale of Peter Rabbit and a small inheritance

Since 1989, Hill Top Farm has been in the care of National Trust tenants, the Dixon family. Today, Garry Dixon, his brother Melvyn, Garry’s daughter Amy, and her partner, Dan, run the farm.

They have embraced its heritage while forging a future that blends traditional farming with environmental stewardship.

Amy says: “There’s a weight of history here, but it’s also a working farm. Our job has always been to respect that balance – keeping the past alive while making it work in the present.”

Hill Top Farm’s 280 acres of National Trust land support a flock of Herdwicks and a suckler herd. Each tour provides a unique, behind-the-scenes insights into how the farm operates and introduces people to Herdwicks, and the pure-breed flock that are direct descendants of those that belonged to Beatrix Potter, or Mrs Heelis, as she became after marriage.

Amy shows visitors the ‘H’ ‘smit’, marking the fleece of the Dixon’s Herdwicks as the Heelis flock. It’s how shepherds distinguish their sheep from others. Visitors also explore the farmyard and the views that inspired Beatrix’s writing and illustrations.

The tours are the family’s first diversification project, creating a sustainable new income stream while deepening the public’s connection to the land and its legacy.

While the main farmhouse welcomes hundreds of visitors each day, the adjoining working farm has traditionally been off-limits.

Jen Sharkey, the National Trust’s welcome manager at Beatrix Potter’s Hill Top, says: “Visitors often leave brimming with curiosity about the famous author’s life. They can literally see her farm, and they have lots of questions about what it meant to her.”

Amy’s farm tours offer those answers, painting a fuller picture of how Hill Top shaped Beatrix’s passion for Herdwicks, farming, and conservation.

Tours cost £20 per person and can be booked via hilltopherdwick.co.uk. Visitors to Hill Top can also buy tickets for that day’s tours, should any remain.