About the common

Little Asby Common is part of a high plateau of upland limestone common land within the Westmorland Dales in Eastern Cumbria. Following a successful campaign by Friends of the Lake District in 2016, it was included in a major extension to the Yorkshire Dales National Park. 

Little Asby Common is a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) with a range of habitats including heather moorland, limestone grassland and limestone pavement. It boasts 200 archaeological sites, including long houses and co-axial field systems, evidencing human activity for the last 12,000 years.  It’s also home to Sunbiggin Tarn, a wonderful marl tarn perfect for birdwatching. It is registered Common Land so is managed by farmers (commoners) with legal common rights for sheep and cow grazing.

Like all our land, the common is Open Access, so you are free wander around this magnificent landscape.

Our work here

Our aim as owners is to enhance the common and its landscape and habitats for people, nature and climate at the same time as protecting its unique cultural heritage. We trial new things, share our management practices with others, and use our experience to inform our campaigning on land-use policy.

In 2023, we published the first Multiple Capitals report, groundbreaking research that included a major public consultation to establish the common’s ‘true value’. Working with Prof. Lois Mansfield, and supported financially by Natural England. The report calculated every benefit of the Little Asby Common, incorporating natural, human, social, cultural and financial elements and shows the common delivers millions of pounds of public benefit each year.