Walney Island...

Parked up in the car park of the Queen’s Arms, in the village of Biggar, on Walney Island. Visitors to the Lake District don’t come here. The road to Barrow is known, rather unkindly, as the longest cul de sac in the country, and you have to drive through Barrow, and over the Milennium Bridge, to get to Walney. When you’re on Walney your’re somewhere between the middle of nowhere and the back of beyond; it’s bandit country.

I’ve only been in the pub a few minutes, and already I’ve had more fun than I had over ten blighted days in the Hebrides. The locals are friendly. One guy said “You could leave your doors open, and your wallet on the table, and it would still be there in the morning”. I told him I’d leave my doors open, and my wallet on the table, but if it wasn’t there in the morning I’d now have a pretty good idea where to go looking for it.

The pub is like somebody’s front room. In the next room there are people having guitar lessons: hesitantly butchering some much-loved songs. I like it here…

Dusk in Penrith...