Piel Island

It’s an island. You can camp on it. It has a castle, a King, and a pub. Oh, and pigs. What’s not to like? This was essentially the reasoning behind choosing Piel Island as the destination for a short weekend camping trip for two from Manchester. It turned out to be an excellent choice despite the rain, wind and an attempted porcine tent invasion... We had travelled by car to Roa Island, which isn’t actually an island, and got the ferry over to Piel Island, which is. The ferryman (John) raised his eyebrows slightly when he saw that we were planning to camp as the weather was already fairly grey and drizzly. I like to think he was impressed with our determination but he may just have thought we were mad. Upon arrival we headed to the pub to check in and after a quick scout around the island for suitable locations we decided to pitch up in the field right next to the pub, because it had good shelter from the hedges, of course. The pub is, inevitably, the main focus of the island once you’ve explored the castle ruins but that is no bad thing. We had a delicious lunch of wraps featuring King Steve’s extra hot chilli sauce, the nicest sticky toffee pudding ever and a very tasty breakfast. A lot of the food in the pub is locally sourced including pork from the pigs, who basically ignore the electric fence around the enclosure and roam around the island. Some of the rather cute piglets are quite inquisitive about the contents of a tent though so make sure any food is packed away. The pub staff, also known as the Piel Royal Family, were all really friendly and helpful and were happy to chat to "the campers" (we were the only ones) about island life and quirky Piel traditions. When, on the Sunday, the sea was too rough for the ferry they arranged for us to get a lift back over the sands at low tide and John the ferryman then drove all the way around the mainland to pick us up and take us back to our car. Actually, we were sort of hoping we’d be stuck on the island! Even though it’s only a five minute boat ride away from the mainland, Piel still feels completely cut off and so makes a great place to escape to. Just remember to escape with enough cash as they can’t take card payments!