Burgh Island - tractors, pilchards and plots

Rounding the point, the little holiday village of Bigbury on Sea comes into view, and with it Burgh Island, joined to Bigbury by a spit of sand which is covered at high tide.

Walk across to the Pilchard Inn in the daylight, and return after last orders by tractor.

This little island with one pub and a hotel was the place our most famous crime writer, Agatha Christie, came to hatch out her plots and entangle her readers in yet another bestseller.

I came across it whilst walking the South West Peninsula footpath many years ago. The district of South Hams in the county of Devon is a beautiful area with Salcombe back round the corner, and Thurlestone with its famous rock a few yards offshore. It is a beutiful part of England, largely unspoilt and visited by only a few.