OK Hivers I promised you this one a while ago when I was out flying the drone at Burgh Island.
Burgh Island Hotel is an the Art Deco masterpiece that sits on a small Private Island 250m off Bigbury beach in South Devon. Well it's an island at high tide anyway.
At low tide the spit of sand between Bigbury and the island is high and dry and it's an easy walk across to the Hotel or the Pilchard Inn which is the pub on the island.
Anyway back to the hotel. Originally built in 1929 and the inspiration for couple of the writer Agatha Christie classic famous novels: And Then There Were None (1939) and Evil Under the Sun (1941). Agatha who had a house on the river Dart often visited the hotel. Restored in the 1930s other famous Guest included Noel Coward the actor and playwright had a weekend there that turned in to 3 weeks (I guess the tide came in) Edward the VIII and Wallis Simpson stayed there too so you can see it was rather high end You will need deep pockets theses days to the the rooms and Suites range £500 to £1000 a night but you can get lucky sometimes and pick them up low season on Booking.com
Ok Hivers so what do you do if you arrive at your £1000 a night hotel and the tide is in? sleep in the Roller? get you Butler to row you across? No need they thought of that about 60 years ago.
Designed in the 1930 this version is the 3rd one built in the late 60s it,s a great way to get across I have used it a couple of times when I have been a bit slow finishing a pint at the Pilchard Inn.
And got caught by the high tide.
Mind you it has almost been washed away a couple of times during the odd really stormy high tide crossing.
One of the more controversial things about the island was access to the network of paths and walks when the Island and hotel was bought in 2001 the new owners tried to restrict access under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. However the locals and walkers were up in arms as you an imagine and this was over turned on appeal in 2006 so and only access to the hotel grounds is restricted so feel free to take your walking boots.
