The search has begun to find a new landlord for Britain’s most remote pub and the small island on which it sits.
Barrow Borough Council has started one of the country’s most unusual government recruitment processes, seeking someone to run the Ship Inn on Piel Island, off the coast of Cumbria.
A partnership organisation was set up to ensure the unique pub’s survival and reopening in July, following coronavirus lockdowns and the previous leaseholders terminating their contract in May 2021.
However, this arrangement is set to end in January, as the council seeks a new custodian of the remote island grounds, toilet block, and pub.
Piel Island, which is less than a kilometre south of the Furness Peninsula, also has a castle built to curtail Scottish raiders in the 14th century and is maintained by English Heritage.
The island is reachable by ferry – which operates from April to September
The island’s future was discussed by the council’s overview and scrutiny committee last week.
It followed a report delivered to councillors that described Piel Island as a unique place but “any operator needs to appreciate the constraints offered by power, weather, access and its location within an area of site of special scientific interest”.
The Barrow Borough Council was said to be searching for someone with “sound local knowledge”, with the new operator to start in April, the BBC reports.
A petition in March to save the unique pub labelled it “a vital part of our heritage” and that it was “the jewel in the crown” of the area.
The report from the council’s director of people and place, Steph Gordan, said there was an emphasis on long-term maintenance, with a 10-year lease on the table.
The pub’s new operator will also get to enjoy the island’s unusual tradition of being crowned the “King of Peil” in a ceremony involving buckets of beer being poured over one’s head.
Whoever is in charge of the pub is deemed the king and landlord. According to tradition, any patron who sits on the throne must buy everyone drinks.
