Should Prince William tire of any further feuding with his errant brother, balm from the intermittent rancour can be found in the meadows, boulders and beaches I’m strolling around – all of which are now his.
As the incumbent Duchy of Cornwall, he is the new owner of the Isles of Scilly – the sometimes tempest-lashed, yet regularly sun-drenched set of islands off the Cornish coast.
The Prince and Kate have taken many family holidays here recently. Yet they prefer to stay on the island of Tresco, the most manicured and dainty of the five inhabited isles.
The gloriously wild isles of St Agnes and Gugh (pronounced ‘goo’) are quite different.
It takes 20 minutes by boat from the main isle of St Mary’s to reach St Agnes, with its population of about 80 hardy souls, a solitary church and a pub.
Isolated: Rob Crossan explores St Agnes (pictured), which has a population of about 80
The Turk’s Head is the island’s only pub, which Rob notes is ‘filled with photographs of shipwrecks’
With no cars, and footpaths instead of roads, I wander among what feels like the remnants of an H.E. Bates novel: dry-stone walls, canary yellow gorse and hardy groupings of orache and sea holly.
‘Be careful of the sandbar,’ says Simon, landlord at The Turk’s Head – a low-ceilinged, beamed house filled with photographs of shipwrecks. The sandbar is the only route to Gugh, an even smaller island with only two houses. ‘People think they can just wade back if they miss the tide, but that current is treacherous.’
Gugh is one of the most remote places in England. At less than a mile long, this is a wilderness of dense bracken, pebble-strewn coves and a jauntily leaning stone from the Neolithic Period known as the Old Man Of Gugh.
St Agnes is owned by Prince William, the incumbent Duchy of Cornwall, Rob reveals
There are no benches, no bins, no signposts. The only hints of life are the odd rabbit burrow and the calls of puffins, Manx shearwaters and kittiwakes.
If anywhere can soothe a stressed royal, it’s here at the most westerly edge of England.
Where to stay: There is nowhere to stay on Gugh and, barring a campsite and couple of perennially booked self-catering cottages, nowhere on St Agnes either.
Above, the sandbar that separates St Agnes from Gugh, one of the most remote places in England
Gugh is home to a ‘jauntily leaning stone’ from the Neolithic Period known as the Old Man Of Gugh (pictured)
I headed back to Hugh Town on St Mary’s to stay at Hendra Cottage, owned by Tregarthen’s Hotel. It is a cosy two-bedroom pad of whitewashed walls, sash windows and the soothing sound of the lapping tide.
Cottages cost from £555 for a three-night stay B&B (tregarthens.com). The GWR Night Riviera Sleeper train from London Paddington to Penzance has berths from £165 for two each way (gwr.com).
The Scillonian III sails from Penzance to St Mary’s with returns from £35, taking three hours (islesofscilly-travel.co.uk). The boat to St Agnes is £13.50 return (scillyboating.co.uk).
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