Win a Foodie Break for Two in Somerset, at Locanda on the Weir

Where Was I?

We’d missed the boat, literally. Friend and I had got so caught up visiting a castle 22 miles east-southeast of our port of embarkation that we weren’t even close to getting on board, despite the dual carriageway that leads there. But we didn’t care. The castle was the last to be designed in this region by an influential architect. Its concentric walls were too magnificent to miss.

Now here we were, waiting for the next available sailing on an island that’s just off a second, larger island, which is dwarfed by a neighbouring third island, hoping that we could still reach a fourth island by nightfall. We had a few hours to kill, so we’d decided on a tour of the first island, starting on a sickle-shaped beach five miles southeast of the port.

As soon as we reached its silvery sands Friend had gone barefoot, despite the biting wind. “Isn’t it a bit cold for that?” I asked. Friend grinned. “Actually I’m paying homage to a king,” he said. Apparently, a little more than 920 years ago the king had briefly asserted his power over this island and its immediate neighbour, and added it to his empire.

I’d never heard of him, or his feet, but I did know that for three years a more recent royal was a fixture in a military installation on the second island, a mile east-northeast of our beach. I wondered if he ever went paddling here between flights.

Then I noticed the driftwood. Some of it was oak, once sacred in these parts. “Holy smoke,” Friend said, appropriately, once he’d seen my bonfire. “Indeed,” I said. “Now come and warm your toes.”

— Sean Newsom

Last week’s prize

The answers are Peveril Castle and Hope. Stephen Hewitt of Norfolk wins a creative short break for two at our Hotel of the Year, Birch in Hertfordshire.

1 What is the name of the castle?

2 What is the name of the military installation?