I live in the loneliest house in Britain – my nearest neighbors are a 25-minute drive away

WHEN Sue Edwards needs to pop in for a pint of milk, she faces a mammoth walk or a treacherous drive to the nearest shop.

The 49-year-old lives in Britain’s most remote house, with dog Jura for company and hardly any electricity, let alone loads of technology.

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She has the keys to Skiddaw House, 1,500 feet high in the heart of the Lake District.

It is 5.5 miles from the nearest road and if she has to drive it must be by 4×4 – and only if the weather has not made the country impassable.

The hostel is completely off-grid and uses solar panels to generate electricity and a nearby source for drinking water.

Sue, who has never heard of Love Island, has been living and running a hostel there for the past two and a half years, with just 10MB of WiFi data per month.

“I’m currently watching the TV series 24 on DVD,” she tells me outside by a campfire.

“I don’t have enough data for Netflix.

“But it suits me.

“I like getting away from technology.

‘Full expedition’

“I do have WhatsApp and the ability to communicate digitally, although people send me a little GIF or video and I say, ‘Please stop! It’s pulling at my internet.”

Sue opens Skiddaw House as a hostel every weekend in the summer and uses her day off every Tuesday to stock up on groceries for the week.

Although most cars can’t get close to the house, Sue had her car installed with ‘grabbers’, special tires that can withstand mud, snow and sand.

But with a long, steep and rocky 50-minute drive down the hill to her nearest Aldi in Cockermouth, heading out for essentials is quite an expedition.

She says, “In the beginning there were times when I would come home and realize I had forgotten garbage bags or something, but now I have the store down to an art.”

Despite her low mileage, Sue’s car has still had three flat tires in almost three years – and getting help is difficult as her nearest neighbors at Dash Farm are a 25-minute drive away and mobile phone reception is patchy.

She says: “Honestly, it’s very annoying, especially when it happens on the other side of the gate.

“There’s no signal there, so then I have to run back here to get a signal, or run to the Dash.”

‘Then it’s the mechanic who takes care of the generators, Dave, who comes to look at it.

“I tried it myself, but I can’t even get the wheel nuts off.”

Sue grew up in Lincolnshire, the daughter of a farmer, but never wanted to follow in his footsteps.

“Ironically, I remember deciding at 14 or 15 that it was too lonely a life,” she says, laughing.

After working as a PE teacher in Slough for three years, Sue started working in hostels and started working in a hostel in Portishead, Somerset, when Skiddaw House fell into her lap.

The previous managers had a baby and their lease was up, so they advertised on social media, and Sue responded.

She says, “I was in a place where I thought, ‘I’d like to go up the hill.'”

Her only concern was whether she would be able to arrange everything herself.

It took me a while to realize that I really enjoy the location.

Sue Edwards

She explains: “I wasn’t worried about living on my own.

‘Sometimes you just have to hire a contractor.

“Can one person do everything?

“But the former couple ran it together for six years, and they both said they would do it on their own again.

“So that was enough for me.

“I love it.

“I mean, I just love it.

“It’s a privilege.”

Skiddaw House was built around 1829 as a keeper’s house and grouse shooting base for George Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont.

The building was originally divided into two houses: one for the gamekeeper and his family and one for a shepherd’s family.

This joint use continued until 1957, when the Leconfield Estate was broken up and Skiddaw House, with its associated pasture lands, was sold to a local farmer.

The two resident families left, but a shepherd, Pearson Dalton, continued to work for the farmer.

He lived in the house for twelve years, with only his goats, cat and five dogs for company.

And while Sue says she couldn’t do what Pearson did, “as appealing as it sounds to live like a hermit,” she insists she never feels lonely.

She says: “It’s actually a lot of fun.

“I usually have some time off in the middle of the day and can go for a jog, or if it’s a wet day, read, and then I’m back at work at 5pm opening up and welcoming the guests.

‘Midlife crisis’

“It took me a while to realize that I really like the location.

“I like the purpose of it, to live here and have a secluded place to live, and there are always guests.”

When winter arrives, Sue closes the hostel, leaving the property available for private rental.

With Jura in tow, Sue heads to York, where she has her own house.

She spends her free time visiting friends for coffee, but really just wants to catch up on the Netflix shows she hasn’t been able to watch.

But on-demand TV isn’t enough to get Sue off the hill.

She adds: “I’ve got two and a half years left on my lease, and maybe at the end of that I’ll be thinking, ‘You know what? I just want to go somewhere and get a cheesecake on the way, or have more contact.

“Maybe I’ll let you know in ten years, with a midlife crisis.

“For now, I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.”